The Best Night of Your (Pathetic) Life

May 28, 2012
A week before graduation, seniors at Oyster Point High compete in an unauthorized scavenger hunt with the prize being custodianship of a garden yeti that they keep for a year. Mary May Gilhooley is intent on breaking out of her good-girl shackles to win, but she has to contend with friction among her teammates, self-dubbed “the Also-Rans”: Harvard-bound Patrick, who is head over heels in (unrequited) love with Mary; mysteriously sullen best friend Winter; and barely closeted Dez, who has been picked on for years by a rival team. The objects in the hunt include many straightforward items (one “al dente” strand of spaghetti, a bar of hotel soap) and others that must be puzzled out (“Shave Bob’s balls” “Shuck a Mary on the half shell”). It’s a terrific premise, and Altebrando (Dreamland Social Club) successfully sustains a sense of tension and excitement throughout. In the final pages, Mary swings a bit unbelievably between acquiescent daughter and win-at-all-costs team leader, but that doesn’t diminish the book’s smart combination of end-of-high-school poignancy and fun. Ages 14–up. Agent: David Dunton, Harvey Klinger Agency.

June 1, 2012
It's the week before high school graduation, time for the annual Senior Week Scavenger Hunt. Over a long day, Mary and the three other members of her team will bond one last time, settle old scores with rival teams, and pursue the elusive prize: a giant lawn-ornament Yeti. For Mary, winning also means beating out Jake Barbone, the gay-bashing jock whom Georgetown admitted over Mary, despite her superior grades. Teammate Dez is a past Barbone victim; Winter and Patrick have agendas of their own that Mary's forced to reckon with as the day unfolds. Harvard-bound Patrick isn't satisfied with Mary's friendship--he wants more. Is Winter hiding her own romantic secrets that might interfere with Mary's scheme to secure Carson's affections? While texting, sending videos and doing online searches via smart phone (this is one high-tech hunt), not to mention searching out live goldfish and puzzling over Dixie-cup icosahedrons and origami sheep, Mary will make surprising discoveries and confront uncomfortable truths. Anxious and excited, ebullient and sorrowful, she's poised to take flight into the intoxicating world of adult freedom. But tearing around capturing fireflies and hunting out old stuffed animals brings home the bittersweet truth of what--and whom--she'll leave behind. Funny and nostalgic, a highly contemporary riff on a timeless rite of passage. (Fiction. 13 & up)

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August 1, 2012

Gr 7-10-Mary's last hope to do something memorable in high school is to win the Oyster Point High Unofficial Senior Week Scavenger Hunt. After a fiasco at prom and losing her spot at Georgetown to the football jock, she is determined to take first place. She convinces her friends to help her gain enough points to beat the other seniors. They dash around town to find all sorts of items and they puzzle out clues left through text messages. As the afternoon and evening drag on, issues under the surface come to light, and nothing will be the same. Ultimately, Mary has to decide what's more important-her friendships or winning. Quite a few flashbacks explain the events leading to the night in the book, while the issues the characters deal with fill in gaps. The protagonist is not a sympathetic character, and while the scavenger hunt will keep readers turning the pages, the story falls a little flat.-Natalie Struecker, Rock Island Public Library, IL

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2013
On the eve of graduation, Mary convinces her friends to compete in the Oyster Point High Unofficial Senior Week Scavenger Hunt, a.k.a. "The Best Night of Your Pathetic Life." The hunt is Mary's opportunity to best an obnoxious classmate and, more importantly, to do "something worth remembering." In this highly enjoyable caper, the writing is crisp, and the dialogue spot on.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2012
On the eve of high school graduation, Mary convinces her friends to compete in the Oyster Point High Unofficial Senior Week Scavenger Hunt, a.k.a. "The Best Night of Your Pathetic Life." The hunt is Mary's opportunity to best her obnoxious classmate (who's convinced his team will easily win the coveted four-foot-tall Yeti statue) and, more importantly, to finally do "something worth remembering." Mary and her best pals Winter, Dez, and Patrick race through local stores, restaurants, and one another's houses in order to find, do, make, or decipher list items: "any likeness of Tigger," "a Dixie-cup icosahedron," "a trepanation Barbie," etc. As the night unfolds, Mary also tries to deflect Patrick's unrequited love, finds out that her crush likes Winter, and takes an injured Dez to the hospital. In this highly enjoyable caper, the writing is crisp, the dialogue spot on, and the hunt entirely twenty-first century (everyone is smartphone savvy: texting, taking pictures, and Googling up a storm). It's all tempered by nostalgia for the end of high school; more than once, Mary thinks wistfully about having to say goodbye. Though she never gets around to the scavenger-hunt task "write us the opening paragraph of a novel about Oyster Point High," Mary reflects that if she did, "it might even be a funny, happy novel, and not one about a school better left at the bottom of the ocean." Luckily, Altebrando has written that book for her. rachel l. smith

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)