Wheelboys

This book was different than I expected, but I liked it very much. It wasn’t the success story of a teenager breaking into racing. Instead the reader was taken through the struggles of Chad Gibbons and his transition from high school into the real world. There were a lot of other interesting characters, too. Big Mo Kilgore was the racing patriarch, complete with his eccentricities, family drama, and a little charm. Uma Kilgore was the matriarch, and she seemed to have put up with a lot over the years. It was very entertaining to have the curtain pulled back to expose what goes on with the fast and famous.

On the other side, Elle Dillanger really embodied the trials of a parent over her teenage son, Gary Lee, and trying to get him through to adulthood. The book starts with her rushing to the Emergency Room after Gary Lee was in a horrific car crash. Chad is torn by his best friend's tragedy and struggles to make sense of things, still maintaining his goal of becoming a racecar driver.. Half way through the story, Chad meets a very intriguing girl racer, Jessica. She seems far more mature than him, and she starts to expose Chad’s illusions on life. I still liked the sections about karting the best – action-packed and vivid high-speed racing. This book had many unexpected twists in the story, and with all these elements, it would make a great movie.