YA Review: No Good Deed

No Good Deed
by Goldy Moldavsky
Scholastic
2017
352 pages
ISBN: 9780545867511

Available May 30, 2017

No Good Deed is set up around a promising premise. Young activists are chosen by billionaire entrepreneur/do good-er Robert Drill (who is a caricature of Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates) to  attend a teen summer camp/activism competition. Gregor Maravilla is excited to get an invitation to attend  his idol's camp. He dreams of winning the internship to work alongside Robert Drill, his long time hero.

Sarcasm and zingers abound but most of the characters never come to life. No Good Deed satirises  activism's flaws and the p.c. fishbowl that we live in.  Gregor keeps getting called "white" and insists he is half-Mexican although no one believes him. Half the humor comes from Gregor trying to direct his inner thoughts to be p.c. He has to keep apologizing to himself for even his own thought process.

Every camper is competing for his/her own cause--the more far-fetched, the funnier. At least that's how the book is supposed to read. The kids are so checked out and into themselves that they don't bother knowing anyone else's real name. They refer to each other by their specific cause. There's I Like Paint, Feed the Children, Men's Rights, Seat Belt Safety, and Diabetes.

Gregor is not excited that teen movie star Ashley Woodhouse is at the camp. Her campaign is Eat Dirt which she insists is a real thing. Eating dirt would save the planet according to Ashley and end world-wide hunger. Gregor keeps trying to avoid Ashley, yet everywhere he turns, she pops up.

Moldavsky's debut Kill the Boy Band is a tough act to follow. Goldy Moldavsky is still funny, but her humor is contagious when her protagonists are female and flawed. In No Good Deed, Gregor never engages as the central force of this novel.

Grade 9 and up. Some humor and funny moments, but this one falls short.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received the ARC from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

Hilarious Pick: Gorgeous

Gorgeous
by Paul Rudnick
Scholastic Press
2013
320 pages


Scathingly satirical, causticly comic, wickedly witty, in-your-face pun-y, and filled with more laughs per second than any comedy show, Gorgeous slapped me in the face and made me laugh until I cried. From the very first irreverent paragraph,  I was hooked and better yet, pleasantly shocked! Rudnick has that rare, ethereal gift of winsome wit that many fiction writers would kill for. David Sedaris (the funniest writer I've ever read) says, "Paul Rudnick is a champion of truth and love and great wicked humor, whom we ignore at our peril."

Becky Randle grew up in a trailer in East Trawley, Missouri, the daughter of a morbidly obese mother who dreams of Hollywood, glamour, movies and the good life. Just before her mother dies, she makes Becky promise that if something magical shows up, Becky should play along. She swears there will be magic and that Becky should use it. When getting some of her mother's old clothes ready for charity, Becky happens upon a phone number with an area code in New York. Becky calls the number and a woman sends her a plane ticket and some cash to come to New York. Becky is confused; why would someone, a complete stranger, send her money and a ticket to New York?  She enlists the help of best friend Rocher--whose mother named her after the box of fancy chocolates, famous for their gold wrappers. Rocher convinces Becky to take the ticket already  and get on that plane. If this isn't magic, what is?

Becky is whisked away by chauffeur to meet mysterious Tom Kelly, a designer so revered that he has become a recluse even from the world of high fashion. He tells Becky he will make her three dresses: one red, one black and one white. The dresses will magically make her the World's Most Beautiful Woman. The magic only lasts one year. Within that year, Becky must meet and marry Mr. Right or the magic wears off.

Wearing Tom's couture designs, Becky is immediately transformed to Rebecca Randle.  Her legs morph into supermodel legs, her skin becomes flawless, she is drop dead gorgeous.The kind of gorgeous that is simply other-worldly.  Everyone clamors to meet the new "It" girl. Soon, she's on the cover of Vogue and tapped to film a movie with hot Hollywood teen hunk Jate Mallow. The press is soon calling them Jatecca and papparazzi snap their every move.

Rebecca revels in the attention but finds it a bit vapid...that is, until she meets Prince Gregory, heir to the British throne. Suddenly, Becky knows what she must do. She must marry the prince and use her beauty and his power to help change the world!

What happens when a normal girl from nowhere rubs elbows with the A-list and British royalty? A hilarious romp that will have readers laughing out loud and quite possibly rolling around on the floor, gasping for breathe.

Libba Bray, no slouch to fierce and sardonic wit herself, wrote," Rudnick's considerable talents as a satirist as he uproariously eviscerates our celebrity-mad, class-concious, appearance-obsessed, reality-TV-vapid culture with puckish delight." (New York Times Book Review).

Highly, highly recommended grade 9-up. Profanity runs amok but it's so funny!

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received the ARC from the publisher. I did not receive monetary compensation for this review.

This review has been posted in compliance with the FTC requirements set forth in the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising (available at ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf)