Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Slam: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Slam: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Slam: A Novel
    Audiobook7 hours

    Slam: A Novel

    Written by Nick Hornby

    Narrated by Nicholas Hoult

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The #1 New York Times bestseller from the beloved, award-winning author of Funny Girl, High Fidelity, and About A Boy.

    For 16-year-old Sam, life is about to get extremely complicated. He and his girlfriend-make that ex-girlfriend- Alicia have gotten themselves into a bit of trouble. Sam is suddenly forced to grow up and struggle with the familiar fears and inclinations that haunt us all.

    Nick Hornby's poignant and witty novel shows a rare and impressive understanding of human relationships and what it really means to be a man.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 16, 2007
    ISBN9781429586351
    Unavailable
    Slam: A Novel
    Author

    Nick Hornby

    Nick Hornby (Maidenhead, 1957), licenciado por la Universidad de Cambridge, ha ejercido de profesor, periodista y guionista. En Anagrama se recuperaron sus tres extraordinarios primeros libros, Fiebre en las gradas: «Memorable» (José Martí Gómez, La Vanguardia); Alta fidelidad: «Con una importancia equiparable a lo que representaron para la juventud de su tiempo El guardián entre el centeno, de J. D. Salinger, o En el camino, de Jack Kerouac» (Enrique Blanc, Reforma); y Un gran chico: «Una lectura sumamente recomendable; un tipo que escribe de maravilla» (Jorge Casanova, La Voz de Galicia). Luego se ha ido publicando su obra posterior: Cómo ser buenos: «Un clásico de la literatura cómica. El humor y la mordacidad con los que Hornby se enfrenta a la historia no están reñidos con la penetración psicológica y la profundidad» (Ignacio Martínez de Pisón); 31 canciones: «Muy inteligente y ligero en el mejor sentido. Encantador también, ya lo creo» (Francisco Casavella); En picado: «Brillante novela coral de un autor de libros tan brillantes como modernos» (Mercedes Monmany, ABC); Todo por una chica: «Nick Hornby es capaz de levantar una de sus fábulas urbanas contemporáneas y de adornarla con la principal virtud de su literatura: el encanto» (Pablo Martínez Zarracina, El Norte de Castilla); Juliet, desnuda: «Dulce y amarga a la vez, muestra al mejor Hornby» (Amelia Castilla, El País); Funny Girl: «Fina, mordaz e inteligente... Una auténtica delicia» (Fran G. Matute, El Mundo), y Alguien como tú: «Encuentra su fuerza narrativa en la capacidad comunicativa de Hornby, en la calidez y la verdad con que retrata situaciones que todos hemos vivido o podríamos vivir» (Sergi Sánchez, El Periódico).

    Related to Slam

    Related audiobooks

    Children's Social Themes For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Moving Parts

      Jan 30, 2021

      When it comes to getting published, there are many spinning cogs. Here are some of the resources you’ll need to take your work from inside your brain to in front of the eyes of readers. The following listings are a sampling of what the industry has t

      10 min read

    • Article

      Postscript

      Jan 28, 2023

      Postscript
      10 min read

    • Article

      Moving Parts

      Feb 1, 2020

      When it comes to getting published, there are many spinning cogs. Here are some of the resources you’ll need to take your work from inside your brain to in front of the eyes of readers. The following listings are a sampling of what the industry has t

      11 min read

    • Article

      Subscribers’ News

      May 5, 2022

      SHARE YOUR NEWS To feature in subscribers’ news contact: tjackson@warnersgroup.co.uk ‘Before I transitioned into being a freelance journalist, I used to be a fanfiction writer,’ writes subscriber Wing Si Li. ‘Whether people like it or not, fanfiction

      6 min read

    • Article

      Love, Identity And Ambition Take Center Stage In 'Roaming'

      Sep 18, 2023

      Roaming, spanning five days as old friends Dani and Zoe reunite on their first break from college, is the first adult graphic novel from Caldecott-winning cousins Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki.

      1 min read

    • Article

      Fiction Opportunities

      Mar 7, 2024

      Set up in 2010, AM Ink Publishing is an American-based publisher inviting submissions of biographies, novels, short story collections and children’s fiction for its mainstream titles, writes Jenny Roche. It also has imprints of Dark Ink, Spooky Ink a

      1 min read

    • Article

      Book Publishers

      Jun 18, 2019

      Information in this section is provided to The Writer by the individual markets and events; for more information, contact those entities directly. F = Fiction N = Nonfiction P = Poetry C = Children’s Y = Young adult O = Other F C Y ABDO PUBLISHING CO

      12 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Apr 30, 2021

      This in response to the April 13, 2021, [Viewpoint], “The Greatest Threat to Our Hobby.” NN, this letter is intended for you. This was the first issue of your publication I received after taking a hiatus due to the negative direction the publication

      1 min read

    • Article

      Film

      Oct 23, 2019

      Film
      2 min read

    • Article

      Bob Odenkirk Has A New Memoir And A Starry Career That Began Here — Look At The Ways Naperville Creeps Into His Writing. What Does He Think Of Where He Is Now?

      Mar 2, 2022

      Bob Odenkirk Has A New Memoir And A Starry Career That Began Here — Look At The Ways Naperville Creeps Into His Writing. What Does He Think Of Where He Is Now?
      10 min read

    • Article

      For Teens

      Aug 7, 2020

      Naomi, a bookish and socially awkward teen, is out of her depth when she meets two boys while on holiday in the Eastern Cape and they both vie to win her heart. But what if it’s the one boy’s sister that she really fancies? A story about young love a

      1 min read

    • Article

      Postscript

      Jan 29, 2022

      Postscript
      9 min read

    • Article

      Miranda Lambert

      Aug 30, 2022

      Miranda Lambert
      7 min read

    • Article

      Over the Rainbow

      Feb 1, 2018

      Over the Rainbow
      4 min read

    • Article

      Jon Richardson

      Apr 17, 2023

      Jon Richardson
      6 min read

    • Article

      'Hits And Misses' Doesn't Miss A Beat

      Jul 24, 2018

      Simon Rich's new collection welcomes readers to his sweet but twisted world, with laugh-out-loud stories about everything from a competitively ascetic monk to a baby writer born in tweed and glasses.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Romeo Coates

      Nov 26, 2020

      Romeo Coates
      4 min read

    • Article

      Fan Club

      Mar 4, 2018

      Seventeen-year-old Simon (played by major babe Nick Robinson) is gay… NBD, right? Well it sorta kinda is for Simon, because he hasn’t told a single person. When an anonymous classmate comes out, he begins trading emails with him and admits he is also

      1 min read

    • Article

      Literary Lion

      Jan 10, 2024

      Is there anything you can’t leave home without? Sleep supplements, blindfolds and earplugs, as I sleep badly. And two laptops, one on stage and one for work when I’m waiting to go on stage. What’s your favourite destination? New York, which is where

      3 min read

    Reviews for Slam

    3.5/5

    62 ratings56 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I like Nick Hornby, and I think he is actually a great author to write YA fiction, with his colloquial, informal style. This is a story about teen pregnancy, but it was very well done, and not over dramatic (usually the case with YA) or over written in any way. He created a funny, likable, and most important, believable male narrative who I think kids would have no trouble relating to at all.
      good read.
    • 3/5
      I quite enjoyed this book, but there were parts of it that made it hard for me to push through and read it at my typical pace. The characters were probably all fairly accurate but I found that at times this made them pretty hard to like or feel interested in. An interesting plot, I just didn't really enjoy the way it was executed.
    • 3/5
      This is second Nick Hornby book I have read. It is what they tout as 'young adult' fiction. It is a decent book but not as good as High Fidelity. But yes, I have to say due to his conversational language, I consider Nick Hornby a fast read.
    • 2/5
      A wholly unremarkable (but also inoffensive) book about a teenage boy who ends up a premature father. Gratuitous time travel lowered my enjoyment enormously--it was poorly done and annoying and took up far too much of the book. The mothers were the most interesting characters--their interactions with the kids were the best, most touching moments of the book. Perhaps Hornby should've written an adult book about them rather than a YA book about their kids.
    • 3/5
      This is Nick Hornby's first YA novel, and the result is something a little less edgy than his earlier books (About A Boy, High Fidelity, etc).

      Slam's protagonist is a 16 year-old skateboarder who gets a teenage girl pregnant, and as he struggles to deal with the fallout, he's mysteriously transported forward in his life and forced to live out the day in unfamiliar circumstances.

      It's an interesting SF/fantasy twist to an otherwise straightforward YA novel. While it's a pleasurable read -- Hornby's a brilliant writer after all -- but the characters in Slam feel a little flat and uninteresting. My sense is that Hornby writes the protagonist a little too realistically (he says "I dunno" a lot), and as a result, he's not all that interesting or endearing.

      It's as if Hornby attempted to write to a less sophisticated YA crowd, and in the process sheared away many of the bits that made his prior novels so wildly interesting.

      I enjoyed Slam, but likely won't re-read it (I read High Fidelity and About A Boy several times). If you're new to Hornby's writing, consider High Fidelity or About A Boy instead.
    • 4/5
      Nick Hornby just has a way of letting his characters hit bottom without bottoming out. He's like the feel-good writer for my generation. A character is down-and-out, then breaks down his problem into bite-sized nuggets ands gets back up again.

      How many metaphors did I mix in there? Get out the kitchenaid!

      Anyhow, I thought it was a darling little book. A fifteen year old boy gets his girlfriend pregnant, and Hornby makes the story funny and poignant, but never preachy.
    • 3/5
      I thought this book was OK, but slightly off. I could deal with the fact that he talked to Tony Hawk, because I can kind of see that happening to a teenager. And the plot isn't difficult to follow or anything. But the part where he jumps into the future and jumps back? That threw me off. Especially when things turned out the same way. I would have preferred if he jumped into the future once, but it wasn't actually like that. Like the jump was just a dream or something.

      I don't know. I love Nick Hornby's writing style so I didn't mind this book. The majority of it was good, but that last bit just really bothered me.
    • 3/5
      Nick Hornby's foray into the world of young adult literature was not, in my opinion, a success. Perhaps from another writer, it would be a good read about an interesting topic from a unique perspective. However, from someone who is usually so funny and interesting, it felt forced. The voice was unable to work from the same wry, self-deprecating sort of vocabulary his other novels do due to the narrator and the audience and it just couldn't maintain my interest. It was disappointing not to love this book from a normally fantastic author.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book but I thought it could have been more in depth. For instance the subject of abortion wasn't really discussed which made it stupid when Alicia said 'do you think just your life has been ruined' after she said without much thought 'I'm keeping my baby'. I thought it was a bad idea Sam's mum being so young, even more so when she was discussing him having sex at 15. She ds not try and say it was bad, she just had a blasé attitude and didn't try to explain anything about contraception. Hornby himself must think the pull out method is viable because Sam said something like 'it isn't like we were one of the stupid people that didn't use protection, we did!'. I hated Alicia. I also thought it was unrealistic two 16 year olds living together in the same roon
    • 3/5
      I did not enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. The basic story and the voice were good, but there was a strange time travel story line that I did not feel fit as well as it could have. It was handled awkwardly and wasn't introduced until a long way into the story so it was rather abrupt and startling. I like science fiction and I like coming-of-age stories, but I don't think they were blended together very well in this book.
    • 5/5
      This was a fasinating book. I really enjoyed reading it, this book managed to keep me on my toes through the whole thing and it educated me alot about how dangerous under age sex can be and how devastating it could be on you and others around you. It also had its fair share of comedy, that was a nice edition to the book because it was such a serious mood for most of the book with a little comedy in it, it lightened up the mood and made it easier to read. so all around it is a good book and i have to say two thumbs up for Nick Hornby bravo.
    • 3/5
      Usually Hornby writes about men who are really boys. In a nice reversal, he writes about a 16 year old boy, soon to become a father, who is learning to be a man. Billed as a YA novel, it's got an appeal for adult readers, too, perhaps even more than the target YA audience. I particularly liked the interaction between Sam and his hero, the skater Tony Hawk. Good perspectives/portrayal on teen pregnancy.
    • 3/5
      I think the main character in this book is completely well written and totally endearing. The situation is unfortunate but I thought Hornby has great insight into the mind of a teenager. I also enjoyed the time-travel storyline. For me it was a pleasant surprise in an otherwise predictable circumstance.
    • 3/5
      I thouught this book was okay, but I didn't like it very much because of the way it was written. I thought it was confusing when it flashed back and forth between the past and the present, and also how he "talked" to Tony Hawk throughout the entire book. However, it did give a realistic teenager's persepective on teenage pregnancy.
    • 4/5
      “Slam”, Nick Hornby’s foray into the world of young adult fiction, is written in a style that will be familiar to readers of his previous works. The novel is written in the authentic first-person voice of 18-year old Sam, telling the story of his 16-year old self. Sam is an avid skateboarder and idolizes professional skateboarder Tony Hawk (or, as he calls him, “TH”). Sam has a life-sized poster of TH on his wall which he talks to about skateboarding, his problems, and life in general. Tony Hawk answers only in the words of his autobiography, which Sam has memorized.The story really begins when Sam meets Alicia. On their first date they have sex instead of seeing a movie as they had planned, and the relationship continues to intensify from there. Eventually Sam tires of Alicia and they go their separate ways, until one day Alicia wants Sam to meet her at Starbucks where she tells Sam that she’s pregnant. The rest of the novel chronicles Sam’s struggles to come to terms with his impending fatherhood. “Slam” offers a lesson in the responsibilities of safe sex in an approachable and humorous way. Appropriate for 8th grade through high school.
    • 2/5
      Picked up at the airport book store. Not a book that I'd normally read, but I finished it nevertheless. It's written from the perspective of a 16 year old boy who gets his girlfriend pregnant. His mom also had him at 16, so she is only 32 when she becomes a grandmother. This book is full of pop culture; for example the main character talks to his Tony Hawk poster on a regular basis, and Tony talks back to him. It's interesting for the pop culture aspect, but aside from that it didn't stand out as quite memorable.
    • 4/5
      After reading several previous Nick Hornby books and really enjoying them, I was slightly disappointed that this book wasn't quite as good. It's still pretty good though. It's told through the eyes of a teenage boy and is very engaging. There are a couple of times where he dreams of the future and it comes true, which make the plot more interesting as you wait and see how things fall into place.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed Slam, but I'm not quite sure who the target audience is.Teenage girls trying to understand a guys point of view? Teenage boys? Adults?I've enjoyed the other books I've read by Nick Hornby. This had a very similar feel to those, which is probably part of why I liked it. Sam was a great character, and the reason the book worked. He sounded like a teenage boy-- a good kid, not terribly motivated, but pulling his life together none-the-less. He and his girlfriend Alicia get in over their heads with a sexual relationship. The progression (or lack thereof) within their relationship was very real.Sam's reaction to learning of the possibility of Alicia's pregnancy was classic. He ran, and kept running-- but he came back. He carried on through the book, always consistent with his character.The other characters were more mixed. Alicia didn't have the same realism-- I frequently didn't quite understand her behavior. We were seeing it through Sam's eyes, and he didn't understand her either. Seeing through Sam's eyes kept us from seeing depth in the other characters. I appreciate this about the book, while wishing they had been fleshed out better.In the end I think this weakened the book a little for me.
    • 3/5
      The first is Slam, which tells the story of a teenage skater boy who gets his girlfriend pregnant and has to come to terms with the consequences. He dreams about the future when his child is a toddler. Told from his point-of-view, the plot meanders as the teen flits between selfish and confused thoughts, like any teenage boy. The book didn't scratch the surface of emotions for me. This could be because I'm not a boy, or a teen or experiencing anything close to their situation. But I have connected with books that deal with similar plots, so I don't think that's it. It seemed like the boy, Sam, never really gets beyond the first feeling of shock in this situation. He seems very disconnected from the situation, like he's watching it all happen on TV.
    • 2/5
      A book for teenagers or just a book from a teenage pov? Either way this is a very readable, gently funny novel. It's about Sam a 16-year-old skater who meets a girl who changes his life. If the book has a weakness it's that it doesn't quite earn its ending and uses a slightly dubious device to get it. However it's a good read.
    • 4/5
      Definitely not your average coming-of-age novel, but a rewarding read nonetheless. Hornby does a great job of fleshing out characters, pointing out their flaws without laying blame and their good points without overly favoring any one figure. What could be a formulaic teen pregnancy novel is engaging and even surprising at points. I'm glad I chose to read this.
    • 5/5
      Despite its dry humor, Nick Hornby's Slam presents a dead-on picture of how easily teenagers can slide into the problems of adulthood without understanding quite how they got there. Sam's single mother talks him into going to a party with her so he can meet Alicia, the daughter of an acquaintance. Sam and Alicia seem to click and one thing leads to another. What makes this narrative so interesting and funny is that it's all told from Sam's point of view. Sam is a skateboarder living with divorced mother whose hero, Tony Hawk (aka T. H.), becomes something of a father-figure in his life. Sam has read T. H.'s autobiography so many times he imagines Tony is conversing with him when Sam talks to the poster of Tony hanging in his bedroom. So Tony is the one Sam consults when he learns his girlfriend is pregnant. No one else in Sam's life seems to understand his problems like Tony. So Sam keeps up a constant dialogue with the reader and with Tony. Sam's observations and assessments of the people and events as they occur produce an understanding of just how confusing human interaction can become. How he works through the conflicts and issues of teenage fatherhood will keep you reading to the last word.I found the story funny, sad, heartwarming and, most of all, true. This review is based on the audible.com free version.
    • 4/5
      A perfect airport/transport book. For those who went off Hornby a bit with his last two novels, this one in tone and narrator is closer to About A Boy and High Fidelity. Soon to be a major movie near you. To bad the kid from About A Boy is probably too old by now to play this part.Likable teenage boy, single mom, lower-class family gets a girl pregnant in convincing circumstances--and she decides to keep the kid with no apparently no hand wringing and futzing. Again, convincing reasoning, tho I wondered why the option of open adoption never came up. Maybe they don't have it in England?Not sure the device of periodically shooting the kid into the future works too well, though I'm already figuring out how it would work in the movie. (Only go to *one* future place and maybe work back how we got here). Also, Hornby doesn't have his heart in skateboarding the way he did with pop music and soccer. I think he was trying really hard not to rely on music or (traditional) sports as the thing for the kid to be fanatical about but, jeez, regardless,any story about kids this age ... should have little more music in it.Hornby is no deep thinker, which is fine. What I like best about him is how lightly he drops in the little truths that we knew so well in adolescence yet rarely seem to surface in grown-up lit and media and public ranting arenas. Like: sometimes it's the girl that's pushing the boy for sex. And: Some idiot girls want a baby in high school. The reason a boy (or het man) won't see Brokeback Mountain--or risk being seen at a movie theater showing said movie--is because in the opinion of his peers, there's only one reason he would want to see such a thing. Kids often realize that one parent is a total loser they don't want to emulate even if said parent is kind of fun. It can be embarrassing to have a mother that's too young and pretty. Older and fatter would be better.A perfect airport/transport book. For those who went off Hornby a bit with his last two novels, this one in tone and narrator is closer to those of About A Boy and High Fidelity. Soon to be a major movie near you. Too back the kid from About A Boy is probably a too old by now.Likable teenage boy, single mom, lower class family gets a girl pregnant in convincing circumstances--and she decides to keep the kid with no apparently no handwringing and futzing. Again, convincing reasoning, tho I wondered why the option of open adoption never came up. (Maybe they don't have it in England?)Not sure the device of periodically shooting the kid into the future works too well, though I'm already figuring out how it would work in the movie. (Only go to *one* future place and maybe work back how we got here). Also didn't sense that Hornby had his heart in skateboarding. I think he was trying really hard not to rely on music or (traditional) sports as the thing for the kid to be fanatical about but, jeez, kids this age ... there should be more music in it.Hornby is no deep thinker, which is fine. What I like best about him is how lightly he drops in little truths that we know from adolescence but somehow get nearly erased in grown-up lit and media and public ranting arenas. Like: sometimes it's the girl that's pushing the boy for sex. Some idiot girls want a baby in high school. The reason boys (and men) don't want to see Brokeback Mountain--or risk being seen a movie theater showing said movie--is because to his peers there's only one reason he could be seeing such a thing. Kids often realize that one parent is a total loser they don't want to emulate even if he's kind of fun. It can be embarrassing to have a mother that's too young and pretty..know from adolescence but somehow get nearly erased in grown-up lit and media and public ranting arenas. Like: sometimes it's the girl that's pushing the boy for sex. Some idiot girls want a baby in high school. The reason boys (and men) don't want to see Brokeback Mountain--or risk being seen a movie theater showing said movie--is because to his peers there's only one reason he could be seeing such a thing. Kids often realize that one parent is a total loser they don't want to emulate even if he's kind of fun. It can be embarrassing to have a mother that's too young and pretty..
    • 2/5
      As always, Hornby gets the internal voice of the lead character perfectly. And the complexity of modern "blended" families is also handled well. However, the flash-forwards and flash-backs were a distraction.For anyone else it would be a very satisfying read, but Hornby's other books are so much better that this one only rates two stars.
    • 5/5
      SLAM, by Nick Hornby, is a witty – and often times comical – look into an average fifteen-year old boy’s life. Sam lives in England with his single mother, is an average student in school, and his primary passion in life is skating (that’s skateboarding to us commoners). Oh, and he has conversations with his Tony Hawk poster whenever he needs advice. …So maybe Sam isn’t so average after all.Then, he meets Alicia, a gorgeous girl who is actually willing to be his girlfriend. Things are looking up for Sam until Alicia delivers the life-altering news that she may be pregnant.I give SLAM 4.5 stars out of 5 because Sam’s narration is so charming in its honest delivery of the events of his life. He speaks to readers as if they were his best friends, sharing both his triumphs and his failures – but never failing to add a touch of humor to every situation. This novel was easy to read because the language is simple and the plot consistently moved at a good pace. Although this novel would definitely appeal to teenage boys because the protagonist is one himself, I would recommend this novel to mature teenagers and adults looking for a read that is both hilarious and somewhat heartbreaking at the same time.
    • 4/5
      You would think the fantasy stuff here would be strange and out of place, but it actually works really well. It seems like a teen in this position might really want a glimpse of the future. British slang is heavy and could be a bit confusing. Narrator is excellent. Great boy's point of view on teen pregnancy.
    • 5/5
      Things are finally going right for 15-year-old Sam; it looks likely he’ll go to college, his Mum has dumped her crap boyfriend, and he now has a gorgeous girlfriend, Alicia. Everything is great – until one tiny slip up changes everything Sam knows. Alicia falls pregnant, and this kid has to face adult responsibilities, but is he up to it?This book is so good! A lot better than I thought it would be. It’s a story you would think is not worth reading; it seems teenagers get pregnant a lot, and there’s only three endings, so why bother reading? Because this book gets right into Sam’s head, and having the male perspective is such an eye opener.Sam is a skater, and a huge Tony Hawk fan. His being a skater is where the title comes from; in skating, when you slam – as I understand it – it’s when you fall off your board badly, so the title is metaphorical for him slamming in life. He has read Tony Hawk’s autobiography Hawk - Occupation: Skateboader so many times, he’s pretty much memorised it. So when he needs to turn to somebody to talk to, he turns to his Tony Hawk poster, who talks back to him; meaning, Sam will say something, and his memory will come up with something related Hawk wrote in his book. And it helps. But Hawk does some funny things too. Like somehow managing to take Sam into the future. Without telling Sam.The story of Slam is told by Sam at 18, and it’s very conversational, so when Sam first talks about being “whizzed” to the future, he says:"Most of the story I’m telling you happened to me for sure, but there are a couple of little parts, weird parts, I’m not absolutely positive about. I’mpretty sure I didn’t dream them up, but I couldn’t swear that on Tony Hawk’sbook, which is my bible. So we’re about to come up to one of these parts now,and all I can do is tell it straight. You’ll have to make your own minds up."P 86The book is full of Hawk info, and these funny little future visits, which make the book different. I learnt a lot about skating through reading this book, but it’s not the main focus of the book, so it’s not like you’ll be bored if you’re not a skating fan.What I loved about this book was how much I felt for Sam. To be honest, before I read this book, I would have thought if a girl was pregnant, and the dad wanted to scarper, he was... well, a loser, to put things nicely. But reading this book, I kept wanting to put it down so I didn’t have to read it; so I could escape what Sam couldn’t. I really understood where Sam was coming from, and it really makes you think that the guy’s life changes too when a girl gets pregnant, not just the girl’s. I felt it was so unfair when Sam didn’t get any say in the decision about whether Alicia had the baby or not, or most things. He was just expected to do things; you’re the Dad, you must do this, and have no choice, while Alicia makes all the decisions. This book makes you completely understand what the guys can go through, and it is so unfair – which is a complete shock to the system for me, as I’ve always felt guys who leave the girls to deal with it on their own are not very nice people at all. I won’t tell you whether they keep the baby or not, I don’t want to spoil it, but this was such a good book!There weren’t really any sex scenes in this book, but that’s fine as it wouldn’t be believable for Sam to tell you exactly what happened. It just wouldn’t happen, Sam’s not like that. What is cute though is that he has problems talking about certain things. Like, he never uses the word “ejaculation”, you can feel his embarrassment. It’s annoying and a bit confusing, but endearing at the same time. Like when he tells us about the time he’s pretty sure was when Alicia fell pregnant."We’d been messing about without putting anything on, because she said she wanted to feel me properly, and. . . Oh, I can’t talk about this stuff. I’m blushing. But something happened. Half-happened. I mean, it definitely didn’t happen properly, because I was still able to pull out and put on a condom and pretend as though everything was normal. But I knew that it wasn’t quite normal, because when the thing that’s supposed to happen finally happened, it didn’t feel right because it had already half-happened before. And that’s the last time I’m ever going, you know, down there."P 58This book is just so awesome! It’s kind of sad and frustrating being an outsider and unable to give him a hug or some advice or something, and having to just watch everything he knows go out of his control, but the ending is pretty good. I liked how it ended, it felt like a good way to do it, and although not perfect, it was right. A great book, all in all. You really should give it a go.
    • 3/5
      Slam is the story of a 15 year old boy (Sam) who is about to become a father. Sam himself is only 16 years younger than his mother. Nick Hornby has done his usual great job in creating characters who are real, with the relationships among them ringing true. I liked this book's insight into teen pregnancy from the boy's point of view. And, while Sam's perspective was the main one, Mr. Hornby showed us how Sam's mother worried about history repeating itself, how Sam's girlfriend Alicia struggled to make sense of her relationship with Sam after the baby was born, and how Alicia's parents were supportive, but disappointed in their daughter.What I didn't like was the plot device of sending Sam into the future periodically during the story. In a book where the characters were so believable, and where the portrayal of real life was a strength, this sci-fi aspect was out of place.
    • 4/5
      Nick Hornby brings his take to the teen fatherhood story. Being Nick Hornby, we can assume that pop culture will play some unique play in the tale and we also know that our main character will be able to lay bare their mistakes and lessons learned with a certain mix of humor and realism.For Sam Jones, that pop culture icon is Tony Hawk, the professional skater. We learn that anything written in Tony Hawk's autobiography can be spoken through Sam's poster on the wall. So when Sam has a problem, he simply speaks to his Tony Hawk poster and Tony will lay out gems like, I was an idiot and wanted more freedom. For Sam's mother, it's listing off nearly every celebrity that is older than her, since she was sixteen herself when Sam was born. But it's more than the pop culture...Hornby manages a look at teen pregnancy from a multitude of angles in Sam and Alicia's story. There's Sam and Alicia's story. There's Sam's story as it relates to being the product of a teen pregnancy and seeing how it's impacted both of his parents over the last sixteen years. There's Alicia's parents and how it impacts them when they view themselves as having done everything right by their child. There's the pervasive presence of the internet and the advice it offers. Even the schools and birthing classes get a turn. Still, at the core, this is Sam's story. The story of a boy who is very ill-prepared to deal with consequence and how he stumbles through the only way he really knows how.
    • 4/5
      Sam is nearly 16 and everything in life is going really well for him. His mom has dumped the boyfriend Sam didn't like; he's learned new, more difficult skating tricks (that's skateboarding, not ice skating--he's a huge Tony Hawk afficiando, even talking to his Hawk poster and having it talk back to him and show him his future); his teachers think he might have college potential; and he's started dating Alicia, a girl he'd thought was way out of his league. As Sam himself says in the novel, when everything's ticking along this well, it's time to go and screw it up. And this generally normal, average kid does that in spectacular, life-changing fashion. He gets his girlfriend pregnant, echoing his mother's worst nightmare for him (she had him while still a teenager as well). This is the story of Sam, how he screwed up, came to grips with his screw-up, and makes a new, unexpected and imperfect but liveable life for himself.I'm sure there are a load of novels dealing with teenaged pregnancy but Hornby has managed to add a fantastic new one to the mix. With Sam narrating, rather than girlfriend Alicia, the reader gets a much different perspective than usual. How a soon-to-be teenaged father reacts is different than a soon-to-be teenaged mother. We are taken along in Sam's world as he battles the desire to flee without finding out if Alicia is indeed pregnant (well, he does flee but he comes back), as he tries to finish enough schooling to become something, and as he struggles through life with a new baby and a girlfriend he's not sure he wants to be with any longer. As in his novels for adults, Hornby is quite adept in drawing an adolescent boy and all the confronts him in life. Sam is realistic and sympathetic. The other characters make fewer appearances on the page than Sam does and in fact the other characters are fairly few in number. But the focus on Sam works and while this isn't the usual cautionary teen pregnancy tale, there is certainly no glorification, rather a humorous but still difficult realism. I generally tend to like Hornby's non-fiction better than his fiction but I can recommend this one as a well-written and satisfying read for young adult or even adult.