Twelve

Rating:
Summary: This is our generation
Review: I can see why some of the other reviewers don't like this book. Is this a great work of literature? Clearly no. But it is gripping social commentary for those of us who actually live this life.

McDonell's unpretentious prose is delightful. Some of the older, more stodgy reviewers can't appreciate his authentic language. High school english teachers who criticize his dialogue clearly haven't been paying attention to the way their own students talk.

I think you also have to be of my generation to appreciate how real the characters are. They are not caricatures; they are snapshots. The white FUBU wannabes, for example, are as central an image to my generation as the flower child was to my parent's. The older reviewers probably thought it was ridiculous when they read it, but I was struck by how close it was to the truth.

Literature lovers, knock this book all you want. But it is the best social commentary on my generation I've ever seen.

Rating:
Summary: You assume the mentality of his characters, subconsciously
Review: McDonell writes with a style that older generations might not understand. His diction sometimes appears childish in an intentional attempt to provide an insight to the thought processes of his characters. When he describes characters as "blond, blue eyes, high cheekbones" or says"like in the movies", he is trying to show a characters mentality about the blond girl without saying 'Chris only thinks about looks when he sees a girl'. Only a young person can provide this portrayal, and only the young, or young at heart, will be able to understand. McDonell allows the reader to assume the personality of the character by forcing that character's actual thoughts into the reader's mind. He makes it happen subconsciously, w/out making it obvious. A reader who is unable to assume a young persons mentality, even for a moment, will not enjoy this book. It is simple genius, and has been done by many great writers.

Rating:
Summary: High school drivel from a moderately promising author
Review: McDonnell likes to use interesting turns of phrase such as "just like in the movies." Give me a break. The writing lacks sophistication and is filled with the sort of childish gimmicks adolescent writers tend to use - and grow out of before they become mature writers worthy of the sort of attention this books seems to be getting. I don't know whether I am more disappointed by this novel or by Hunter S. Thompson for raving about the author.

Any kid growing up these days witnesses drug use and self-destruction. McDonnell provides no insight along with his mundane cataloging of such behavior. I guarantee better fiction was written in McDonnell's advanced English class, where he read the books his characters read (having his characters read books is about as clever as allusions get.)

The only reason this book merits a single star is for its historical significance in demonstrating the folly of the New York publishing elite and the cowardly reviewers who towed their line.

Rating:
Summary: Don't knock it...
Review: Nick McDonell is mature beyond his years and "Twelve" shows this. If you never lived in the city, you won't understand most of what he writes about. I couldn't put this book down at all. It was hypnotic and very compelling. You feel for "White Mike" and wonder what would make him...happy. I grew up in the Bronx and I wasn't anywhere close to being rich as the characters were in this book, but city people have connections and I connected with this story, the environment and these "lost" children. The ending was very good and not sugar-coated for the sake of the reader's morals. The story was written the way it should feel, purely real.

Rating:
Summary: bad? i think not.....
Review: This book was very well written. The author did not wasted time with pointless details. The book moved very quickly and lead to an intense ending.

The average rating for this book is 3 stars, which I find ridiculous. So when I saw this, I read some reviews to see why the rating was so low. I for one,read this book in one sitting simply because i could not put it down, so I would now like to disprove some people's reasons for giving this book a low rating.

One reviewer stated that Nick (author)should not be called "the voice of the gen. y generation" because the characters in this story are rich white kids and that minorities should have been included. To this reviewer I would like to say that when Nick wrote this book he probably did not spend a whole lot of time being politically correct because he quite frankly didn't care and did not intend for people who have nothing better to do than complain about political incorrectness to dwell on the subject so strongly.

Another reviewer gave this book a low rating because "12 is a stupid name for a drug and he did not know how the girl got hooked on it". Now are weed, acid, ectacy, or reefer non-stupid names for drugs? Oh, and news flash.... DRUGS ARE ADDICTIVE!!!

The most common complaint is that the characters were not detailed enough. Well I apologize for Nick for him not wasting time, ink and paper giving pointless details about the many characters in this story which would have made no impact at all on the events of the story.

Finally, and one of my favorites, one reviewer said that this book is only good for "teens that don't get out and need stories of drugs, sex, and parties told through a book." To this person I would like to say that many of my friends who have read this book as well as myself have done our fair share of all three of the above and we all still enjoyed this book greatly.

Rating:
Summary: Less and Less Than Zero
Review: This is a young-adult book dressed in Bret Easton Ellis' clothing.

Twelve has fooled many people into thinking it should be sold along with other serious fiction. It also appears to have fooled a lot of critics who raved about it, and even two respected writers who added their blurbs to the jacket.

Nick McDonnel's family is in the New York literary elite. So stop wasting your time trying to qualify a book that should never have been published in the first place.

Twelve does not resemble Less Than Zero--it's an out and out [imitation] of that book. Less Than Zero is not a very good novel to begin with, and finding that we live in an age where it is now some kind of blueprint for young writers is scary. However, I believe Ellis has fulfilled his potential with his later works. Perhaps McDonnel can do the same; after all, with a best seller in his teens he'll get the chance.

Twelve reads like a writing assignment that hasn't even gone through rudimentary editing. I doubt anyone wanted to touch it up too much lest McDonnel's powerful editor-father put in a phone call. It leaves the reader in limbo along with the protagonist, teenager White Mike. Taking a year off after private boarding school and deferred at Harvard, he's a low-level drug dealer, selling his wares to people he has grown up around but now has little use for. He goes around town, detached from his surroundings, not really close to anyone anymore. Sound familiar?

The title refers to the drug that brings a number of characters together, however it is hardly explored. The murder story that puts the plot in motion is practically forgotten as soon as it comes up. Entire characters are introduced and dropped. The author gets cute by making some chapters consist of only one sentence, a device a good author might actually put to real, stylistic use. Again, this book doesn't even

Plot spoilers? Please. If you can't see the awful and cliché-ridden Columbine-inspired ending hovering like a mile-wide UFO from the first few pages, you just might be raving about this book. The characters are rich. They live in townhouses. Their parents are never home, and when they are, they just don't care. They kids do drugs. They drink. They party. Have [physical relationships]. You see where this is going.

It's hard to rip a first time author who wrote this in high school, except for the fact that the book has been published widely and reviewed widely and pops up on shelves everywhere you go. Hey, I bought it. I like Ellis, but it's sad to see him aped in such poor fashion, right down to the italicized flashback format and the random, bloody violence (Claude's amusing cheek-pop).

Save your money. The author probably has enough.

Rating:
Summary: Looking A Little Deeper Into The Book
Review: When a stereotype is created and referred to on a regular bases, who is the victim? Is the victim the group, which is stereotyped, or is the victim the person who believes the stereotype to be true?
In the book, Twelve, Nick McDonell writes a compelling story that takes everyday stereotypes and toys with them. In McDonell's book the reader is taken on a trip through the eyes of rich white kids in New York City. Although most of the story is told through the eyes of the main character "White Mike", McDonell also tells the story of the five-day vacation through the eyes of all the other characters. The reader sees what happens to each of the characters leading up to the New Year's Eve Party. Almost all of the characters are wealthy white kids who are home from boarding school for winter break. White Mike is a very intelligent young man, who dropped out of high school to pursue a career in drug dealing. Although White Mike sells drugs, his main dealings are weed, he refuses to use drugs. The whole novel picks apart what high school students do for a good time. McDonell takes what people consider being common stereotypes of the African-American culture and applies them to wealthy white teenagers.
McDonell challenges the generalization that African-American youth are drug dealers. McDonell does not have one African-American character being a drug dealer; instead White Mike is the drug dealer. In Fact, both of the drug dealers are white. McDonell shows drugs as something these children do for fun, and it is looked at as eating candy. White Mike does indeed sell drugs for money, yet his father is well off. McDonell does not show poor African-American youth selling drugs to make the quick buck; instead he shows society's cream of the crop selling to get even further ahead. He could have simply portrayed the status quo stereotype, but instead McDonell twist the stereotype, which makes it an interesting and fun to read book. He also makes the book more attractive to adults by throwing subtle brainteasers. These brainteasers are hidden within the plot as if it was a mystery novel, but at the end of the book the seemingly confusing becomes crystal clear.
McDonell also takes the stereotype of African-Americans being criminals and murders and twists it. McDonell creates a character named Lionel, who is a wealthy white teenager, and has him commit murder. Lionel, along with White Mike's cousin, Charlie, go into the projects to make a drug deal and while they are at the projects Lionel kills Charlie. The reason why Lionel kills Charlie is never really told, but it is eluded that the deal went bad. McDonell could have stayed with the common stereotypes but instead he strayed from those stereotypes and made his readers think. In changing some of these stereotypes McDonell is creating a new way of for teenagers to see the world through books. Instead of media having the vicious cycle of stereotypes being thrown around, McDonell along with other authors are changing that.
McDonell's book Twelve, is a fast read that makes its readers think about racial and economic stereotypes. McDonell creates an interesting twist that is hidden behind what is the equivalent of a "high school/teenage movie". It is well written and appeals to a wide audience; both teenager and adult alike will enjoy this novel.

Rating:
Summary: GRADE A
Review: I this book gets it right its not for the faint of heart. But if you have live in this generation and you don't identify with this book. Then your just a loser that reads too much and doesn't get out enough. This book gets everything right and I must say this is one book that made me call my friends and say no dude not tonight I'm reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: TWELVE ......
Review: Oops, did I say that? Yeah I did. OK, my deal with this whole book is that it's about rich, white kids living bored and stupid lives when they could be out doing something if they weren't too busy trying to be "cool" and junk. It's really stupid for them to call Nick "the voice of the gen. y generation" because for one, I am apart of that and it's not true in his book and two, Generation Y is way more diverse and there are so many other people to be mentioned in our generation. Generation Y can't be summed up in "rich white kids." It should be summed up with diverse people such blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Indians, Arabs, and other Asian countries.

If you think about it--you'll see that. It just presses my buttons they should call him that when it's not even true. He totally ripped off Bret Easton Ellis with "Less Than Zero."

I give it 2 because the writing was OK but also because I feel sorry that Nick had so many connections and he actually NEEDED that to prove himself. Loser.

Choose whatever you feel.

Rating:
Summary: To Each His or Her Own
Review: Apparently not everyone liked this book, but I thought it was incredible from start to finish. It was an extremely quick, compelling read, and while predictable at times, I found the ending to be a rush of emotions(call me naive). The author's age, I think, lent itself to his style of writing, which I enjoyed for its crispness and brevity; many chapters were only 1 or 2 pages in length. It was an easy read in that way, but full of moral dilemmas with which the reader could grapple along with the characters. Don't believe all the positive hype or the negative; read the book and decide for yourself.