Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me a free copy of this advanced copy of the book to read and review.

This was really cute and fun and different. I think some of my students would really get a kick out of reading this, especially with the POV from a sarcastic "normal" teenage boy. I will be looking out for this book when I'm out shopping so that I can add it to my classroom library.

An entertaining look at what it means to be the new kid at a fancy private school for gifted & talented kids when you think you have no talents of your own. Sam is the middle kid, sandwiched between his musicially inclined older brother and artistic younger sister. While his siblings thrive at their new school, Sam is friendless and alone until he stumbles into trying out for the school play. I really enjoyed Sam's narration and watching his floundering efforts to survive this new environment. I would definitely give to fans of Don Calame and Jeff Stroud. The one thing that bothered me was the Americanization of the language. English kids call their mother Mum, not Mom, and there were countless other vocabulary and pop culture substitutions that took me out of the story. When one reads a story written by a British author and set in London, one expects British English and British references.

Sam is a regular kid having a regular high school experience. He likes his life and is upset to find it upended after his family's sudden catapult into wealth after his father's business adventure takes off. His mother, ready to leave her mind-numbing job and lead her family in living their 'best lives,' moves them to London and enrolls the kids in a private school for the gifted and talented. Sam's siblings, Ethan and Freya, seem to integrate into the school with no problem. Ethan seems to enjoy the music program, although he felt the need to change his identity in order to fit in, and Freya is finding space in the art programs. Sam, who isn't talented at anything and feels himself quickly becoming invisible, decides that is even worse than being picked on and bullied. Enamored with a beautiful drama girl, and trying to give an effort to fit in after a blow up with his mother, Sam decides to join the drama team and try out for the school play and lands a leading role. Meanwhile, his mother continues to try one creative fad after another in order to find her creative outlet.

My favorite part of this book was that Sam was fine being ordinary. He was fine going to public school. He was fine in their smallish ordinary home before the move. I was more than a little irritated with Sam's mother who kept pressuring him to be more talented and gifted. I felt like some of this story was about realizing that not all kids are "gifted and talented," and some just want to be kids and enjoy ordinary things. I felt like part of what was being said was money can push people into a life style that doesn't necessarily fit them, and they find themselves even more unhappy than when they were average, poor, working folks. Gifted and talented is great, and it takes efforts of those people to enhance culture, but it also takes the ordinary people to appreciate that culture even if they are just observing.

I found this one to be a bit obvious, the scenario over the top. I liked the messaging about public image and the dangers of centering your entire life on matching a particular ideal and forcing yourself into a box to please someone else. And I did appreciate that our protagonist is pushing for "normal". We have this idea that if a person isn't exceptional they aren't trying hard enough, or that a thing you can't excel in isn't worth doing. Sutcliffe is showing us the value of doing a thing just because you enjoy it. The reading skews a little young and the characters aren't especially complex.

I really, really struggled with this book. Some of it is super funny. I laughed out loud more than once. There are a lot of references to penises, and I get that it’s a thing that does occupy the mind. It was just a lot, sort of the same joke over and over.

If you’ve read many other reviews of this book, you’ve probably come across some discussion of the queerbaiting content, so I want to talk about that first. Basically, what happens is this: Sam’s brother, Ethan, joins a queer band (every band has to have a “thing,” he tells Sam), so he tells everyone he’s bisexual in order to be in the band. It becomes increasingly clear that Ethan is not bisexual, but he continues to use the label so he can continue with the band. Which is pretty clearly queerbaiting, and totally wrong.

In the story, Sam continually tells Ethan that what he’s doing is wrong and is going to catch up with him. Ethan does eventually face some consequences for his actions, though we don’t get a firsthand response from any queer characters. He does eventually have to own up to his identity and is pretty miserable about how things end up. It’s not great, and I would still say that there isn’t really a moment when he gets called out on the behavior by queer characters or anyone putting into perspective how harmful the behavior can be. But it is strongly condemned in the story as wrong and deceitful.

During Sam’s callback for the school play audition, he relates the performances of other students in a pretty derogatory way. I felt gross reading that section because he was both unkind in the way he described the other actors competing for the part he wanted, but he was also kind of superior and snobby, and none of that was ever called out as wrong.

For the most part, I really liked the dynamics of Sam’s family, especially in the scenes where they’re kind of all having snappy conversations that kind of run over each other. That felt really true to the experience of a big family with lots of funny people in it. I wish that his mom hadn’t been quite so over-the-top and such a largely negative portrayal of feminism.

On the whole, there were lots of funny things in this book, but readers may find the constant penis joke/awareness to be too much and may be troubled by the presence of queerbaiting, even though it’s condemned.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Fifteen-year-old Sam is not a famous vlogger, he's never gone viral, and he doesn't want to be the Next Big Thing. In fact, he's ordinary and proud of it. None of which was a problem until Dad got rich and Mom made the whole family move to London. Now Sam's off to the North London Academy for the Gifted and Talented, where everyone's busy planning Hollywood domination or starting alt-metal psychedelica crossover bands. Sam knows he'll never belong, even if he wanted to -- but can he find himself on his own terms?

Moved from suburbia to London Sam is charged with finding his way in a most peculiar environment. Both his mother and older brother are finding their own paths at the same time. predictable, but they serve to highlight Sam’s own journey.

Sam is awkward, and he’s hardly ever able to say the right thing at the right time.
While the other two siblings seem to find their places very fast, Sam struggles with the school's progressist methodology and his very weird classmates.

Sam is an honest, authentic kid with a sharp eye and a keen understanding of the world around him. A wonderful coming age story.

Sam's family has just become rich, so they decide to move to London and enroll him and his siblings in a non-traditional school. While the other two seem to find their places very fast, Sam struggles with the school's progressist methodology and his very weird classmates.

2.5 rounded up to 3.

This really wasn't the book for me. Too many small jokes, that I did like in the beginning but tested my patience after ten percent of the read. Too pointless. Yes, I eventually understood it was a coming-of-age story and Sam does progress, but for more than half he kept regressing, testing even further my patience. But I finally noticed my big grudge was the main character, Sam is just unbearable. And even after he develops by the end, I still think he's not worth anyone's time.

Now, the story itself is okay and might have been even a four-star for me with a likable MC, and probably a little less joking around. You're just a normal kid and ends up at this super weird, artsy school, to make things worse your loner of a brother becomes popular, your little sister is having the time of her life... It's super relatable.

The one thing I loved was that, while Sam couldn't bother with anyone else but himself, the writer developed very well his mother's conflict, going from a hobby to the other without any emotional support whatsoever. To be honest, that family was borderline mean to her.

There's also some romance but it's very low-key and Sam is too much of a jerk to deserve her, but romance is romance and I still love it.

I recommend this to people who like their YA less about falling in love and more about living. Plus, while I thought the jokes were too much, I can imagine a lot of people will instead love them and since the author managed to keep up the rhythm the whole book, then you'll have a feast. It's also a quick and fun book, ideal for taking your mind off of stuff in real life.

Sam is your average jeans and hooded sweatshirt wearing fifteen-year-old, you know, totally normal. He likes soccer and hanging with friends, but his life of complacency is uprooted when his father sells his successful company and the family moves to London. Along with his siblings, Sam is enrolled in a gifted and talented school for the arts. And this works for his artist sister and musician brother, but Sam . . . not so much. Used to fitting in, Sam finds himself on the outside, but his sense of humor and resilience get him through. He is laugh out loud funny and his play by plays of his life reminds us that there is no such thing as normal and we've all got something that makes us wonderful and unique.

As Good As It Gets

This teen, school, family, coming of age book doesn't break any new ground, but it does everything just a little bit, (or a lot), better than similar books. And it is very funny, in a smart and stylish fashion.

Our hero narrator, Sam, has a dry and wry take on his situation, and his tale is never angsty or miserable. Well, there is a lot of angst and misery, but it's funny teen-manic angst and misery. Otherwise we wouldn't have a story. You know how you need a fairly brisk breeze in order to keep a kite flying? Well, in books like this I think you need the same sort of brisk pace and overall lightness to keep the tale from bogging down and crashing to ground. Sutcliffe has mastered the style and brings just the right touch.

Sam is an honest, authentic kid with a sharp eye and a keen understanding of the world around him. His deadpan observations are witty and insightful, and he is fueled by decency rather than smarm. Instead of going for a huge cast of quirky characters, the author has opted to include a few school mates, (who are essential to the plot), but mostly the focus is on Sam's family. Through Sam we see an older brother's school and romantic adventures, and we get occasional oddly mature or Delphic commentary from a younger sister. We have a complex and slightly dysfunctional mother and a fairly vague father. All of them get some great lines, and the interactions among the family members can be hilarious. Usually in school daze comedies the hero's family is just background, but here it is more than half the book.

The school bits are more predictable, as is the school romance. The "normal kid trapped among gifted and talented kids" trope is getting a bit worn around the edges, but even here there is a certain freshness to the writing and some new twists and bits have been added to the recipe.

You could quibble about a few lines that re a bit rude or incorrect, but I don't see how you write a teen comedy without getting close to the line occasionally. I don't think you'd even want that. And that's a small price to pay, (if you even think of it as a price), for a book that is witty, breezy, and surprisingly warm. I enjoyed this immensely.

(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

“Perhaps I did belong in a gifted and talented school after all, my personal aptitude being a talent for blending into the background.”
Aaaah yes. The coming-of-age novel. The bildungsroman. There is nothing particularly path-breaking about the plot, but my god the writing.
Honestly, Sam is just so insanely relatable. Even though I’m the kind of person who has had “you’re so talented!” drilled into their head since childhood, I found so much in common with Sam ( exhibit 345: “He was wearing glasses with frames so chunky and hideous they could only be expensive and highly fashionable,”).
Sam is awkward, and he’s hardly ever able to say the right thing at the right time. He’s not exactly a social butterfly, and he feels woefully inadequate compared to his extremely talented classmates (“Sometimes the only way to salvage your dignity is to walk away. Ideally, you’d do this before your dignity has been battered to a soggy, flattened pulp, but timing was never my strong point,”). Still, he’s witty and oh-so-honest. Though he gets frustrated and makes mistakes, he’s actually a great person at heart. (“Given the choice between being constantly irritated by your siblings and not even knowing where they were, irritation, I realized, was preferable.”)
The book makes Sam feel real through his eerily accurate stream of consciousness. Not to say that his thoughts sound like mine, but they sound absolutely real (“The phrase ‘I’ll show them’ seemed to be rattling around somewhere in my brain, though who they were, and what it was I’d be showing them, I had no idea,”). Sam’s childish and hilarious thoughts are balanced out with some slyly profound statements, especially about his family.
Overall, the storyline is sweet and simple, but it’s the snarky and fresh writing that really makes Sam and his predicaments pop off the page.

Quirky offering that brings Caliban to life in two different ways. Moved from suburbia to London Sam is charged with finding his way in a most peculiar environment. Unexpectedly both his mother and older brother are finding their own paths at the same time. Their transformations are more gradual & fairly predictable, but they serve to highlight Sam’s own journey. It’s a light & easy read that might have enough tie ins for a drama-loving kid who is a reluctant reader. #TheGiftedtheTalentedandMe #NetGalley

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Gifted, the Talented, and Me was a fun read, its just targeted at slightly too high of an audience. The humour, narration style, and themes all felt perfect for a mostly middle grade, male audience (honestly the entire time I was reading I was thinking about James Patterson's I Funny. A lot of similar vibes) but the occasional sex joke and swear word mean that its not likely to be marketed towards or bought for that audience which is a shame because I truly think this would flourish there.

WARNING: This review contains spoilers.

“The Gifted, The Talented, and Me” is a young adult book centered around a fifteen-year-old named Sam, who has to attend an artsy school after he and his family unexpectedly move. Sam feels as though he doesn’t quite fit in at this school, and a lot of this story has to do with him figuring out where he belongs.

I thought that this story was pretty good. One thing that I disliked was how Ethan (Sam’s brother) seemingly pretends to be gay even though he’s straight, because he thinks that he would be more likely to get girls’ attention if he was gay. That part didn’t really sit right with me. Aside from that, I enjoyed the book.

When his dad’s invention takes off and the family suddenly finds themselves rich, 15-year old Sam finds himself in a posh home and enrolled in the North London Academy for Gifted and Talented. His mother (clearly channeling a Northern California wealthy bohemian) encourages him to find his special talent. So begins this laugh-out-loud funny coming-of-age story about an “average” kid who is forced to find a creative side that he really doesn’t want at all.

Great characters and hysterical dialog — especially the internal dialog (trialog?) between his optimistic brain, his pessimistic brain and his … dick. Amidst an array of humorously drawn characters, all subject to equal-opportunity parodying, Sam does figure out what is important in relationships with others and with yourself. A fun, fun ride. Plus … very cool ending.

I am a sucker for a book about drama kids, so this was right up my alley! I really enjoyed this book. The dynamics between Sam and his family felt realistic and I loved how the author handled so many different complexities of being a teenager without being preachy and "you'll be okay!" Sam was going through so many changes in his life and his (and Freya and Ethan's) reactions to the changes in their lives seemed age appropriate and natural. The sibling and parent relationships were relatable as well. Though there was some stereotypical "middle kid left out" storylines, that wasn't the entirety of Sam's issues with his family. All in all, I liked this book and would definitely recommend it for teens, especially those interested in the arts!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me access to this eARC!