Lars Kennedy is a newcomer to the village and school, and in Year 11 with Noah. Both boys are seen as good-looking and popular. However, neither of them have girlfriends and Noah chooses to take a family friend who is slightly retarded to a school dance, rather than the "Blonde Bombshell" he could have taken. Joel records all this--and incidents like it--faithfully. It is only later, when events have come to a tragic end, that he retrospectively realises (as the reader does) their significance. The narrative style Jean Ure adopts for Joel is honest and natural:
I sort of think it might be important. Telling the things that happened... I guess that's one of the reasons I'm doing it ... to make people sit up and think.The book is touching and believable for its inclusion of everyday and vulnerable moments, from Joel admitting to his own prejudices and weaknesses when an author visits his school to talk about coming out as gay, to his excitement about his first kiss with Rosa. Joel does not let the story he has to tell get in the way of recording his own personal memories, so that Ure makes clear that although the reason for telling the story may be Lars and Noah, it is still Joel's story, even if he is only an observer at times. Get a Life! is successfully honest and direct, achieving a balanced and true-to-life view of teenagers and homosexuality; let's hope that reading it in school will not be seen as breaking Clause 28. --Olivia Dickinson
Some people already think. Like Rosa, for example ...
Rosa is not one of the people that have to be made to sit up.
But I was. And maybe that's another reason I'm doing it.
Genre: Children's Fiction
Used availability for Jean Ure's Get a Life