Review: Fat Boys Vs. The Cheerleaders by Geoff Herbach

Title: Fat Boys Vs. The Cheerleaders

Author: Geoff Herbach

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publishing Date:  May 6th 2014

Pages: 320
Genre:  YA Contemporary Humor

Series: Stand Alone
Source: ARC

  

It's geeks versus jocks in an epic battle of the beverages!

From "one of the most real, honest, and still funny male voices to come around in a while" (YALSA) comes a brand-new cast of quirky characters, pitting fat boy Gabe against the high school cheerleading team in a battle over control of the school's soda machine.

The war is ON! Never have the stakes been so high. Never have the trenches been so deep. Never has one soda vending machine been so vital. When the high school cheerleading team takes over the machine's funds previously collected by the pep band, Gabe will not stand for it. Something must be done.

This was a very fun book to read. It was written in a very different format, and I actually enjoyed the way it was written. The main character was fun and easy to connect to, the story was just funny, and there were a few emotional up heavals that left me teary eyed. Mostly though... It was tons of laughs.


Gabe, who is called Chunk, (love the Goonies nostalgia) gets tired of being the funny fat guy. The final straw breaking that leads to war with the cheerleaders/dance team and lifestyle transformation comes from loss of band funding. Gabe is in the band and loves summer band camp. He also loves Mountain Dew which he buys in abundance from the school coke machine. Gabe justifies his Mountain Dew buying because the funding goes to the band. Gabe learns that the funding now goes to the new dance team and his life get turns upside down. Everything changes including his diet and excercise, his freetime, and his friends.



I so really enjoyed this book. I connected to Gabe right away, I was invested in the story pretty early on, I loved the writing style and format. Everything was just right for me.  

The story started off with a bang and ended with bang. It was really easy to jump right into this story. The story starts off with Gabe being interviewed by an attorney for the crime of robbing the soda machine. The story is only told from Gabe's side of the interview and it continues throughout the entire book. I haven't read a book with this writing style before and I really liked it. It was just a tad bit confusing in a few parts but not many and I only needed to re-visit the entire paragraph to understand what was going on. Other than that, it was very easy to read and I found it very easy to get wrapped up. The writing style was fresh and very lively. I would forget I was reading a story at times. This being said... the characters were just great. 

Of course I was a bit more connected with Gabe than the rest of the crew, simply because the story was told from Gabe. It was a bit different than most first person point of views because of the interview style, I was only able to know what Gabe wanted me to know. I wasn't in his head, I was hearing his story as if I was the interviewer. The great part, Gabe is pretty much open with everything. I felt that he said what he thought. Getting to know Gabe was easy, quick, and fun. I liked his personality, his quick wit, his stupid decisions, and his friends. He was quite a funny kid. 

I liked Gore quite a bit too. She was the most level headed and very sweet. Her feelings about Gabe were evident from the very beginning, the romance was quite sweet between the two. It was a bit slow in the making, but oh so evident. There is also RC III. He was quite a character. Ultimately the instigator of everything and never a player in the game. But he was kind of cool too.

Another awesome character, Gabe's grandfather, he cracked me up. He was exactly who Gabe needed on his side and he held nothing back. He made Gabe's family life and my reading experience so completely amusing. I would love to have a grandfather like this one, actually I kind of do... maybe that is why I loved him so much. Tough when he needed to be, loving when tough wasn't needed. Smart and smart mouthed. He was way too funny. Loved him! 

So it all rocked, great story, characters, and writing, It was quite the page turner and I enjoyed it thoroughly. 

Hilarious, heart warming, and just a fun read. 

I am the author of the YA title, Stupid Fast (June 2011 from Sourcebooks Fire). I also wrote The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg, a Novel from Three Rivers Press. When I'm not writing books, I'm writing for Radio Happy Hour or developing ridiculous musical bits.

When I'm not writing, I'm teaching writing at Minnesota State, Mankato, which means I write a lot of comments about writing on student writing.

Writing a lot of writing and reading about writing and writing on reading.