Bad Idea Book

This book's intro promises real characters and compelling, cliche-free storylines. This is false.

Bad Idea's characters are flat and un-original, including a too-young stepmom who talks like she's 15, a main character who laments that his generation's music is awful, best friend who does nothing but agree with other characters until it's his turn to advance the plot, and one of the blandest, most white-bread love interests in the history of college freshmen. The main character's "true-to-life" problems, like his drinking and self-abuse, only enter the story to give him something to overcome. Like the other characters in the story, it's forced and doesn't feel at all real.

And then there's the thing that isn't mentioned at all on the back cover blurb--this story is all about (Christian) faith. It wouldn't be such a bad thing if not for the fact that just a few pages in, Bad Idea already begins to beat you over the head with a large plank labeled "THE MAIN CHARACTER WILL FIND GOD BY THE END OF THIS NOVEL." Every character constantly references God and prayer and Biblical metaphors. It's insufferable. Before long, I was skimming as quickly as possible just to see if this was going anywhere interesting, and it rarely did. Mostly, I wanted to know if I was right about the obvious ending, and for the most part, I was. (In fairness, there was one clue on the back cover--it turns out that if I had Googled TH1NK Books, this novel's Christian book publishing company, I might have gotten a better idea of what I was getting into.)

Also, let's not forget the subtitle, which was the thing that caught my eye and made me pick this up in the first place. Bad Idea: A Novel {with coyotes}. The most interesting part of the coyote story is given away immediately in the book's (totally unnecessary) prologue.

It's a shame that this book has so many problems because at times, there are some legitimately clever lines. On the other hand, there's also lots of observational humor that doesn't work so well. In the end, Bad Idea feels like a made-for-Hallmark movie made by people trying to make a church-youth-group-friendly road trip story. The characters are unbelievable and the story can't stop beating you over the head with its moral.

There are better coming of age stories, better road trip stories, and better faith finding stories, and I don't see this book's place in any of those categories. I could maybe see this novel resonating with teens who, like the main character, grew up households that were very religious but not very stable, but even then--there's just other books that would do it better.
Don't be enticed by the promise of coyotes and real characters--skip this one.