Book 50 - Slam

Book 50, wow that feels great, I am already into book 51 and then one more after that and I will finally reach my goal, pretty sweet. Ok on to the actual review then. 

"Slam" by Nick Hornby is another book that I picked up during my impromptu Chapters shopping spree. I was trying to think of another book that I would like to purchase and often what I will do is choose an author that I have enjoyed in the past and just blindly pick another of that authors books and see what happens. So when I started reading this book I didn't really know what it would be about, although I did guess a bit of it based on the cover (judging a book by it's cover, how improper of me). 

I must say that this was not my favorite Hornby book but I still enjoyed it well enough overall. It is narrated to us through 15 year old Sam (turns 16 midway through if you are sticky on details). Initially Sam's main drive in life is skating (and don't you dare ask him if that is on ice as it will make him very upset). He also is obsessed with Tony Hawk and even talks to a poster on his wall and thinks that the poster talks back to him (although all that the poster says comes out of a bio that Sam has read over and over again). 

This is mainly a story about teen pregnancy. Sam was born to teen aged parents and ends up falling into the same trap himself. He meets Alicia and is initially smitten with her and the two enter into a sexual relationship quite quickly. He loses interest fairly quickly, the two just don't really have much in common. After the break up, Sam finds out that Alicia is pregnant and wants to keep the baby. From there the story takes an unconventional approach to things, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone (but if you are curious you can read the wiki article, but it doesn't really explain it right). 

One issue I did have is that this book makes it seem that there are only two options for a pregnancy, abortion and keeping the baby. The wiki article also says that 800 copies of this book were passed freely throughout Southampton in the UK with this note:  "take me, read me, discuss me and then pass me on and then wait till it comes." So if this book is being used to educate youth then it should discuss all options. 

But all in all I did enjoy this read, and I will keep on reading more Hornby books when I get the chance.