With an absentee father, a pain-in-the-arse mother, a badass gran, and the most wonderful best-mate a boy could hope for, Noah Grimes really has A LOT to deal with. However, it's a twenty-first century comedy - the last five sentences threaten the new equilibrium disastrously - or (I truly hope! Jest jeszcze po drodze szantażyk, ucieczka Noah z domu i parę innych wydarzeń z potencjalną miłością życia Noahego - Harrym.

There are some really touching moments too, with regard to conversations about sexuality and standing up for yourself. Some situations were a bit over the top, but over all I totally fell in love with our weird bean Noah and I totally felt sorry for him on many levels. His dad disappeared years ago, his mother's Beyonce tribute act is an unacceptable embarrassment, and his beloved gran isn't herself anymore.Unlike Candide, who constantly evokes “the best of all possible worlds” (which was Voltaire being snarky, because he was a total cynic, too), Noah sees his world as the worst possible world, from which he yearns to escape. Matka wiąże się z 19-latkiem, który chodzi z Noah do szkoły, i który okazuje się ojcem dziecka dziewczyny, któa chciała zgwałcić Noah. For the ancient Greeks, a story started with a status quo, which then fell spectacularly apart, putting the characters through hell, and then towards the end things work out and a new equilibrium is reached. If you are interested in stalking him, he still lives in London, where he spends a lot of time telling people that Noah Can’t Even is only partly autobiographical, and his mum has definitely never done a Beyoncé tribute act.

To, co miało być przyjemne i zabawne, okazało się stekiem bzdurnych zwrotów akcji, z idiotycznym, wcale nieśmiesznym, za to reklamowanym jako "brytyjski" humorem. But I've read teen books that are clearly for teens and not for me, and I've either still enjoyed them or thought nope, not for me, and moved on. At the party, after the self-brought booze ánd the punch have played havoc, Harry tells Noah he's gay - and then kisses Noah.Then, illuminated with alcohol, Noah’s world goes entirely off the rails, triggering a madcap series of events that go from bad to worse, as all of his dreams of normality come tumbling down around him.

Yet, reading it for the second time, I noticed a lot of more serious elements to the story: Noah's love and care for his grandmother, particularly; Harry's arc, which is overpowered by Noah's fight with his own mind in terms of language, decency and self-acceptance. If Green chose another tack, by taking it all seriously and delving into the characters' psyches in a deeply psychological and literary way, he could have produced a latter-day Werther, or a young gay Levin from Anna Karenina, or some such serious Bildungroman character, without changing any of the events or characters or relationships, but it would then have been a major tome of a book to slog through. There's a nice HFN that's appropriate for the age of the characters, but also an obvious set-up for a sequel.And the story is chock full of funny moments like that one, which had me laughing like an idiot pretty much the entire time.

When Noah's best friend Harry kisses him at a party, Noah is shocked (but not altogether disappointed). A lot of it was funny, but after a while, I was rolling my eyes and getting impatient with all the family uber drama, checking my page count, wanting to get back to Harry. There's also instances of classism, where Noah insults skilled labourers, people receiving benefits, and tattooed people (not that having tattoos gives any indication of your social class, unless you're Katie Hopkins).

It reads like Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Horrid Henry, but with so many sexual innuendos to the point that they're not even sexual innuendos and are just made to be. It is through the genius of Simon James Green’s writing that Noah’s story is not only hilarious, but also uplifting. The humour and general tone of the book is very British - with Noah adamant that people shouldn't use Americanisms. Green's story fulfils the criteria of the original ánd the present-day meaning of the term "comedy". He is bullied and ignored, and shelters his soul within elaborate game-playing scenarios with Harry.