Concrete Fever by Nathaniel Kressen

read from 12/29/14 - 1/30/2015 (a whole freakin month!)

published: 2013 // 224 pages

isbn: 0984035621

i cant believe it took me a month to read this itty bitty book!

i mean look at it!

confession: i bought this book at The Henry Miller Library when i was out in Big Sur  last year (oh so looong ago) solely because of the cover. i thought to myself, oh what pretty colors!

tell my why it wasn't until last week when my co-worker asked me what it was about and i told her why i bought it that i noticed the cover is actually a picture of a dude. see it? 

yea. its so obvious and i was so oblivious!

muahahha. 

k. so. 

it didn't suuuuuck buuuutttt i wasn't crazy about it and i wont be re-reading it again. and apparently this book is adapted from a play so you can scratch that of my list as well. 

there were moments when i LOVED the book and i couldn't put it down but there were more moments when i was a-okay not reading it and that says a lot cause i don't love not reading. 

this is based on "Jumper" and "Gypsy" (we never learn their real names.i dont think. i think they maybe mention his at the end but meh.)

as always, from here on out, **SPOILERS!**  well not completely but some. 

Jumper is your typical rich dude from NYC. his parents are split, his dad is dead and his mother is a raging alcoholic.

his father dies on 9/11 and ever since, he has been living in his apartment away from his mother. 

after several thoughts about it, he decides "up to the roof i go to off myself", hence the title Concrete Fever (in my opinion anyways). Once up there he runs in to "Gypsy" who is actually trashing all of her "exe's" stuff off the roof. 

they meet, he sorta explains his deal so does she and they decided to make it one last night to remember no strings attached. they go on several different dates in one night, they get trashed, stoned and abusive. (i wont get to in to that but he beats the shit out of her.)  

it doesn't really get interesting for me until he starts talking about his parents. 

his mom came from some small "town" in Florida. she was never one to be an artist but after other several failed classes, she ends up in art class where she, long story short, ends up hooking up with her teacher against her will. ish. 

she runs away to NYC to go to the school that accepts her and there she meets Jumpers dad. 

they date, they get pregnant, they abort only to get pregnant once again and eventually end up getting married. i think she resents him because he was only doing the art school scene just to piss off his family but it actually works for him meanwhile she tries so hard but she "fails." 

she dissolves the family because she, i don't know, was stupid in my opinion and then starts a life of lying to her son about his father. 

so Jumper has all this hate for his dad when in reality since he was a tiny kid, he's been trying to get a hold of him but his mom's been cock blocking. (sorry for the terminology but UGH!) 

through all the rampage he and Gypsy are causing, he finds a ton of letters his dad has been trying to send him that his mom had always sent back. imagine that. (that later on that little witch (gypsy) tears up in to itty tiny bits of pieces!!!!)

already long story short, 2 fucked up kids try to off each other only to find each other (in like a spiritual sense) if that's what you want to call it and they DON'T jump off. 

he has a butt load of money so they can start off anywhere which is what they end up doing. 

yep. that's my review. but hey!, don't take my word for it. EVER. its just my opinion. everyone over at amazon seems to love it. maybe this is one of those books that ill think about later on in life and ill rethink my opinion and be like "man, that was some poetic shiz." but for now this is where its at. ill re-review if that day ever does come. 

i already have another book that i cant wait to start and with it being so dead at my other job at night i might have some time to squeeze in a couple of reads although school does start for me next week so we'll see how that goes. 

what have you been reading? got any recommendations?