My Worst Date

November 4, 1996
Hugo, the hero of this uneven and dispiriting first novel, is a 16-year-old Miami high-school student whose first real affair is with Glenn, his mother's boyfriend--a premise that a gifted novelist could spin into giddy farce, erotic fiction or a coming-of-age tale. Leddick attempts all three--with more contrivances than so slender a novel can support. Hugo moonlights as a stripper, then becomes a Versace model and an actor in a TV pilot about the South Beach scene--all while maintaining a solid GPA, continuing a secret affair with Glenn and shopping around for a college in New York. Hugo's long-absent father, debauched and jaded, shows up late in the novel, as does Hurricane Andrew, though neither episode provides the dramatic payoff the reader expects. Leddick's talent in evoking the voice of a sensitive adolescent is evident at the outset, but the convolutions of the plot, narrated by different characters in alternating chapters, defeat any patient exploration of Hugo's inner life. More disturbingly, Hugo is ultimately little more than a monstrous fantasy figure--a nubile adolescent whose libido triumphs over any ethical qualms either he or his adult lover might have about their relationship.

November 1, 1996
Like Francesca Lia Block's "Weetzie Bat," "My Worst Date" radiates a remarkably trendy, nineties-like verve as its plot about two high-schoolers--a straight girl and a gay boy who are best friends--moves at breakneck speed. But unlike "Weetzie Bat," it is not a young adult novel. The boy, a very self-reliant gay youngster, falls in love (and has a "hot" sexual affair) with a super good-looking, thirtysomething real estate developer and former gay porn actor who just happens to be having an affair with the boy's mother, too. The girl, very hip, gives advice as sage as any of Ann Landers' and is also having an affair, with her pal's pal's former acting partner! As if these potentially comic elements weren't enough, the lad's dad, whom he hasn't seen since he was three, tries to pick him up in the gay strip joint where he is earning his college fund. Wit, plot, and language conspire to give this romp surefire appeal to a very downtown crowd. ((Reviewed November 1, 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)