BLUES FOR ZOEY

A workaholic teen makes an unusual friend. 

Kaz Barrett scrimps and saves every dollar he makes slaving away at the laundromat that does business below his family's apartment. His mother is the victim of a fantastically rare disease, and the only doctors that'll treat her demand big bucks. Kaz's single-minded pursuit of a cure for his mother robs him of a girlfriend or a real social life, but that all changes when he spots the impossibly beautiful Zoey through the laundromat window. Weston fills Kaz's world with colorful tertiary characters, but it all falls by the wayside eventually. The real thrust of the book is Kaz's courtship of Zoey, a manic pixie dream girl who fits the stereotype to a T. Mysterious past? Wacky hairdo? Otherworldly beauty? All boxes are checked, and for three quarters of the novel readers would be forgiven for feeling a bit of déjà vu. But the author has a nice twist in store, subverting even the keenest readers' anticipations. For this, Weston deserves credit, but whether or not the reveal is worth all the trouble will be up to individual readers.

A great twist doesn't make a great book.