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    The Great American Whatever
    The Great American Whatever
    The Great American Whatever
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Great American Whatever

    Written by Tim Federle

    Narrated by Tim Federle

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    From the award-winning author of Five, Six, Seven, Nate! and Better Nate Than Ever comes “a Holden Caulfield for a new generation” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

    Quinn Roberts is a sixteen-year-old smart aleck and Hollywood hopeful whose only worry used to be writing convincing dialogue for the movies he made with his sister Annabeth. Of course, that was all before—before Quinn stopped going to school, before his mom started sleeping on the sofa…and before the car accident that changed everything.

    Enter: Geoff, Quinn’s best friend who insists it’s time that Quinn came out—at least from hibernation. One haircut later, Geoff drags Quinn to his first college party, where instead of nursing his pain, he meets a guy—okay, a hot guy—and falls, hard. What follows is an upside-down week in which Quinn begins imagining his future as a screenplay that might actually have a happily-ever-after ending—if, that is, he can finally step back into the starring role of his own life story.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateMar 29, 2016
    ISBN9781442395015
    Author

    Tim Federle

    Tim Federle is the showrunner and executive producer of High School Musical: the Musical: the Series, which he created for Disney+. His novels include the New York Times Notable Book Better Nate Than Ever and its Lambda Literature Award–winning sequel—which Lin-Manuel Miranda called “a wonderful evocation of what it’s like to be a theater kid” (New York Times). A film adaptation of Nate, written and directed by Federle, will premiere on Disney+ in spring 2022. The film stars Aria Brooks, Joshua Bassett, Lisa Kudrow, and Rueby Wood as Nate. Tim’s hit series of cocktail recipe books, including Tequila Mockingbird, have sold over half a million copies worldwide. He cowrote the Broadway musical adaptation of Tuck Everlastingand won the Humanitas Prize for cowriting the Golden Globe and Academy Award–nominated Best Animated Feature Ferdinand, starring John Cena and Kate McKinnon. A former Broadway dancer, Tim was born in San Francisco, grew up in Pittsburgh, and now divides his time between Los Angeles and the internet.

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    Reviews for The Great American Whatever

    3.5/5

    84 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      teen fiction (LGBTQ dealing with death/loss of a sister). I enjoy Federle's writing tremendously. Lots of funny witty parts. The ending felt a bit.. abrupt? But it was OK.
    • 3/5
      A coming of age story with a main character I either wanted to hug or strangle. Quinn was a very believable teenager, with a few more problems than most teens have, including a father who walked out on his mom and a sister who was killed in an auto accident.
    • 4/5
      Quinn and his sister were close. Growing up, he wrote screenplays; she directed the movies. Since her death in an auto accident 6 months ago, he has barely left his room. When his best friend comes to get him just before his 17th birthday, he begins to discover who he wants to be and that his sister wasn't who he thought she was.
    • 4/5
      One of the latest YA novels to tell the tempestuous and angsty but ultimately affirming tale of adolescent coming out, Tim Federle’s *The Great American Whatever* problematizes the romantic notion of 21st-century queer affirmation by complicating the protagonist’s sexual identity development with grief over the death of his older sister and managing his own control issues.Quinn Roberts—sometimes called “Win” (a clear signifier of his eventual triumph) by his late sister and his new paramour—aspires to be a successful Hollywood screenwriter. After his childhood crush and former babysitter shared with him the formula for successfully crafting an epic heroic adventure (which nearly replicates Joseph Campbell’s monomyth paradigm), Quinn collaborated with his sister Annabeth on a number of quirky independent films. He also casts himself as the hero of his own life and imagines life itself as a screenplay that he has the power to control. The people with whom he interacts are “scene partners.” He doesn’t engage in conversation; he speaks scripted dialogue. He even renders parts of his first-person narrative as movie scenes complete with dialogue, set descriptions, and stage directions. As he struggles to cope with his sister’s untimely death (for which he at least partially blames himself), he also tries to help his mother come to terms with the loss (his father abandoned them long ago) as he discovers the limits of just how well he knows his best friend. And he’s falling in love for the first time.Federle depicts these events with all of the sweet innocence and snide frustration that so deftly characterize adolescence. Although the novel tackles some heavy issues—coming out, the death of a loved one, first love, virginity (and the loss thereof)—it never feels particularly heavy. The novel’s sole weakness might be the blithe spirit with which it regards profound developmental aspects of maturity and sexuality, but its many attributes more than compensate for that.
    • 3/5
      Loved listening to Tim Federle read the audio!
    • 4/5
      In the six months since his sister died, Quinn has barely left his house. He has stopped working on his screenplay, and he has intentionally lost his cell phone. When his best friend drags him out to shop, get a haircut, and go to a party, it's the start of a crazy week, full of plot twists and revelations and even a little romance.Federle has a keen ear for dialogue and a deft hand at character development. I didn't always like Quinn, but I always found myself rooting for him. I'd recommend this to readers who liked Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of Quinn, a teenager coming to terms with the death of his sister, being gay and dealing with others’ secrets exposed. It is a well written book with some wonderful insights about love and loss.
    • 3/5
      I love me some Tim Federle and I love that he is exactly what he is. However, I don't know that YA is the right place for him. Either way toned down for MG or out and loud for adults. Sadly, this one felt like a poor man's I'll Give You the Sun.