Review for Swim the Fly by Don Calame

"Matt Gratton and his two best friends, Sean and Coop, always set themselves a summer-time goal. This year’s? To see a real-live naked girl for the first time. As far as Matt is concerned, they’d have better luck finding the lost city of Atlantis. But seeing a girl in the buff starts to seem like child’s play compared to the other summertime goal Matt sets for himself: to swim the 100-yard butterfly (the hardest stroke known to God or man) in order to impress Kelly West, the hot new girl. So what if he can’t manage a single lap, let alone four? He’s got the whole summer to perfect his technique. What could possibly go wrong?" As you can probably tell from this blog I am very much a girly girl and that is definitely reflected in what I enjoy reading. My favourite genres have to be contemporary young adult fiction and chick-lit and so when Swim the Fly was pitched to me as “dude-lit” the male equivalent to the kind of books I love I HAD to read this book. Swim the Fly will make even the most reluctant teenage reader compelled to read more. Don Calame spins a tale that is effortlessly funny and surprisingly heart warming. Laugh out loud hilarious I could not put this book down because I just had to know what crazy scheme Matt, Coop and Sean would come up with next on their summer quest to see a real live naked girl. The fantastic characters were definitely the biggest highlight of this book for me. Each character is so hilarious and hugely likeable right from main character Matt to secondary characters like the lovable Grandpa Arlo. I really became attached to the characters and even developed a teeny tiny book boy crush on sweet, dorky, Matt. Matt is a fantastic main character at the beginning of the book he’s so naive and young but as the book goes on he really grows. Matt’s definitely a character you can get behind and cheer on through embarrassing and at times impossible situations. Despite Swim the Fly being a debut novel Don Calame already has a boisterous, mischievous, effortlessly funny writing style that will speak to teenage boys. Swim the Fly is a strong addition to the dude-lit genre that’s good enough to make king of dude-lit John Green’s toes curl with envy. If you’re looking for a mood boosting, feel good read Swim the Fly is the book for you. I absolutely flew through this book because it was so effortlessly readable and most importantly enjoyable. This book cheered me up and took my mind off things and brought some sunshine to a gloomy day. This is the kind of book that I could happily read forever and I was so sad as I got closer to the end and even made a conscious effort to slow my reading down savouring every last page. I’m ecstatic that Don is carrying on the boy’s story in a second book Beat the Band told from my personal favourite character Coop’s point of view. I hope the boys have many more exciting adventures to come because I for one can’t get enough and spring 2012 seems oh so very far away. Overall Swim the Fly is a very much needed breath of fresh air in Young Adult fiction. Perfect for the nerdy teen, fans of The Inbetweeners, Napoleon Dynamite, Adrian Mole and anybody who can remember those socially awkward, hormone ridden, acne filled years will love this book. If you’re looking for a book with warts and all characters, laugh out loud humour and not a supernatural creature in sight this is the book for you and comes with the highest of recommendations from me. My Rating 5/5 stars Synopsis taken from goodreads Thanks go to Templar for sending me this book to review

If you enjoyed this review and are interested to learn more about Swim the Fly be sure to stop by the blog on Friday for my tour stop where Don will be discussing the importance of dude-lit. I got the post through today and let me tell you Don raises some very interesting points! For anyone interested in following this tour here is a list of blogs participating.