Tag: Percy Martin

DETAILS:
Series: Percy Martin, #2
Publication Date: September 15, 2023
Format: e-Book
Length: 279 pg.
Read Date: June 24-25, 2024

WARNING

If you haven’t read Headphones and Heartaches by Wesley Parker yet, don’t read this post. If you’re not sure if you’d want to—this is not the post to read, either. Go read my take on it and then go read Headphones and Heartaches. Or skip my post (just don’t tell me you did that, my ego is fragile) and read the book. That’s up to you. But the first sentence of the next section contains a major spoiler for it.

Something about senior year has caused a shift in my relationships with those closest to me. People have been weirder, going on soliloquies about the past and how much I’ve grown up. It feels like I’m at the beginning of a long goodbye.

What’s Detours and Do-Overs About?

When we left Percy, he was mourning his mother, being helped through her death by overdose by his adoptive mother, girlfriend, and best friend. When we pick up with him here…well, he’s still doing the same. But he’s getting better all the time. It’s the beginning of his senior year, with all the drama, tensions, and excitement that brings.

Percy’s thinking about colleges—something he’d never believed possible until now. He’s even thinking about out-of-state colleges, and the teacher who took him under his wing in the last book has helped him connect with someone from the University of Maine and thinks he can get him a great scholarship. It’s hard to say what it is exactly about that school that captures Percy’s attention—maybe just the novelty of him leaving New Jersey by choice. This isn’t going to go well with his girlfriend, who has her sights set on a local college, but he doesn’t have to tell her right away, right?

Yeah, he’s still pretty stupid when it comes to relationships.

While he’s trying to figure that out, his new mom, Grace is making plans for her future. If Percy isn’t going to be around, maybe it’s time for her new chapter, too. (Percy’s glad for her to be able to think this way, but that puts some pressure on him to leave, too)

But that’s all about the future—about next year. For now, he has to focus on completing his Senior Year. One thing he has to do is a community service project—one more involved than any I’ve seen a High Schooler have to accomplish. He volunteers at a homeless shelter/food bank. It’s a great match for him—he has a real passion for the work, he can relate to everyone there, and soon is even helping them plan the future for the shelter.

While Percy connects with everyone there in one way or another—there’s a little boy, Dante, whom he meets before his interview. The two of them have an instant rapport—Percy sees himself in Dante. He was Dante just a few years ago—living in and around places like this with a single mother trying to provide for the two of them while battling her demons. Dante sees someone a little older than him who genuinely cares about him and opens up to him in ways he doesn’t with anyone else at the shelter.

Those are the pieces—the novel follows Percy and the people above over the course of the school year—through lows (very low lows), highs, and everything in between. Until we get to the end and see where Percy and his decisions seem to indicate the direction of his life.

The Heart of this Book

That heading is probably overstating it a bit, but oh, well. The part of this book that makes you like Percy the most, the part that makes you root for him (even when he’s being a jackwagon) is Dante.

Yes, you have to wonder about the staff at the shelter letting Percy ignore any and all boundaries when it comes to this little boy. But Dante’s mother trusts Percy, Dante trusts him even more than she does, and the two become great friends. The affection both ways is real and will make you melt.

There are some shortcomings to this book—but absolutely none of them matter when Dante’s around.

Percy’s Immaturity and Insecurity

Percy had to grow up, in many ways, before he was ready to. His mother’s addiction and frequent homelessness made him deal with things that no child should. Even after moving in with Grace, some of the decisions he had to make called for a level of maturity beyond his years.

But that doesn’t mean he’s got everything figured out emotionally—he still needs to grow up. Add in adolescent hormones and the, ahem, urges that young men in deep-like/love with an attractive young woman wrestle with…and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Maybe even worse. In a year where he has major choices to make, he needs to think clearly—which is a lot to ask of any young person, but for Percy, it’s even more.

Grace has been a great stabilizing presence in his life—and he’s picked up several others, too. But that doesn’t eliminate all the insecurities he’s built up over the years. In some way, Percy is sure that he will be left alone, that everyone he cares about will vanish, abandon him, or leave him in some other way. These insecurities added to the pressures I mentioned above threaten to overwhelm him.

Arguably they do more than once.

It’s so easy to look at Percy as a young man with it all together. He’s bright, he’s highly motivated, he’s eager, he’s committed, he throws all his heart and energy into his goals. But he’s just a kid, and that shows up in rather inopportune times. I know I lost my patience with him a couple of times as a reader—everyone who isn’t Dante in his life has to think the same things a few times.

Grace

Grace is one of the best mothers in fiction. I didn’t talk about her much when I posted about the other book, and I’m still not going to. She deserves a lot of space dedicated to her, but I think I’d just repeat that opening sentence in various ways.

She’s patient. She’s understanding. She’s supportive. She knows her boy—even if he hasn’t been with her that long, she pays attention to him (better than he does himself). She’s also good about letting him make his own mistakes so he can learn from them. But she’s quick to step in when he needs her to, too.

She’s also just a lot of fun to spend time with. I wish we readers got to see some more of the fun times that Percy and Grace share, it’s just encouraging and heart-warming. But the book has enough other things to cover that we can’t get too much of them.

So, what did I think about Detours and Do-Overs?

I don’t think that this is anywhere as good as the other book featuring Percy. That could be my mood when I read the two. But I don’t think that’s it. I really think my issues stem from the behaviors and attitudes of the teens in this book—they were pretty realistic, I have to say. But they all just really annoyed me.

Not that all the adults were perfect either—some of them displayed many flaws—but the way they all responded to seeing their flaws was encouraging to watch. Emphasizing that they’re adults who are largely well-adjusted. (Dante’s mother, sadly, doesn’t really fit this).

People familiar with Parker’s oeuvre will get a kick out of some of the new characters in Percy’s life, and will be happy to see where their lives have taken them. The resolutions to the various storylines are all satisfying and convincingly told.

One could be tempted to quibble with some of the tidiness of the lives of the characters at the end of the novel—and were this a non-fiction work, you’d be right to do that. This is a work of fiction with inspiring and heartfelt characters, so shut up and let them have nice endings.

Once again, Wesley Parker brings some laughs, a lot of joy, and some warm feelings. I hope he continues to do so. Go read this.

4 Stars

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Headphones and Heartaches by Wesley Parker: Sweet, Honest, Heartbreaking, and Heartwarming

By HCNewton

On September 17, 2021

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature

You know how sometimes just the right book comes at just the right time? A book you don’t realize you needed until it had done its job on your psyche? As you’ve probably guessed, that’s what Headphones and Heartaches was for me. So, yeah, this is going to be a rave. It’s also going to be shorter than I want it to be, but that’s only because this won’t ever get posted if I keep tweaking and rewriting it (this was supposed to go up seven days ago).

Headphones and Heartaches

by Wesley Parker

Kindle Edition, 324 pg.
2021

Read: September 2-6, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

“One day you’re gonna look back and realize these are the best days of your life.”

I’m living in a foster home while my mother is getting treatment for a heroin addiction. If these are the best days, maybe I should just give up now.

What’s Headphones and Heartaches About?

Percy Martin is sure that the social worker he meets next to his mother’s hospital bed means well. But Percy’s not interested in what he’s offering, Percy trusts that he can do better on his own than any foster situation that Alex can put him in. When they meet, no one’s sure that Percy’s mother will survive her latest overdose, and Alex’s hands are tied.

So he makes Percy an offer—stick with this foster parent a year, and Alex will do what he can to reunite Percy and his mom. There’s an earnestness about Alex, and (he won’t really admit this to himself) Percy just wants a break from it all—so he accepts the offer.

Alex brings him to Grace Wilson*. A kind, gracious, waitress who has decided the right thing to do is open her heart and home to a teen who needs both. Percy’s life is changed forever immediately.

* I should devote 3-4 paragraphs to her, but I don’t have the time, but she’s a great character.

He has food—and never has to worry about where the next meal is coming from. She helps him get money—and learn to manage it. He learns to sleep on a bed. He makes friends—real friends. He falls for a girl. He—and he says this several times—has a chance to be normal.

And he loves it. How could you not?

But he’s torn—because the cost of all of this change is the relationship with his mother. He feels he’s abandoned her, taken away her motivation to change, removed his support from her when she needs him the most. Is having a better life worth that?

Opium’s Victims

Percy’s mom, Wanda, is never made out to be the villain of the piece. Never. She is deeply flawed, and Percy doesn’t flinch from that. But she’s also the one constant in his life and has clearly done what she can to be a mother and provider to him. She clearly loves him.

But her addiction runs her life, she battles it, but not effectively, and that has consequences for both of them.

One of Parker’s most successful moves is showing that the statistics and reports about the opioid epidemic underreports its victims. It’s not just Wanda—it’s Percy. It’s Grace. It’s Percy’s friends. If Wanda had other family or friends, they would be in that number. And it’s likely that the turmoil, emotional upheaval, and financial impact goes beyond Grace and Percy’s friends to their friends and family…and so on. Percy thinks he can even see the toll this takes on the Judge dealing with his foster care. Yes, Wanda is the primary victim, and addicts like her ought to be the focus of the efforts to combat the epidemic—but not the sole focus.

Headphones, Comedy Albums, and Mixtapes

The 3.5mm jack connects my favorite artists right into my soul like an IV, securing my hopes and dreams that wither under the assault of everyday life. They’ve been there on the nights when the heat wasn’t, at the dinner table when the food wasn’t, reminding me that better times would come, even if they couldn’t give me an estimated arrival date.

Percy finds refuge from his circumstances in movies (VHS tapes he can buy at pawn shops and the like) and music (largely pirated from public library offerings). Music is the one he talks more about, and he has strong opinions about it—while also having very eclectic tastes.

What kind of strong opinions? Aside from Rob Sheffield or Nick Hornby’s creation, I haven’t seen anyone with such detailed specifications for putting together a mixtape—and I loved watching him obsess about things like that. He has much more to say on the subject of wired headphones than I quoted above—and who cares that much about those? I could go on, but you get the idea.

Along the same lines…what he and Grace say about comedy albums? I didn’t realize other people felt that way about them, too. I really would like to see a second edition of the book (or a companion book) containing essays Percy writes for English class about things like comedy albums and their impact on his life, and various topics related to music/music appreciation. Just based on what he says in this book, they’d be fantastic.

It’s things like this that transform Percy from a pitiable kid in hard circumstances to a rounded character that you can develop an emotional bond with. Parker truly nailed this kind of thing.

Categorizing

By and large anymore, it seems that if the book is about a teenager, it must be a Young Adult novel. But it doesn’t seem as if this is being marketed as one. Would it work for a YA audience? Sure. Well, at least I think it would. But really it works for anyone who likes a good coming-of-age tale.

Percy is a teen—and his emotions swing widely and quickly as such. But anyone who is, or who can remember, what that’s like will easily be able to appreciate that. At the same time, thanks to his hard life, he has a certain perspective that gives a layer of maturity to his thinking—so snooty “adult” readers don’t have to sully themselves with something like a book written for teens.

So, what did I think about Headphones and Heartaches?

On Wheel of Fortune there’s always one guy that keeps asking for letters even though it’s clear to everyone else what the answer is. I feel like that guy right now, because in my heart I know the answer, I’m just hoping that it’s the wrong one.

With only a couple of exceptions, the adults that Percy meets after his mother’s overdose are almost too good to be true. I’d be tempted to call them all Mary Sues/Marty Sues. But part of it is that for Percy, these are responsible, caring, adults trying to help him—it’s easy to see why Percy would largely describe them in glowing terms. And even then, the adults aren’t boring—they’re interesting, funny, and inspirational.

But the exceptions? Boy howdy, they are definitely not too good (nor are they too bad to be realistic…). But let’s not focus on them

But Percy and his classmates, playmates in flashbacks, and friends are absolutely well-rounded and developed—as they’re (largely) the focus of the book, that’s the important part. They sound like, think like, and feel like teens (with varying degrees of maturity). They’re some of the better teen characters I remember reading.

You take characters like that and put them out into the world, and you’ve got yourself a good start to a novel. Add in a compelling story—and an emotional depth that fits the characters, and you’ve got a knockout. This is what Parker has delivered.

As the end neared, I jotted a note,”I am going to end up crying.” And while I didn’t technically weep, there were several moments as I finished the book that I came awfully close to it. Those moments were all over the map, I should add—heartbreaking, tragic, heartwarming, and just sweet. Parker just doesn’t get you with human grief and anger, he gets you with the wonderful moments, too.

This is a sweet book, a touching book—an occasionally hilarious book (with some truly cringe-worthy beats)—I guess it’s best summed up as a very human book. Parker got me to feel all sorts of things for these characters, to a degree I didn’t expect or was prepared for.

This is a special one, reader. You’d do yourself a favor if you picked it up.

5 Stars

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