Review: Denton Little's Deathdate by Lance Rubin

Title: Denton Little's Deathdate 

Author: Lance Rubin

Publisher: Knopf Books For Young Readers

Publishing Date: April 14th 2015
Pages: 352

Genre: YA Science Fiction/Mystery /Humor/ Coming of Age

Series: Stand Alone

Source:   ARC 

  

Denton Little's Deathdate takes place in a world exactly like our own except that everyone knows the day they will die. For 17-year-old Denton Little, that's tomorrow, the day of his senior prom.

Despite his early deathdate, Denton has always wanted to live a normal life, but his final days are filled with dramatic firsts. First hangover. First sex. First love triangle (as the first sex seems to have happened not with his adoring girlfriend, but with his best friend's hostile sister. Though he's not totally sure. See: first hangover.) His anxiety builds when he discovers a strange purple rash making its way up his body. Is this what will kill him? And then a strange man shows up at his funeral, claiming to have known Denton's long-deceased mother, and warning him to beware of suspicious government characters…. Suddenly Denton's life is filled with mysterious questions and precious little time to find the answers.

Debut author Lance Rubin takes us on a fast, furious, and outrageously funny ride through the last hours of a teenager's life as he searches for love, meaning, answers, and (just maybe) a way to live on. 

I wanted this book from the moment it caught my eyes. I can't say if it was the cover ( I love) the title (intriguing) or the synopsis ( sounds pretty darn hilarious) or just the entire package. Whichever it was I wanted my hands on this wish. Well the publisher fairies delivered and I devoured this book. Practically in one sitting ( I just had to go to work) It was AMAZING. By far one of the most original and creative peice of work I have ever read. It was hilarious, it was emotional, it was suspenseful and thrilling, it was thought provoking, and it even had some mystery. It really had just about everything in the book. In fact I don't even know what genre this book is, doesn't matter though. I LOVED IT! 

It is somewhere in the future and everybody knows the date they will day. Denton Little's deathdate is coming up and this is a book about his last days. It involves waking up after his first drunk night, losing his virginity, turning purple, prom, a letter from his dead mother, a mysterious man, a kidnapping, a crazy old cop, his girlfriends crazed ex boyfriend, his own funeral, a  little yellow that is hell bent on running him over, and so much more.l .Denton is in for the ride of his life (litterally) and it is filled with surprises as he learns to accept, live, fall in love, leave his mark, and trust the unknown. 

Okay this is a very hard book to review because I am not sure what I just read. All I know is it was the best thing I have read in a very long time. This was an unbelievable read and I never expected to love it this much. It is a humorous book but it also has depth. I thought I knew what to expect and I so didn't. The book is always a type of sci fi- it is obviously the future and science has played a part in finding out how to know when one is going t die. But... it reads like a contemporary coming of age (or not) type of read for more than half the book then it goes into a pretty cool mystery until the end with a real sci fi thriller type of read. IT FLOWED!!! The change was subtle and it worked. The humor stayed in tow and never missed a beat. Really was a piece of wonderful work. 

I absolutely adored pretty much every character. There were a few I adored more than the others but the story wouldn't be awesome if there was even just one minor, especially a major, character left out. 

Denton was a great character. I loved his growth. I loved his personality, I loved his flaws. Denton has known his deathdate since he was about 5 years of age. It has shaped most of his personality. He has lived a normal life. He figured this is what he wanted. To live as if he wasn't going to die before he finished high school. He had a very loving family. A best friend, A girlfriend. A deathdate. Life was as it should be except when his deathdate rolls around, he realizes he has never really lived and this is where our story takes place. It starts off with Denton drinking and way too  much for the first time in his life. This leads to a bunch of unfortunate events which leads to a mystery which leads to some pretty awesome stuff. 

I really liked Denton's Mom, she was very very crazy. but loving! I loved his best friend, Paulo. Hilarious guy that would do about anything for Denton, I also really loved Paulo's sister Veronica. She was pretty awesome. She was cold but caring and she brought so much fun to the story. Denton' girlfriend Taryn was pretty important to the story but I never connected much to her, I didn't mind because it seemed to have fit with the story. All the characters had their place and was an important piece. They made the story. 

This story has so many parts, What would you do if you knew it was last day? Are we better off knowing our deathdate? Can fate be stopped? So many things explored in this book. It was thought provoking but also full of action and full of fun and full of surprises. 

This book was so amazing guys really read it!

I'm from New Jersey. It's a way better state than people give it credit for. I went to Brown University, and now I live in Brooklyn with my wife and son. They are delightful people.
Before I became an author, I was primarily an actor. "Anything I'd recognize you from?" you might ask. Probably not, unless you watched the short-lived NBC hospital show MERCY, in which I guest-starred as a patient with a naked sleepwalking problem.
By my late 20's, the acting business was making me sad, so I started to focus more on writing.
Now I'm primarily a writer and it makes me incredibly happy.