Patrick Jones does a great job of making Bret feel like a real person—he’s terribly annoying at times, and somewhat full of himself. This makes the lessons he learns ring more truly, and while things feel predictable, they also feel possible. The writing is reminiscent of Chris Crutcher.

This book was nominated for YALSA’s 2006 Teens Top Ten as well as the 2007 Quick Picks and Best Books for Young Adults.

Having read the graphic novel, I had some expectations. I think the movie had some good updates to the original material. Despite what I remember being an important element of the printed work being changed, I really enjoyed the movie. Cheers to what others have already posted about themes and relevance. Good effects and a nice balance of action and story also add to thefun.

I love Welsh—he’s awesome & surprising. Like the other books of his that I’ve read (Trainspotting, Filth), TBSotMC takes place in Edinburgh, Scotland. One of the main characters is a hooligan-type, into drinking, coke, “fitba,” fighting, etc., while the other is much more wholesome, into model trains, hill walking, Star Trek, and Harvest Moon.

As far as Welsh’s use of the Scottish dialect, this book is closer to Filth than Trainspotting—it’s there when characters speak, but not when they think and not used in the third-person narration. The story is its own, uncomparable to either of the other books. The hooligan, Skinner, works with the momma’s boy, Kibby, as restaurant inspectors in Edinburgh. Skinner spends the novel searching for his father, hating Kibby, drinking excessively, and womanizing, while Kibby loses his father to a degenerative disease, wishes and hopes for an end to his virginity, comes down with a strange ailment of his own, and withdraws from life.

Something new in my Welsh experience is the addition of a paranormal plot element, connecting these two enemies in an impossible way, and really moving the story along. It accelerates toward the end, and you’ll be hooked by the need to know if tragedy can be averted. Good book.