Mojo

March 11, 2013
Overweight and unnoticed, Dylan badly wants to acquire “mojo,” that ineffable something that would make him popular. Accidentally discovering the dead body of a classmate named Hector doesn’t do it but, inspired by his love of a bad TV detective show, 16-year-old Dylan decides he’s going to try to find rich girl Ashton, who has gone missing. With fellow outsiders Audrey and Randy, Dylan makes new friends at the exclusive Hollister School that Ashton attended and joins the search party. As Dylan’s investigation continues, he suspects that Ashton’s kidnapping might be related to Hector’s death. In this tongue-in-cheek tribute to hardboiled detectives, Tharp (Badd) contrasts the book’s serious subjects—including drug use, statutory rape, and murder—with a stylized narrative in a way that recalls Sean Beaudoin’s You Killed Wesley Payne. In this case, though, Dylan’s extemporaneous past-tense narration (which often uses the slightly jarring present-tense phrase “I’m like” to introduce dialogue) makes the entire wild escapade read as though he’s recounting it over burgers at his favorite local joint, Topper’s. Ages 12–up. Agent: Emily Sylvan Kim, Prospect Agency.

Starred review from March 15, 2013
An Oklahoma City high school loser becomes an amateur detective. Sixteen-year-old Dylan Jones has no game. He's pudgy, wears semi-ironic band T-shirts and a porkpie hat, and has a Wimpy-like affection for hamburgers. He gets no respect from his peers until he discovers the body of fellow student Hector Maldonado in a Dumpster near the school. His resulting investigation gains him some notoriety, but soon the douchebags at his school dub him "body bag" instead of hero. Dylan then vows to regain his mojo by putting his sleuthing skills to use to search for a wealthy missing teenage girl from the other side of town. There, he and his BFF Audrey are caught up in a web of deception, lies, cruelty, murder and juicy hamburgers. There's not a damn thing wrong with Tharp's third offering: It's dead-on. Characterizations are pitch-perfect. He harnesses loser teenspeak like no other author, and Dylan drops several quotable one-liners that teen readers will totally respect. They'll also love the two best friends who help him along the way: Audrey, who finds her first girlfriend on the fancier side of the tracks, and impulsive, loudmouthed, lovable Randy, who always gets Dylan into trouble. Finally, Tharp's plotting moves swiftly and succinctly; he injects just the right number of left turns and amount of humor to keep his readers guessing and laughing. Flawless fun. (Mystery. 12 & up)

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May 1, 2013

Gr 7-10-Dylan is literally thrown into a murder mystery when a group of thugs tosses him into a Dumpster and he lands next to Hector Maldonado, whom he recognizes from school, but just barely, as Hector Maldonado is very much dead. He has barely brushed off the garbage when wealthy teen Ashton Browning's disappearance hits the news, and when her father offers a $100,000 reward for information leading to her return, Dylan decides to find his mojo by putting on his detective cap to see what he can dig up. Along with his punky friend Audrey and girl-crazy sidekick Randy, Dylan attempts to infiltrate Gangland, an after-hours club of sorts run by the well-to-do teens from Hollister, the private school Ashton and her brother attend. While Audrey is quick to see through the overtly fake gestures of friendship that the Hollister kids offer up, Dylan just doesn't get it, and it takes an inordinate amount of obvious hints for him to figure out that the rich kid crew might be more invested in emulating the famous gangsters, whose pics hang on Gangland's walls, than he'd realized. Tharp's cast of characters consists mainly of savvy teens, except Dylan, whose obliviousness veers toward irritating, and at times can make the plot lag. The comic-book worthy conclusion, however, wherein the villain gets her due and the good guys walk off with a year's worth of free burgers, makes for an exciting end to an at times slow-moving plot.-Joanna Sondheim, Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, New York City

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2013
Grades 8-11 Chubby 16-year-old Dylan isn't exactly the school newspaper's star investigative reporteruntil fate plops two big mysteries right into his lap. Mystery number one: while evading bullies, Dylan leaps into a Dumpster, only to find a dead schoolmate, Hector. Mystery number two: a pretty 17-year-old rich girl named Ashton has disappeared, and it's Dylan who stumbles across her discarded shoe. Solving this latter crime ought to give him everything: I wanted the reward, the fame, the mojo. Like any smart crime writer, Tharp (The Spectacular Now, 2008) stirs up a whole swarm of suspects. Could it be Trix, the sexy lesbian who has taken an interest in Dylan's female best buddy? What about Beto, Hector's too-helpful cousin? Or how about the wealthy Nash, Ashton's ex-boyfriend who runs Gangland, a teen party space that hosts a series of increasingly unsavory competitions within its private walls? There isn't a lot to differentiate Dylan from other teen gumshoes, but Tharp flexes his plotline like an old pro, right down to the juicy criminal-explains-all resolution. A savory morsel for mystery gnashers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)