I’m not sure what this book brings to the YA category. The idea is fine enough but the writing and characters were underwhelming.

I was not disappointed. The beginning brings a little intrigue and suspense, then we really start to get to know Lance. His friends are sort of tertiary characters that seem far away since we are only really introduced to them throughout most of the book over phone calls and texts, but that adds to the ethereal appeal. I felt like I was floating through a dream reading this, and I'm pretty sure that's exactly the point. The end comes rushing in with the utmost clarity when Bend eventually collides with Lance in this side town. I rooted for Lance all the way through. I think teens will be especially receptive to the realistic pressure of expectations upon them leading up to and after graduation, and I really appreciated how Lance's trumpet playing was just part of the story - music is his life, he sees the world in g-clef's and notes, yet is not portrayed as a band geek.

I apologize to the publisher and author as I got to this title late and was unable to download the book. I loved the premise and wish you the best for this book.

Definitely not to my taste. I can handle the manic pixie dream girl cliche and some of the male fantasy elements, but ultimately I found it boring.

Was not quite as impressed by this one as I'd hoped to be. It's fairly run-of-the mill existential teen crisis without the charm of, say, a John Green existential drama. Will probably purchase due to the male POV, however. That in itself is something we need to find more of.

This should have been a quick read by my mind was constantly wondering and I would need to go back and reread what I had just read. I feel this book should have kept my attention, but it just didn't.

Not my favorite read. It was semi short and a quick read, but I kept finding myself putting it down to read other things or to do other things. It was some what predictable and had way to much drinking in it for my tastes. I did enjoy the rural community setting though. Others might enjoy this one but overall not my cupa tea.

Lance is stranded and this was NOT part of his plan. But what's a guy to do? Wing it? That's not Lance, but that's exactly what he has to do. A lot of stuff happens to Lance, that is NOT on his agenda for the day or lifetime. He's really winging it.

I liked the book and could relate to Lance with the planning of his future step by step. With that being said, that was the only way I could connect with Lance. Otherwise, he was just some goofy teenage kid, learning about himself. He went about it in an unorthodox way, but in the end I think it worked out for him.

WILDMAN by J. C. Geiger tells the story of a life-changing road trip in the Pacific Northwest.

Lance’s life is under control until his car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. A series of weird choices set him on a five day adventure that blends reality with magical realism. From train hopping and late night parties to a quirky romance, Lance’s quiet life will never be the same.

Librarians will find this coming of age story appeals to fans of John Green. The author’s blend of hilarious situations with authentic emotional connections will appeal to fans of contemporary fiction.

Published on Disney-Hyperion, an imprint of Hachette Book Group on June 6, 2017. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

This book is a hard one for me to classify. I found Lance hard to like and care about for about half of the book. He comes off as a privileged jerk for a while and he's really hard to connect with and root for as a protagonist. I'm not sure I was the right audience for this book but there are several aspects that I think would resonate with some young male readers. As a librarian I struggle to find contemporaries that have a male protagonist and deal with coming of age issues. The friend group is strange to me, but again, I think maybe some male readers would connect with this lifestyle. There is an audience for this book and I plan on including this title in my Teen reader's advisory for Teen Realistic Fiction.

This is definitely a great book for someone who is just learning about finding themselves in life and learning to be who they are and to weed through what everyone wants them to me. I had a harder time getting through the book because it was hard for me to relate to a teenage boy. It was an interesting story about life and it was definitely worth reading.

Lance is driving home from a trumpet audition at a Seattle college when his car breaks down. His mom wants to scrap the Buick, but for Lance it holds sentimental value since his dad left it to him when he abandoned their family. So Lance insists on staying until it's fixed - eating at a place called "The Float", sleeping at a place called "Trainsong." Here he meets a cast of memorable characters. For Lance, his time here feels like a dream. But in reality, time is running out. He needs to get back to Oregon. So he can give his valedictorian speech, so he can work at a bank this summer, so he can go to OSU in the fall on scholarship, so he can maybe sleep with his girlfriend Miriam for the first time.

The book unfolds over a few days but during this time everything in Lance's life seems to shift.

The story itself wasn't anything revolutionary but there were some completely beautiful and impressive moments in the writing. "His eyes too wide and too small at the same time, straining to peel back the skin of the place and get down to where the notes were humming. He could sense music, quivering along the edges of skyscrapers, cutting long, clean lines against the sky. Solos hiding on street corners. Symphonies in the sewer."

This book kept my attention and I was very interested in the story and what was going to happen to David and his interactions with the kids in the town. The teenagers of the town were complex, to say the least.

I wanted this to be funnier, a comedy of errors. Or a supernatural thing, the town as some sort of alternate dimension or purgatory. Instead we get this redefining of the self. Its a concept that I don't hate, especially as it involves rejecting societal expectations. Its perhaps a touch neuvo-hippie, the whole drop out do what feels right thing. At times its a bit fumbling. The whole thing would have worked better if the mother and friends back home were more complex characters

This one starts out like an episode of the Twilight Zone. Lance finds himself stuck in a small town with some interesting characters, who on the surface seem pleasant and helpful enough. But there is something not so likable about them as Lance spends more time stuck at the Trainsong Motel.

I admired Lance, he knew where he was going with his life. He had a plan. But you can tell he isn’t totally happy with that plan, especially as the story progressed. At first I couldn’t figure out how his trip to Seattle at the start of the story fit in with his plan. But eventually you see how unhappy he is with his life and that he wants something different, he just doesn’t know how to go about it. Enter Dakota, she too is stuck in this small town in the middle of no where and doesn’t know how to get herself out of her life plan either. They both help each other figure it out, with some interesting adventures along the way.

The town, Baring, WA is full of interesting and somewhat helpful people. They all seem distrustful of Lance at first, but eventually they do end up helping him. The young men that he hangs out with through out most of the book are an eclectic group. On the surface, after an initial altercation between Lance and a couple of them, they seem nice enough. But eventually you come to see them as the unpleasant bullies that they really are. They are really mean to one character in particular, Stone, which on the surface seemed like good natured ribbing, but it really wasn’t. Lance really connects with Stone by the end of the story, and I think it was him more than anyone else that helped Lance on his journey.

Most of the book is a series of small adventures that Lance takes that are totally different than his life had been before. The story of why his car really stopped working, was amusing, and the reasons why he wouldn’t abandon it like his mom wanted him to was heartbreaking. The ending is a little sad, there is a tragedy involving one of the group of friends. But it is also uplifting, when Lance finally realizes that he doesn’t really want the life that everyone expects him to have, but something different. I loved his graduation speech he gives at the end of the book. This was a very satisfying read that I found hard to put down.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc. It's a chance auto breakdown that keeps high school valedictorian Lance from a weekend with friends and without parents. He's been waiting for this time with girlfriend Miriam for a long time. It's days before graduation, Lance has a full scholarship to Oregon State University to study Business, but he still auditioned for a music school in Seattle. If he dumps his car, Lance can return home in time to party with his girlfriend, but the old Buick is all Lance has left from his dad who left a while ago. It's teenage growing up, thrown into a strange rural area of drinkers at the only local bar in town, and from which he gets this new nickname, "Wildman". There was lots of drinking, lots of crazy in the bar and in a wooded area as well as in the odd places the car ended up being repaired. Yes, there was more than one. It ends up the way you might guess, Lance takes that "other" path, keeps the car, rejects his girl for another. He's become someone new, and so far, someone he likes. I suspect more than one teen about to leap away into life from high school will like this.

Wildman is a really quite wonderful read, with more poetic sections than a typical teen romance, and the guy narrator made this read differently, better.

Sometimes when we get lost in life we find ourselves. That is the theme of this story and it is a good one. The novel reads well and starts off with a boy who has lost his way due to life and the fact that his car won't work. After ending up in the middle of nowhere he discovers that his perfect, ordered life isn't necessarily what he wants. The focus on love and friendship and acceptance of who you are were tackled well in this story and I really enjoyed reading about "Wildman" (the better of the two nicknames :-) )

Lance is on his way home from a trumpet audition in Seattle when his ’93 Buick breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Boyed by the knowledge that he is valedictorian of his class, first chair trumpet and scholarship winner, he is confident that he can handle this. However, when his car is whisked away by a self-professed mechanic, Lance finds himself drinking in a roadhouse, where his accomplishments don’t impress the locals. They begin calling him Wildman, and he soon finds himself involved in antics that just might earn him the name.