Monday, January 12, 2015

100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith


The term sideways miles refers to Finn Easton's preferred way of measuring time, by distance covered by the earth every second.  Finn is a teenager with epilepsy and heterochromatic eyes. His life was upended when, at the age of 7, he and his mother were struck by a dead horse falling out of a truck.  Finn's mother died and although Finn survived, he was left with his condition--unexpected and definitely inconvenient grand mal seizures.  Now a teenager, Finn struggles to escape from his sheltered life and figure out who-- or what--he is.  In his journey of self-discovery, Finn is accompanied by the love of his life,  neighbor Julie Bishop, and by his  borderline crazy, uninhibited (one reviewer says "raunchy") but devoted sidekick, Cade Fernandez.  Finn's narrative swings between the awkward, embarrassing, sad, and downright funny things that can happen to teenage boys.  Very entertaining.