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    Stupid Fast
    Stupid Fast
    Stupid Fast
    Audiobook7 hours

    Stupid Fast

    Written by Geoff Herbach

    Narrated by Fred Berman

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Stupid Fast is playwright Geoff Herbach's first book for young adults. No one's more shocked than shy 15-year-old Felton Reinstein himself when he undergoes a tremendous growth spurt. After dusting the football jocks in a race, Felton marvels at his new athletic ability. Everything isn't looking up, however. Felton must also come to grips with his mother's sudden depression and his bratty younger brother. And then Felton learns a shocking secret about his past that helps put things in perspective.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateSep 30, 2011
    ISBN9781461849858
    Author

    Geoff Herbach

    Geoff Herbach is the author of Hooper and the award-winning Stupid Fast series, as well as Fat Boy vs. the Cheerleaders. His books have been given the Cybils Award for Best Young Adult Fiction and the Minnesota Book Award, selected for the Junior Library Guild, and listed among the year’s best by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, and many state library associations. In the past, he produced radio comedy shows and toured rock clubs telling weird stories. Geoff teaches creative writing at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He lives in a log cabin with a tall wife. You can find him online at www.geoffherbach.com.

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    Reviews for Stupid Fast

    4/5

    74 ratings16 reviews

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    • 5/5
      The summer he turns 16, Felton gets big - really big and really fast. Suddenly the athletes who have always teased him are his friends and are recruiting him for the football team. He has a girlfriend. But things at home are not going nearly as well.
    • 5/5
      LOOOOVVVEEE this book :)
    • 4/5
      Narrated by Fred Berman. Felton has always been a bit of a geek in high school, but suddenly he starts growing and fast. During a transformative summer, he is recruited for the football team and falls in love with Aleah, a gifted pianist. But he seems to miss that his mother has fallen into a deep depression that's impacting the family. Berman is hugely expressive and entertaining, humorously and viscerally capturing Felton’s insecurities and self-effacingly bitter humor. There are times he sounds like Regis Philbin, which is pretty funny.
    • 4/5
      At first I didn't like this book because he kept going on about his growing body hair, how stupid fast he was becoming, and his crazy mother and brother. Then very subtly the tone shifted to reveal what a train wreck his home-life was becoming at the same time his social life and a budding romance were the only good things in his life. It almost seemed like the book was trying to explore too many issues at once - a parent's suicide, bullying, friendship gone bad, depression - but they were all part of the personality of Felton Reinstein and his growing anxiety about the many changes in his adolescent life. He learned things about his deceased father and his mother when he finally reached out for help, realizing that he could not deal with grownup problems on his own. I can see this book appealing to a variety of different teen boys, not just jocks.
    • 3/5
      I really liked this YA novel. He always tries to do the right thing, even though life throws him a curve or two. Good story. I didn't realize it was the first in a series. Now I will have to dig through my shelves to find the other two books.
    • 5/5
      Okay first off, before anything else, a shout out to whoever wrote the synopsis for this book! THANK YOU for giving us just enough to be drawn in, and not spoiling anything big. I'm kind of frustrated with the way that book jackets pretty much tell you the plot lately. On to the review!

      In my quest for more books from the male perspective, I stumbled upon Stupid Fast. I was really drawn in by the description, and so I signed up for the tour so I could read devour it. You know what? Best decision I ever made! Geoff Herbach should know that his book is fantastic! It's hilarious, it's a realistic portrayal of a teenage boy, it's heartwarming, it's emotional, oh and did I mention it's also hilarious?

      Felton has one of the most original voices of any character that I've read this year. His character is funny, silly, sweet, adorable, and all kinds of awkward. Of course the most endearing thing about him is that this is all because he's struggling to grow up. See, Felton is pretty much the parent to his younger brother Andrew, since his mother is a fairly absent parent. The two of them bicker, much like all siblings do, but you can see the love that is there too. My favorite part about Felton though was his unabashed (and hilarious) view of the world around him. The way he phrases things had me laughing out loud! I'm glad I read this book at home, and not on the bus!

      Stupid Fast is such a multi-faceted book too. On the surface are Felton's physical changes, that allow him to be brought into the world of football. His status as a "nobody" disappears, and all of the sudden he is faced with a much different set of social rules. However it's not only his social life that changes when this happens. Bring on the emotional parts of the book. As things start to get better in one aspect of his life, it becomes a struggle in the others. Watching Felton deal with his dysfunctional home life, with the dark secrets that are buried under his family, was really touching. I liked the fact that Geoff wasn't afraid to show that Felton isn't just a one dimensional guy. He, like all the rest of us, has to figure out what is most important in his life.

      I fully admit that I devoured this book in one complete sitting. The mixture of serious emotions, life changing discoveries, and all out humor, made Stupid Fast a book that I simply couldn't set down. My eyes were glued to the page people. Honest to goodness. I fell in love with Felton and his story, and I'm sure that you will too! I'd love to say more, but I'll leave it up to you to discover this fantastic character and story. Trust me, you need a copy.
    • 4/5
      Maybe it has to do with turning 50, but I’ve been reading a lot of books about high school:

      Hairstyles of the Damned, Joe Meno
      The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
      Stupid Fast, Geoff Herbach
      You, Charles Benoit (currently reading)

      All very different books. Very different styles. There’s tension in Meno’s Hairstyles of the Damned and Benoit’s You. Chbosky’s Wallflower spoke the most to me personally. And Herbach’s Stupid Fast was fast and loose, a goofy, rambling prose that sounded very much like a teenager’s thoughts.

      Felton Reinstein is undergoing a transformation – physical and emotional growing pains. Over the summer, the 15 year old is going through a tremendous growth spurt, hitting puberty like a freight train, and feeling like a freak. He’s also discovered that he’s Stupid Fast: a natural-born runner, he’s now been recruited for his high school football team.

      Herbach excels at capturing the tumbling thoughts, the insecurities and puzzlements about changes in life. Felton doesn’t understand what’s happening to his body, nor does he understand why everyone on his football team is excited that he’s joined. They see amazing potential; he feels like he’s five steps behind everyone else.

      The story starts off slow and rambling, in that it takes a while before Felton begins to engage with life. Meanwhile, his mother and his younger brother are having their own nervous breakdowns. Felton wants to connect with them but being fifteen he doesn’t know how.

      The story kicks into gear with the introduction of Aleah, the new girl in town. She’s an exceptional pianist and a quirky individual. There’s instant attraction between them, but Felton doesn’t understand why (after all, he’s a freak).

      Felton’s burgeoning maturity comes off naturally. This is a kid who is trying to understand himself and his place in the world. He’s learning that life has obstacles and challenges, and that’s okay.

      There are two more books in the series: Nothing Special and I’m with Stupid. Both are on my reading list.
    • 3/5
      A fun, fast read, told in the first person of a teenage boy who hits his growth spurt and finds out he's big and fast enough to be a jock. Herbach gives Felton a voice perfectly, and the subplots and supporting characters are nuanced enough to give this more depth than a typical high school sports novel.
    • 4/5
      Felton's summer has not been how he imagined it would be at all. First, his best friend goes to Venezuela for the summer leaving his paper route for Felton. Then, Felton meets Aleah - a piano prodigy in town for the summer who just so happens to be beautiful and charming and interested in Felton. Meanwhile, Felton's new burly physique and accompanying speed have attracted the attention of the football coach and town jocks. When his mom's mental health starts to break down, it's more than Felton can handle, but he has no idea where to turn.Three things I loved: the small-town setting, the sports stuff, and the excellent secondary characters. Some of the jocks are jerks and some of the jocks aren't. Sometimes the adults are competent and act as adults - other times...not so much. Nobody figures out what's going on with Felton's family because they're just as involved with their own lives as real people are. Felton doesn't just become amazing at football either - he clearly has a natural talent for running, but he has to work at everything else about sports. I also appreciated how well Herbach showed how running really helped to center Felton and kept him sane when nothing else could. The small Wisconsin town is just as insular as you would expect and Felton's worldview is clearly influenced by his limited experiences of the larger world.
    • 5/5
      Felton Reinstein is a nerd with a hippie-dippy overprotective mom and a father who died (suicide) when he was young. He has two friends and suffers from anxiety in public situations (his therapist tells him to chant the name of his best friend... when he slips and chants outloud, he is the subject of class wide ridicule). In the summer before his junior year, however, Felton gets BIG... big as in tall, big as in strong, big as in fast. His size and running prowess catch the eye of the football coach and Felton finds himself recruited for the team. His 'boring' summer is now filled with weight lifting, sprints, and working out. And then he meets Aleah... Felton finds himself in his first romance. As his summer waxes, his mother's sanity wanes. She suffers a nervous breakdown while Felton and his long-suffering little brother try to ignore her increasing incompetence. In the end, they seek help. Felton uncovers some family secrets (his Dad was not a saint) and faces down his own demons. Felton begins a school year as a literally, figuratively new man. Great coming of age story with a spot-on adolescent voice... you'll root for Felton and share in his happiness when he wins his psychic battles.Nothing too objectionable: sexual scenes are limited to making out; a few f-bombs; mother's descent into near catatonia is wrenching.
    • 4/5
      Felton has a constant inner dialog of self-doubt going through his head. When he hits a growth spurt and realizes he is stupid fast, he finds an athletic prowess he never knew he could possess. This change in his appearance also elicits a strong reaction in his mother, as he is apparently the spitting image of his father who committed suicide when he was a toddler. Jerri, his mother, falls apart and stops communicating with Felton and his little brother, Andrew. All the action taking place during the summer Felton turns 16. Felton develops new friendships, a romance, a new sense of himself, and he tries to muddle through figuring out what is going wrong with his family and how to fix it. The characters are well developed. Felton is a great protagonist, complicated and funny.
    • 4/5
      A consistently honest, funny story with a strong, engaging voice.
    • 5/5
      The summer he turns 16, Felton gets big - really big and really fast. Suddenly the athletes who have always teased him are his friends and are recruiting him for the football team. He has a girlfriend. But things at home are not going nearly as well.
    • 5/5
      Fifteen-year old Felton Reinstein can’t stop eating or growing. In just a few months, he’s gone from a small, scrawny boy to a tall, fast jock and he found a really cool girlfriend. That’s all well and good, but Felton has his share of problems too. For one thing, his dad hung himself in the garage when Felton was five years old. Also, he has an annoying little brother and his mom is suddenly depressed and won’t get out of bed.Stupid Fast is a funny and emotional coming of age story, reminiscent of Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. It’s so real. Felton is the narrator of the story. I’m not a fifteen year old boy but Felton’s thoughts and the way his mind works seemed very authentic to me. I could not put this book down; it got very intense at times. I wanted to strangle Felton’s mother, some of the things she did while she was having her depressed episode had my stomach in knots. There are so few good young adult books for boys – this is definitely one of them. I’m excited about my boys reading this when they’re old enough. I hope they’ll enjoy it as much as I did. If nothing else, they will think I’m an awesome mom after reading about Felton’s mom! Seriously, this book is fantastic – I’m surprised I haven’t heard more about it around the blogosphere. I highly recommend it for everyone.
    • 4/5
      When I started this book I expected lots of sport stuff. Instead I got a great combination of sports and young man coming into his shoes. Felton deals with a lot of issues in this book, more so than a regular teen.For me, as the reader, I felt like there wasn't much of sports in this book. The reader see Felton shoot up like a weed, trying out for sports, but mostly Felton is learning to deal with home issues and school issues. The main character Felton, he is a great young man. He has taken responsibility in places where he shouldn't have. I liked how he did his best to make do with what he had. The home life of Felton really touched my heart. Felton already having to grow up fast dealt with a lot of stuff. The crappy mom, little annoying brother, bulling at school and a girl he likes. Felton learns more about his father, his past, and even more about his mother. I really liked how the author, Mr. Herbach showed the reader a really flawed character. He did a great job on capturing the voice of Felton and all that he went through.I really liked the elements in this book. A broken home, a main character growing up faster than he ever thought he would. So much goes on in the book that it is hard to not stop reading. A great, young, fresh voice, Felton is the American boy dealing with an average American life. Nothing is perfect but of course he is Stupid Fast.
    • 5/5
      In one year Felton grows seven inches and gains 43 pounds. He’s suddenly BIG, not fat, BIG, as in the coaches are looking at him; the jocks are looking at him; his mom is looking at him. Felton is funny. He is dealing with the growth spurt. (Eat! Hair! Eat!) His mom freaks out on him because he suddenly looks like his dead dad. His best friend, Gus, moves for the summer to Venezuela. A beautiful girl moves into Gus’s house. The jocks are now his friends. No wonder Felton is funny: funny--ha, ha, funny—weird, funny—crazy. He’s a regular kid with some serious issues going on in his life. I loved this book; it made me laugh, snicker, and whimper. I should buy another copy; I will, I promise.