ELLIOT ALLAGASH - Softcover

A sharp, clever, blisteringly funny debut. (Kate Saunders The Times 2010-08-28)

A hilarious, high-spirited and hormone-fuelled romp through teenage angst and offbeat antics. (Monocle)

A fantastically ingenious and unique approach to the tale of a turning worm. (Imogen Russell-Williams Guardian 2010-08-21)

Clueless for boys... suspect that, if he had a literary ancestor in mind as he charted Seymour Herson's rise, it was not Austen or [Amy] Heckerling, but Evelyn Waugh...
...studded with rococo set pieces of ruthless masculine one-upmanship... a joy to read...
Open the book on the beach or by the lake, and shed a crocodile tear, if you can muster one, for the craven ambition of youth.

(Liesl Schillinger The Daily Beast 2010-07-06)

I found Simon Rich's first novel, about an evil teenage billionaire, to be suspenseful and hilarious. I am so glad I don't have to lie in this blurb like I usually do (Judd Apatow, Producer of Superbad)

I am a big fan of Simon Rich's first two books, which were wonderful pupu platters of absurdist comedy. And now comes his first novel, which is one of the funniest books about high schoolers since The Catcher in the Rye. We all must pray that Simon Rich won't move to New Hampshire and become a recluse who spends his time reading Eastern philosophy. Because we need more books from this guy (A. J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically)

Fellow high school losers, use your video game money to buy this book! Simon Rich will make you relive the dread, the hilarity, and the insanity of those formative years like no one else. Open at your own peril! (Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story, Absurdistan and The Russian Debutante's Handbook)

Imaginative premises abound. . . . As unpredictable as YouTube, as in your face as MySpace (Publishers Weekly)

Rich is always funny, and he nails the bogus solemnity of high-school social politics. A high-school romp that John Hughes should be so lucky to direct (Kirkus Reviews)

An unfailingly funny and compulsively readable mix of sweet and sour that will leave readers hoping for another helping (Booklist)