Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Dad’s only in his late thirties, pretty young for the father of a twenty-year-old, and he’s always hovered somewhere off on the margins of Danny’s life. This summer, though, he gets Danny a kitchen help job at Dishes, where he tends bar, and Danny hopes they’ll get to hang out and know each other better there. Dad, however, turns out to be too busy chasing his own slipping youth to do the father thing very well; paternal words of wisdom on offer are “If you can’t get laid in Ogunquit, you’re not trying very hard.” Not that this sounds bad to Danny; frankly, he has his eye on Mercy, a waitress at another local establishment, and platonic friendship is not part of his plan. Mercy, though very interested, has some reservations about Danny’s sexual orientation, since he gets along so well with the openly gay waitstaffers and patrons at Dishes. There’s not much going on here plotwise, and the slim novel plays out like a prime-time sitcom as the audience watches Danny chase Mercy, Hector lust after studly, cold-hearted Chase, pudgy, sweet-tempered Sal pine for Hector, and Dad fondly recall a time when he hit on Mercy, even though he’s now settling into a relationship with Sonia. What this title lacks in substance, though, it makes up in affable randiness, and older teens looking for a quick read with fauxmosexual appeal have come to the right place.