ARC Review: Thieving Weasels

About The Book:

  Title: Thieving Weasels 

  Author: Billy Taylor 
  Pub. Date: August 23rd, 2016 
  Publisher: Dial Books  
  Pages: 320 

  Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary 

  Rate: 1/5 stars 

Synopsis :

Cameron Smith attends an elite boarding school and has just been accepted to Princeton University alongside his beautiful girlfriend, Claire. Life for Cameron would be perfect, except that Cameron Smith is actually Skip O’Rourke, and Skip O’Rourke ran away from his grifter family four years ago…along with $100,000 of their “earnings” (because starting a new life is not cheap). But when his uncle Wonderful tracks him down, Skip’s given an ultimatum: come back to the family for one last con, or say good-bye to life as Cameron. 

“One last con” is easier said than done when Skip’s family is just as merciless (and just as manipulative) as they’ve always been, and everyone around him is lying. Skip may have given up on crime, but there’s one lesson he hasn’t forgotten: always know your mark. And if you don’t know who your mark is . . . it’s probably you. 

Review:

This was the first book I picked up to read after BEA 16, and honestly I was extremely disappointed. I picked this book to read first because it looked good-hearted and funny. I think I mostly picked it because one of my favorite books of last year was Denton Little's Deathdate and it reminded me of that with the goofy description and cover. Well, it was nothing like Denton Little.

First, this book wasn't funny at all. And my standards for funny books have been raised because in the last year I've read books that literally made me laugh out loud. But the only thing this book made me do was roll my eyes. The storyline ended up being so sloppy and the main character's main reason for wanting to get away from his family was he wants to get back to his really great girlfriend and his private school. Which for one, we never read much about his girlfriend. It's hard to imagine how "amazing" she is when he's hiding from her and her family in the beginning of the book and then we don't get to see her again until basically the end of the book. Skip was an ok character, he was flawed and he had a rough childhood but he meant well and was just trying to get through life. But jeeze, the rest of the characters were insufferable. They were so one-dimensional that my attention just couldn't stick with them. My thoughts were drifting to everything but the book, what's for dinner? What can I have tomorrow for dinner? What did I have yesterday for dinner? This book was described for fans of Ocean's Eleven. Please. The "last con" Skip had to complete was something I would watch on The Disney Channel.

“- The last thing I needed in my life was more stupidity.
I'd been wallowing in it for days, and it was time to wise up.
It was either that or get conned, killed or both."

My favorite part of this entire book was when I finished it. And it wasn't because I liked the ending, it was because I didn't have the anxiety of whether to DNF it or suffer through it any longer. This book could be marketed more as middle grade if it took out the immature sex references. Honestly, I would say skip this book. I hope the next book I read from BEA is a little better.

- Jocelyn