SMOOTH

Kevin’s terrible acne has survived every cream and facial scrub; next up is Accutane, a medication with a zillion side effects.

At the mandatory monthly blood tests, 15-year-old Kevin befriends Alex, a cute girl from a different school. Kevin becomes obsessed, looking forward to their monthly waiting-room chats and detaching himself from his two best friends, who have joined both the football team and a different social circle. With the first-person narration, readers are, for better or worse, trapped within the lonely teen’s mind as it circles round and round the carousel of depression. Kevin runs scenarios in his head, trying to figure out the best way to impress Alex and turn himself into the kind of person he thinks she will like (or even love). This portrait of teen angst is well drawn but a bit overlong. Kevin wallows in his “woe is me” depths, and while that may be the point (being a teen is uncomfortable; being a teen with severe acne and depressive episodes is hell), readers may have trouble staying on Kevin’s side. Kevin’s friends and family have just enough shading to hint at inner lives but not so much so that Kevin registers them as people instead of obstacles to his own happiness. It’s a tricky balancing act, and the author pulls it off. All main characters are white.

A rewarding depiction of a teen fighting isolation and depression.