Review Detail

Stoner & Spaz. Colleen is the stoner, hooked on drugs of any sort; weed, cocaine, whatever. Ben is the spaz, weighed down by the deformities of cerebral palsy. They meet at the Riolto movie theater. Ben spends his solitary Friday nights watching old movies, like the Bride of Frankenstein. Colleen needs to borrow two bucks to buy candy. Ben thinks that's the end, but Colleen ends up sitting next to him to watch the movie. For a kid who's never had a girlfriend, this is as close as he's gotten to a girl in his entire life. And she doesn't treat him like an invalid, a misfit. For a girl who's perpetually stoned, this is the first sober guy she's met in a long time.

So, they each have something the other wants and they develop into a real friendship. But is that enough? Is it enough to get Colleen on the straight and narrow? Is it enough for Ben to come out from under his grandmother's thumb and experience the world?

Ron Koertge writes great books (see my review of Shakespeare Bats Cleanup and Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs). But while those books were light and humorous, Stoner & Spaz digs deep. Ben lives with a grandmother who barely touches him. And while he's developed a sense of humor to deal with this lack of affection, you know it hurts. Colleen hates a mother who would not believe that her boyfriend might have attempted to abuse Colleen. In a scant 169 pages, Koertge deals with all these issues.

If you are into good stories, great characters and a thought provoking plot, then Stoner & Spaz should be your next book. It'll be a nice setup for Now Playing: Stoner & Spaz Part II, the sequel.