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Ready, Okay
First edition of Ready, Okay! - the new, wholly revised edition can be found at /book/show/2...
389 pages, Hardcover
First published July 25, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
December 10, 2021
So, post-college, I found this book in the YA section of my local library. I read it and fell in love. My roommate then read it and she fell in love. I re-read it, she re-read it, etc. Somehow, I manage to forget the title and the author and in the subsequent ten years or so, I keep searching the internet for some clue that will lead me back to this book.
Then, lo and behold, in the dingy aisles of a large dollar store in Middlebury, VT this past Christmas, I find twenty hardback editions! I bought five (Adam Cadre, if you are reading this, msg me and I'd be happy to send you a check as I imagine you are getting no royalties from that sale).
Anyway, I just read it for (I think) the third time.
This novel is the satire that me and my high schools would have written if our lives had been slightly more disaffected and suburban. It is the literary complement to the amazing "Veronica Mars" too.
The basic plot: a wise-ass, super intelligent kid has found a position for himself in the delicate ecosystem of high school. It requires him to be a sort of a proud dork, an emissary between social groups and terminally sarcastic. He comes from a family that has been through a lot and he is attracted, unsurprisingly, to a girl down the street who he thinks represents utter normalcy.
Of course he is wrong and a lot happens to drive the book toward a tragic ending (which is heavily foreshadowed from page one).
It's important to remember that this is a form of satire and while the plot points may sound cliched, two things really set it apart: 1) the characters represent fully formed people. There is a tendency to think of high schoolers as absent the same personality traits we observe in adults. Yes, kids are still developing etc, but some of them are as big of an asshole at 16 as they will be at 52 and Cadre captures that well. 2) The narrative voice. Devastatingly funny, insightful and clueless all at the same time.
I can not say enough about this book and yet I think this review falls somewhat flat. Trust me. Just read it. I have a few extra copies.
Then, lo and behold, in the dingy aisles of a large dollar store in Middlebury, VT this past Christmas, I find twenty hardback editions! I bought five (Adam Cadre, if you are reading this, msg me and I'd be happy to send you a check as I imagine you are getting no royalties from that sale).
Anyway, I just read it for (I think) the third time.
This novel is the satire that me and my high schools would have written if our lives had been slightly more disaffected and suburban. It is the literary complement to the amazing "Veronica Mars" too.
The basic plot: a wise-ass, super intelligent kid has found a position for himself in the delicate ecosystem of high school. It requires him to be a sort of a proud dork, an emissary between social groups and terminally sarcastic. He comes from a family that has been through a lot and he is attracted, unsurprisingly, to a girl down the street who he thinks represents utter normalcy.
Of course he is wrong and a lot happens to drive the book toward a tragic ending (which is heavily foreshadowed from page one).
It's important to remember that this is a form of satire and while the plot points may sound cliched, two things really set it apart: 1) the characters represent fully formed people. There is a tendency to think of high schoolers as absent the same personality traits we observe in adults. Yes, kids are still developing etc, but some of them are as big of an asshole at 16 as they will be at 52 and Cadre captures that well. 2) The narrative voice. Devastatingly funny, insightful and clueless all at the same time.
I can not say enough about this book and yet I think this review falls somewhat flat. Trust me. Just read it. I have a few extra copies.
October 15, 2016
this book changed my life. well maybe not really... but i have to say that this is one of those books that i will always always refer to as my favorite book.
It's a black comedy... and full of amazing one-liners. I laughed and cried reading this book. By the end of the book you are so attached to the characters that you feel like you've lost your best friends. Its clear from the beginning that things are not going to end well for this book, but it doesn't keep you from wanting to read it. This book will make you really think about life.
It's a black comedy... and full of amazing one-liners. I laughed and cried reading this book. By the end of the book you are so attached to the characters that you feel like you've lost your best friends. Its clear from the beginning that things are not going to end well for this book, but it doesn't keep you from wanting to read it. This book will make you really think about life.
August 15, 2017
On Cadre's website, he mentions that one of his favorite kinds of stories are those which establish a "false ceiling"; they suggest a certain narrative capacity, which is eventually surpassed when the reason for that initial limitation is revealed and eliminated. He does something similar in this book, in which a precocious high schooler relates the events leading up to his final year of school, at the end of which (as he warns in the very first line, and periodically thereafter) nearly everyone he cares about will be dead.
That would make for a grim tale, were it not for two things: the narrator Allen's constant quipping, and his adoration for the bright spots he sees in the broken world around him. These bright spots take the form of the girls in his life, almost without exception: his sisters, neighbors, and friends are pretty much the only things he cares about, and so most of this story is about them.
Unfortunately, other people also inhabit Allen's world, and they tend more toward monstrous caricature. His brothers exemplify this: one's a self-absorbed computer prodigy who barely leaves his room, while the other is every bad stereotype about teenage boys wrapped in an acne-covered, hateful package. Those who fail to feature in Allen's personal constellation of astonishing perfection are reduced to cardboard cut-outs with no depth or complexity, except in those cases where they reveal hidden depths of malice.
So between the extravagant cast of characters and Allen's joke-a-minute delivery, the pace can be a little exhausting at times--a fact exacerbated by his disinterest in a chronological description of events.
Despite what I've written here, I really enjoyed the book, even if certain of Allen's attitudes and aspects of his single-minded perspective hit uncomfortably close to home. It feels a bit like what you might get if Wes Anderson had grown up reading comics in the 80s, and wound up as a writer rather than a filmmaker.
That would make for a grim tale, were it not for two things: the narrator Allen's constant quipping, and his adoration for the bright spots he sees in the broken world around him. These bright spots take the form of the girls in his life, almost without exception: his sisters, neighbors, and friends are pretty much the only things he cares about, and so most of this story is about them.
Unfortunately, other people also inhabit Allen's world, and they tend more toward monstrous caricature. His brothers exemplify this: one's a self-absorbed computer prodigy who barely leaves his room, while the other is every bad stereotype about teenage boys wrapped in an acne-covered, hateful package. Those who fail to feature in Allen's personal constellation of astonishing perfection are reduced to cardboard cut-outs with no depth or complexity, except in those cases where they reveal hidden depths of malice.
So between the extravagant cast of characters and Allen's joke-a-minute delivery, the pace can be a little exhausting at times--a fact exacerbated by his disinterest in a chronological description of events.
Despite what I've written here, I really enjoyed the book, even if certain of Allen's attitudes and aspects of his single-minded perspective hit uncomfortably close to home. It feels a bit like what you might get if Wes Anderson had grown up reading comics in the 80s, and wound up as a writer rather than a filmmaker.
February 16, 2018
My feelings about this book are complex. I want to talk to other people I know who have read it, but due in part to the subject matter, I would also have a hard time exactly recommending it to people. It's dark, though not dour, and it both deals with trauma as a story element AND happens to coincide with real-life trauma that shows up in the news again and again. But I gave it five stars because I read more than half of it in a single day. I couldn't stop myself from going back to it.
A complicating factor here is that I've been a reader of Cadre's blog for over a decade, and just now got around to his novel. While I don't know his life story, I do know some of the personal things he's shared there, and I can project some of the ways they might have shaped this story; it's difficult for me to divorce the writer from the writing because of that strong parasocial impression. Some of the protagonist's issues and limits of perspective seem deliberate markers of his gender, age and circumstance. And some of the material that made me uncomfortable is, I think, an argument on behalf of the author--an argument about reexamining the American culture of relationships, particularly within families. Between those two things is a subtle gray area that I found tricky to navigate.
The argumentative material provoked a lot of thought. The teenage-boy perspective provoked a familiar discomfort. I don't think either of those is bad! But because of their overlap, and because of my own limits of perspective, it seems like a wholehearted endorsement of the book would carry connotations that would concern me.
I don't know. I'm glad I read it, and people don't seem to have a problem recommending, like, Lolita. But Ready, Okay! deserves to be handled with care: it's loaded.
A complicating factor here is that I've been a reader of Cadre's blog for over a decade, and just now got around to his novel. While I don't know his life story, I do know some of the personal things he's shared there, and I can project some of the ways they might have shaped this story; it's difficult for me to divorce the writer from the writing because of that strong parasocial impression. Some of the protagonist's issues and limits of perspective seem deliberate markers of his gender, age and circumstance. And some of the material that made me uncomfortable is, I think, an argument on behalf of the author--an argument about reexamining the American culture of relationships, particularly within families. Between those two things is a subtle gray area that I found tricky to navigate.
The argumentative material provoked a lot of thought. The teenage-boy perspective provoked a familiar discomfort. I don't think either of those is bad! But because of their overlap, and because of my own limits of perspective, it seems like a wholehearted endorsement of the book would carry connotations that would concern me.
I don't know. I'm glad I read it, and people don't seem to have a problem recommending, like, Lolita. But Ready, Okay! deserves to be handled with care: it's loaded.
November 20, 2016
Yep.... just gonna sit here and sob. Actual review to come once I can see through my tears.
Ok, ok. I've collected myself. So I read the first edition of this book when I was a freshman or sophomore in high school. And it was easily my favorite book of all time for years and years. I reread it a few times and I am not typically a rereader. So when Adam let me know he was actually doing a complete rewrite of this book and releasing it as a second edition, I was nervous... if I'm being honest. But I really shouldn't have been. Yes, some things changed, how we got from point A to point D changed, a few of my favorite lines disappeared, but the story and the characters are unequivocally the same. In the best way possible. And the rewrite honestly made the story flow so much smoother.
So comparison to the first edition aside; this was wonderful. Ready, Okay! is an incredible picture of people. Of how hard it is to be a teenager. Of real world heartbreak and heartache. This book faces real world issues head on and really truly cuts to your heart. You get so attached to the characters and you know from the beginning that this isn't going to end well... that they wont all make it out alive. I mean this book has the most memorable first sentence ever: "The day I turned sixteen years old I had no idea that in a few weeks nearly everyone I cared about would be dead." How can you not want to keep reading after that??
I can't say enough about this one... Just read it. Do yourself a favor and read it.
Ok, ok. I've collected myself. So I read the first edition of this book when I was a freshman or sophomore in high school. And it was easily my favorite book of all time for years and years. I reread it a few times and I am not typically a rereader. So when Adam let me know he was actually doing a complete rewrite of this book and releasing it as a second edition, I was nervous... if I'm being honest. But I really shouldn't have been. Yes, some things changed, how we got from point A to point D changed, a few of my favorite lines disappeared, but the story and the characters are unequivocally the same. In the best way possible. And the rewrite honestly made the story flow so much smoother.
So comparison to the first edition aside; this was wonderful. Ready, Okay! is an incredible picture of people. Of how hard it is to be a teenager. Of real world heartbreak and heartache. This book faces real world issues head on and really truly cuts to your heart. You get so attached to the characters and you know from the beginning that this isn't going to end well... that they wont all make it out alive. I mean this book has the most memorable first sentence ever: "The day I turned sixteen years old I had no idea that in a few weeks nearly everyone I cared about would be dead." How can you not want to keep reading after that??
I can't say enough about this one... Just read it. Do yourself a favor and read it.
December 14, 2017
I don't know how to feel right now.
August 13, 2020
I first heard of Adam Cadre through the Lyttle Lytton contest he runs. If that isn't also the case for you, it's an offshoot of the Bulwer-Lytton contest where people come up with terrible opening lines for novels, but with an additional emphasis on brevity and plausibility. I recommend checking it out - Cadre and the entrants really have a knack for "intentional unintentional comedy", as it were. The reason this is all relevant is because the opening lines of Ready, Okay! are punchy and engaging, enough so to be featured in the book's description here, and exactly what you'd expect from someone who'd spent years examining what makes an opening line work (or, rather, not work). But I have to wonder if perhaps this focus on writing an "anti-Lytton" came at the expense of the rest of the novel. I was told to expect the Big Tragedy to occur "in a few weeks", giving a sense of immediacy and uncertainty, and leaving me wondering how much of the novel will elapse beforehand and how much will be devoted to the fallout. But then most of what follows is told in flashbacks (with the occasional reminder of "don't worry I promise we're getting to the Big Tragedy soon"), which quashed that tension and replaced it with the feeling of simply being strung along.
In general, the tone of Ready, Okay! felt a little off to me. The marriage of offbeat characters, witty lines, and horrible events reminded me of Catch-22, or the snippets I've read of Pynchon novels that I swear I'll finish one day, but this didn't quite synthesize properly to me for some reason. I didn't find the cast likable or relatable enough to be invested in their fate on a literal level, but neither did I find them weird enough to invite the sort of tonal suspension of disbelief that I get from the above comparisons. Certain details about the world, like the school's broken clock tower or the "Try PCP!" sign should be funny in isolation, but start to feel contrived when Allen snarks about them to the other characters, as though they were put in the world specifically for use as snark bait.
I'm being very critical about this for a three-star review. Part of this is that it's a lot easier for me to see things that don't work than to notice things that do (I blame my engineering background). Part of it is that I'm not good enough at critique (or writing in general) to translate my gut feelings into an eloquent, coherent thought, so I'm just spending a lot of words blindly grasping in a general direction. And part of it is that it's really a 2.5-star review, in retrospect. The reason I round that up is because, when the rubber hit the road, the Big Tragedy did strike true, and left me with a feeling I couldn't accurately describe for a few days. Plus I like Cadre's blog.
August 12, 2013
When I finished this book, I called it good, and also said I was devastated. The charming array of characters from the first half found drugs, abuse, failure, loss, or worse. The picture of our society that is painted here is sharply critical and overwhelmingly sad.
One aspect of this social critique is the world of teenagers. At first it seems that parents are just absent from the narrative, in the way that parents are not part of teenagers� social scene, but further reading shows that the best parent is oblivious. Their children may whore themselves out for drugs. More often parents, or guardians are neglectful. Sometimes they are abusive. The best parent of the story is the narrator’s father. To bad he’s dead. He also had five children with a woman who seemed to have little interest in them, so he was far from perfect.
In some sense, there was a need for meaningful authority to reward goodness and protect the innocent, but it never happened. The parents themselves were too busy seeking whatever they thought might give their lives meaning.
The other thing, and it is connected, is the way that boys� sexuality is portrayed. They bully, cajole, and rape the girls. The girls are often oblivious to the way they are mistreated, are unempowered by their world, their parentless (and therefore) loveless lives, and with few exceptions, accept this treatment. At one point, a notorious deflowerer of girls explains to the narrator that all women are masochists. They like boys when there is a potential to hurt. His list of conquests (for so he views them) seem to bear out his theory in this story.
So 1) read the book. 2) punch somebody in the crouch who’s thinking with it. 3) If you are going to have a child love it. And tell it that if it thinks with its crouch instead of its heart- you’ll punch it in the crouch.
One aspect of this social critique is the world of teenagers. At first it seems that parents are just absent from the narrative, in the way that parents are not part of teenagers� social scene, but further reading shows that the best parent is oblivious. Their children may whore themselves out for drugs. More often parents, or guardians are neglectful. Sometimes they are abusive. The best parent of the story is the narrator’s father. To bad he’s dead. He also had five children with a woman who seemed to have little interest in them, so he was far from perfect.
In some sense, there was a need for meaningful authority to reward goodness and protect the innocent, but it never happened. The parents themselves were too busy seeking whatever they thought might give their lives meaning.
The other thing, and it is connected, is the way that boys� sexuality is portrayed. They bully, cajole, and rape the girls. The girls are often oblivious to the way they are mistreated, are unempowered by their world, their parentless (and therefore) loveless lives, and with few exceptions, accept this treatment. At one point, a notorious deflowerer of girls explains to the narrator that all women are masochists. They like boys when there is a potential to hurt. His list of conquests (for so he views them) seem to bear out his theory in this story.
So 1) read the book. 2) punch somebody in the crouch who’s thinking with it. 3) If you are going to have a child love it. And tell it that if it thinks with its crouch instead of its heart- you’ll punch it in the crouch.
November 14, 2008
The very first sentence of this book tells you that it's not going to end happily. Lots of people are going to die. Within the first couple chapters you realize that they're going to die in a shooting, probably reminiscent of Columbine. And you are not mistaken. Don't get me wrong - this book is very funny. The characters are memorable, unique, and yet stunningly familiar to anyone who went to high school in the last decade (and perhaps longer; I don't know what high school was like before the early 1990s). Granted, my high school years were notably lacking in the sex, drugs, alcohol, and violence departments, but adolescents are still adolescents regardless of whether they're being self-destructive. The narrator's commentary on child and teenage communication is hilariously accurate, and I felt myself nodding along with a lot of the inanity.
However, during the last hundred pages or so it starts to drag a bit. Tragedy after tragedy strikes, people start acting very much unlike teenagers (or real people at all), and there is a lengthy and rather disturbing discussion of nudism and incest. It's one of those books that I'm glad I read, but I'm also not surprised it wasn't what you might call critically acclaimed. Ultimately I think I would recommend this book to teenagers. It's most relevant to their lives; the rest of us are lucky enough to have lived through it already.
However, during the last hundred pages or so it starts to drag a bit. Tragedy after tragedy strikes, people start acting very much unlike teenagers (or real people at all), and there is a lengthy and rather disturbing discussion of nudism and incest. It's one of those books that I'm glad I read, but I'm also not surprised it wasn't what you might call critically acclaimed. Ultimately I think I would recommend this book to teenagers. It's most relevant to their lives; the rest of us are lucky enough to have lived through it already.
March 26, 2024
Years ago, I found Adam Cadre's work through the interactive fiction piece Photopia, and it is a genuine work of art that it left an indelible mark on me. Ready, Okay! is a novel that's always been on my radar due to that, but not one I ever got around to reading until recently.
I wanted to like it. I wanted to love it. I really did. But perhaps it was a mistake to believe that lightning could strike twice. Everything that made Photopia incredible simply isn't present in Ready, Okay! even if it touches on many of the same themes. What's worse is that Ready, Okay! presents some scintillating gems of incredible potential, which is squandered by the sheer grey morass they all sink into.
My understanding is that Ready, Okay! was released as a hardcover novel by HarperCollins in 2000, which is no mean feat on Cadre's part. But my understanding is also that it was a complete and utter flop, commercially and critically. The novel I read is the second edition, which Cadre has apparently improved and edited further to the extent he considers it a full re-write. But even so, it's easy to see why this novel flopped. Let's just say that, before I was 10% of the way in, I was doing the reader equivalent of glancing at my watch.
Which is a goddamn shame, because the second half of this novel is much better than the first. Ready Okay! is a flawed novel, like many debuts are, because it comes down to an author executing a meticulous, heart-felt plan without regard for audience or genre. Billed as a coming-of-age novel, Ready Okay! really isn't, even if it treads much of the same ground that John Green has built a stupidly twee empire upon. The problem is, Cadre has a lot more to say about those tropes and ideas than Green does. Probably the most heartbreaking element of this novel is that it's like Cadre is subverting and commentating on genre that hadn't yet been reified. This is like Looking for Alaska meets Bowling for Columbine, somehow released before either of those existed.
Cadre is not a bad writer. He turns some neat phrases, for example, and has drawn up an array of well-realized characters. But his idea of pacing and general storytelling are the big weaknesses of Ready, Okay! Every scene drags. Everything is presented in a way that's only a little more well-organized than a stream of consciousness. The book is divided into nine sections of seemingly random length, and each section is filled with detail and observations and an ever-expanding list of characters that leads you to believe the novel has no focus.
I don't believe in not finishing novels. I mean, I do, but if I'm going to post on ŷ about it, I'm going to finish it. Out of my appreciation for Cadre's work, and the reviews that say the novel gets better in the second half, I slogged through Ready, Okay! -- and, here's the thing, it does get better. Much better. Problem is, it doesn't justify the absolute slog through every single thought of the protagonist to get there, even if there's a deliberate reason why we're slogging through every single thought and event that leads up to the novel's tragic conclusion. Like I said, Cadre had a distinct plan. It all feels deliberate. It just doesn't work.
Even so, I could've done with less recounting of the protagonist, Allen's, crushes and sexual desires. What I wanted was to get to the aforementioned tragedy. The fireworks factory. Not to be buried under thousands and thousands of words that promise, hey, it's coming up soon. It doesn't help that Allen isn't terribly likable but, worse than that, because I don't think you're supposed to like him, he's not entertaining.
See, the greatness of Photopia was in how short and sharp it was. Every scene has a purpose, every scene couldn't be removed without reducing the quality of the work. Ready, Okay! is filled with scenes that, arguably, don't have a purpose and could be cut -- and, if not cut, clearly and readily condensed. And while Photopia plays well with the idea of out-of-sequence storytelling, Ready Okay! is honestly confusing.
At around the halfway point, you can see where everything is headed. Those gems of potential begin to shine through. The novel starts getting into some really heavy territory, and Cadre handles it with sensible care. Allen's "quirky" YA-esque family quickly reveals itself to be anything but. The storytelling gets tighter with more immediate relevance. Everything starts coming together, and neatly shows off the intricacy of Cadre's plan... 95% of the way into the book. And it is good. It is harrowing. It's why I'm not giving this book one-star. But even so, I'm just not sure how much of the preceding novel was necessary to get the arrow to the target, so to speak, and I'm not sure how you could ever recommend a novel where it's like, hey, don't worry, the last 5% makes it worth it.
Like some of my other more critical reviews, I don't think the fault lies with Cadre. As I mentioned, Cadre has genuine talent. His body of work proves it. Photopia is a work of art, and many of his other works are very strong and memorable, but Ready, Okay! feels like everything Photopia is not. 454 pages is far too long for this novel, and it takes too long for the relevance of so much of the work to be felt. I think what Cadre needed, perhaps when this book was first released, was an editor who could help him bring the gems to the fore and cut away so much of the cruft, who'd help him focus on the best bits and disregard the rest. There is so obviously a timeline where this book was a hit, which is a wonderfully ironic sentiment given the last few pages of this novel.
It's just not this one.
I wanted to like it. I wanted to love it. I really did. But perhaps it was a mistake to believe that lightning could strike twice. Everything that made Photopia incredible simply isn't present in Ready, Okay! even if it touches on many of the same themes. What's worse is that Ready, Okay! presents some scintillating gems of incredible potential, which is squandered by the sheer grey morass they all sink into.
My understanding is that Ready, Okay! was released as a hardcover novel by HarperCollins in 2000, which is no mean feat on Cadre's part. But my understanding is also that it was a complete and utter flop, commercially and critically. The novel I read is the second edition, which Cadre has apparently improved and edited further to the extent he considers it a full re-write. But even so, it's easy to see why this novel flopped. Let's just say that, before I was 10% of the way in, I was doing the reader equivalent of glancing at my watch.
Which is a goddamn shame, because the second half of this novel is much better than the first. Ready Okay! is a flawed novel, like many debuts are, because it comes down to an author executing a meticulous, heart-felt plan without regard for audience or genre. Billed as a coming-of-age novel, Ready Okay! really isn't, even if it treads much of the same ground that John Green has built a stupidly twee empire upon. The problem is, Cadre has a lot more to say about those tropes and ideas than Green does. Probably the most heartbreaking element of this novel is that it's like Cadre is subverting and commentating on genre that hadn't yet been reified. This is like Looking for Alaska meets Bowling for Columbine, somehow released before either of those existed.
Cadre is not a bad writer. He turns some neat phrases, for example, and has drawn up an array of well-realized characters. But his idea of pacing and general storytelling are the big weaknesses of Ready, Okay! Every scene drags. Everything is presented in a way that's only a little more well-organized than a stream of consciousness. The book is divided into nine sections of seemingly random length, and each section is filled with detail and observations and an ever-expanding list of characters that leads you to believe the novel has no focus.
I don't believe in not finishing novels. I mean, I do, but if I'm going to post on ŷ about it, I'm going to finish it. Out of my appreciation for Cadre's work, and the reviews that say the novel gets better in the second half, I slogged through Ready, Okay! -- and, here's the thing, it does get better. Much better. Problem is, it doesn't justify the absolute slog through every single thought of the protagonist to get there, even if there's a deliberate reason why we're slogging through every single thought and event that leads up to the novel's tragic conclusion. Like I said, Cadre had a distinct plan. It all feels deliberate. It just doesn't work.
Even so, I could've done with less recounting of the protagonist, Allen's, crushes and sexual desires. What I wanted was to get to the aforementioned tragedy. The fireworks factory. Not to be buried under thousands and thousands of words that promise, hey, it's coming up soon. It doesn't help that Allen isn't terribly likable but, worse than that, because I don't think you're supposed to like him, he's not entertaining.
See, the greatness of Photopia was in how short and sharp it was. Every scene has a purpose, every scene couldn't be removed without reducing the quality of the work. Ready, Okay! is filled with scenes that, arguably, don't have a purpose and could be cut -- and, if not cut, clearly and readily condensed. And while Photopia plays well with the idea of out-of-sequence storytelling, Ready Okay! is honestly confusing.
At around the halfway point, you can see where everything is headed. Those gems of potential begin to shine through. The novel starts getting into some really heavy territory, and Cadre handles it with sensible care. Allen's "quirky" YA-esque family quickly reveals itself to be anything but. The storytelling gets tighter with more immediate relevance. Everything starts coming together, and neatly shows off the intricacy of Cadre's plan... 95% of the way into the book. And it is good. It is harrowing. It's why I'm not giving this book one-star. But even so, I'm just not sure how much of the preceding novel was necessary to get the arrow to the target, so to speak, and I'm not sure how you could ever recommend a novel where it's like, hey, don't worry, the last 5% makes it worth it.
Like some of my other more critical reviews, I don't think the fault lies with Cadre. As I mentioned, Cadre has genuine talent. His body of work proves it. Photopia is a work of art, and many of his other works are very strong and memorable, but Ready, Okay! feels like everything Photopia is not. 454 pages is far too long for this novel, and it takes too long for the relevance of so much of the work to be felt. I think what Cadre needed, perhaps when this book was first released, was an editor who could help him bring the gems to the fore and cut away so much of the cruft, who'd help him focus on the best bits and disregard the rest. There is so obviously a timeline where this book was a hit, which is a wonderfully ironic sentiment given the last few pages of this novel.
It's just not this one.
February 6, 2017
I didn't care for the book as I was reading it at first. The character development was exhausting, But it needed to be. It made me whole heartedly feel each emotion. This is a book that will stick with me for a lifetime. Wow. Just wow.
Want to read
August 10, 2010I played his game Photopia and we share the same birthday = must-read.
June 22, 2017
I found this book though a "what is this book" thread, so unfortunately i knew how it ended going in. Oh, sure, you find out in the first sentence that it ends terribly, but I knew HOW...
Regardless of the giant spoiler, I enjoyed this book immensely. Allen was super likeable and engaging, and real. The rest of the cast of characters were interesting and unpredictable. The whole thing took me back to high school and that little roles people choose for themselves, basing their entire identity and social environment based on those little roles..."good girl", "jock", "rebel", "feminist", "hippie"... there are millions of different roles that people try to pigeonhole themselves into and this book made me think about that again. Even though the roles were a little extreme in this telling, it captured that spirit and self identification for me.
I found this book to be somehow amusing and heartwarming while at the same time it was sad and broke my heart...especially Peggy. And September. And Molly. And "Siren"....All of them I guess, really.
Whatever, this was a good book. I'm glad I stumbled across it.
Regardless of the giant spoiler, I enjoyed this book immensely. Allen was super likeable and engaging, and real. The rest of the cast of characters were interesting and unpredictable. The whole thing took me back to high school and that little roles people choose for themselves, basing their entire identity and social environment based on those little roles..."good girl", "jock", "rebel", "feminist", "hippie"... there are millions of different roles that people try to pigeonhole themselves into and this book made me think about that again. Even though the roles were a little extreme in this telling, it captured that spirit and self identification for me.
I found this book to be somehow amusing and heartwarming while at the same time it was sad and broke my heart...especially Peggy. And September. And Molly. And "Siren"....All of them I guess, really.
Whatever, this was a good book. I'm glad I stumbled across it.
July 31, 2019
I first read this nearly 12 years ago, on Rowyn’s recommendation, but just recently came across it online and found that it has a hugely rewritten second edition now. (.) So I decided to give it another read, and it does seem very new, though much of that may just be due to how long it’s been since the first time. It’s a bit of an emotional rollercoaster between funny and tragic, and I find myself very attached to the characters, which just makes the ending that much harder, of course. I wish the ending could have found somewhere to go rather than just leaving it in tragedy, but still, it’s very well done overall.
April 19, 2018
This book seemed disjointed to me at first. I felt like different plots were touched upon but never resolved I was confused as to the point of the book, of course, there were some strong, intentional hints about the ending, so I thought I knew what to expect, but honestly Even the obvious hints did not prepare me for what I actually felt while reading this. Especially now in 2018 as a High Schooler, the book had me feeling profound grief and anger for things that extend much farther than the book. I definitely think this should be read
October 1, 2024
This was, hands down, my favorite book in high school. My best friend and I would take turns checking it out of the library, reading and rereading and reveling in a book that actually felt like talking to a fellow high school student. I squealed with excitement when I found it on kindle, and tucked in for a reread. And the story was� different? The characters more developed, monologues longer, and themes shifted. I said to my husband, “wow I must have changed so much that I have an entirely different read on this story�. It ate at me enough that I looked on the authors website, and it turns out he REWROTE THE ENTIRE BOOK for the kindle edition. Gobsmacked. Who does that?! Apparently Adam Cadre, and this rewrite haunts my waking hours.
February 27, 2022
Fascinating narritive, disturbing characters. Thought provoking.
February 27, 2024
⭐️ 3.5
December 9, 2016
I first heard about author Adam Cadre through his work in interactive fiction computer games (like Zork), and I was so impressed with the creativity of his own text adventures that when I heard he had a novel published, I immediately grabbed a copy. I was not disappointed.
The narrator of Ready, Okay! is Allen Mockery, an extremely gifted teenager from a family of extremely gifted children, who lets the reader know up front that he is documenting the months leading up to a disaster that will claim many lives. Published shortly after the Columbine massacre, it doesn't take Long to figure out what's coming, but that doesn't take away from the novel's guided tour through the trials and tribulations of a high school student's life, and the humorous - yet touching - struggles involved in these tumultuous time of life for those who are unavoidably "different" like Allen and his brothers and sisters.
For those looking for a more serious examination of the causes behind school shootings such as Columbine, I would recommend looking elsewhere, such as Jim Shepard's Project X. Not because Cadre's novel does not take these events seriously, but only because some of the fantastic characters and events within the novel are separated enough from reality so that the Columbine aspects are more a part of the story than the reason or overall message. The scope of Cadre's novel is a bit larger than that, and so the reader should definitely expect more.
There are some that might consider Ready, Okay! a young adult novel, but even though the main characters are teens, I get the feeling that Cadre did not write this just for a teen audience, but rather for anyone who will listen, because he really does have something to say that's worth listening to, or at least reading.
The narrator of Ready, Okay! is Allen Mockery, an extremely gifted teenager from a family of extremely gifted children, who lets the reader know up front that he is documenting the months leading up to a disaster that will claim many lives. Published shortly after the Columbine massacre, it doesn't take Long to figure out what's coming, but that doesn't take away from the novel's guided tour through the trials and tribulations of a high school student's life, and the humorous - yet touching - struggles involved in these tumultuous time of life for those who are unavoidably "different" like Allen and his brothers and sisters.
For those looking for a more serious examination of the causes behind school shootings such as Columbine, I would recommend looking elsewhere, such as Jim Shepard's Project X. Not because Cadre's novel does not take these events seriously, but only because some of the fantastic characters and events within the novel are separated enough from reality so that the Columbine aspects are more a part of the story than the reason or overall message. The scope of Cadre's novel is a bit larger than that, and so the reader should definitely expect more.
There are some that might consider Ready, Okay! a young adult novel, but even though the main characters are teens, I get the feeling that Cadre did not write this just for a teen audience, but rather for anyone who will listen, because he really does have something to say that's worth listening to, or at least reading.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 10, 2016
The author emailed me about a 2nd edition and asked if I was interested in reading it so of course I said "yes"! This book was one of my favorites years back when I read the first edition so I was interested to see what reading it a second time would be like. I already knew how it ended, and it's kind of given away from the first page but because it had been so long I had forgotten the details. I didn't cry this time but rather found it a little difficult to empathize with the main character because it is so ingrained in his persona to make a joke out of everything - even though that does not mean he doesn't feel things - he just never lets people know and would rather have others make his decisions for him which I can kind of relate too. I think the family dynamic was definitely stranger to me the second time around as well but I also had to suspend my disbelief in that the main character could so suddenly come around and see things from his sisters p.o.v. when he never really seemed like a very empathetic character.
Regardless, I don't really know where I'm going with this. I loved the novel when I read it many years ago and I still liked it when I read it now. One minute you're laughing and then next minute in shock and wanting to cry. Wish I could write about what differences I noticed from the first edition and this one but, unfortunately, I can't. All I can say is that I'm so glad Adam Cadre reached out so that I could read this again.
Regardless, I don't really know where I'm going with this. I loved the novel when I read it many years ago and I still liked it when I read it now. One minute you're laughing and then next minute in shock and wanting to cry. Wish I could write about what differences I noticed from the first edition and this one but, unfortunately, I can't. All I can say is that I'm so glad Adam Cadre reached out so that I could read this again.
October 3, 2016
i def liked this book, but it had been suggested to me that this was potentially the best book written about high school ever, and those are big shoes to fill. i think i was also misled since in the very beginning he explains that almost everyone he knows/loves will be dead in a month, so the whole time i was waiting for some sort of infectious disease to wipe out the population. i was therefore surprised to learn that people were actually dead due to suicide and/or his brother and co. shooting up the school.
this book had some really weird interesting characters/elements which i did enjoy. but then some of them were just *really weird. the nine year old brother peacing out to go live on his own? that was sort of the straw the broke the camel's back in terms of weird family dynamics. they were already 5 orphans of mixed races living basically alone, with one brother being a complete psycho, one sister being a naked hippy who seemed more like an aging lovechild than a barely pubescent tween, and a set of twins with very little in common.
overall i thought allen was pretty typical of a high school boy, but that just made it so frustrating that he couldn't see how into him September was :(. I also felt like he and the others who were aware of the "scratch girls/boys" seemed pretty blase about their classmates basically living out that final ass to ass scene in requiem for a dream, presumably every weekend.
this book had some really weird interesting characters/elements which i did enjoy. but then some of them were just *really weird. the nine year old brother peacing out to go live on his own? that was sort of the straw the broke the camel's back in terms of weird family dynamics. they were already 5 orphans of mixed races living basically alone, with one brother being a complete psycho, one sister being a naked hippy who seemed more like an aging lovechild than a barely pubescent tween, and a set of twins with very little in common.
overall i thought allen was pretty typical of a high school boy, but that just made it so frustrating that he couldn't see how into him September was :(. I also felt like he and the others who were aware of the "scratch girls/boys" seemed pretty blase about their classmates basically living out that final ass to ass scene in requiem for a dream, presumably every weekend.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 25, 2013
This book is an emotional roller coaster. One minute you're laughing at the narrator, next minute your heart is pounding, next minute you can't sit still, next minute you're screaming and the next minute you're crying. Then it starts again.
There are few books with the power that this one has, regarding school shootings - it seems like such a hot topic now but this book was written years ago and was limited in print and is currently out of print - it is very tricky to get your hands on - but it is SO WORTH IT to read!!!
Honestly, one of the best books I've ever read.
Some of the best characters ever developed, and one of the most important story lines ever explored that has gotten almost no attention and it deserves a spotlight.
There are few books with the power that this one has, regarding school shootings - it seems like such a hot topic now but this book was written years ago and was limited in print and is currently out of print - it is very tricky to get your hands on - but it is SO WORTH IT to read!!!
Honestly, one of the best books I've ever read.
Some of the best characters ever developed, and one of the most important story lines ever explored that has gotten almost no attention and it deserves a spotlight.
April 2, 2016
Excerpt from Ready, Okay!
“After I finished brushing my teeth, the clock on my nightstand said it was past midnight. 12.03 am, to be precise. That meant it was Saturday afternoon in East Asia.�
That’s a really exciting amount of detail about the whole process. It makes you think you’re there watching someone brush their teeth and observe a clock on a nightstand. Kadri really knows how to paint a picture with words. The great thing is that he always paints the whole picture, leaving nothing to the imagination.
Kadri is certainly no boring poseur. Just because he changed his surname to Cadre to make it sound less third world and more cool doesn’t mean his writing isn’t genuine, heartfelt and honest to the max.
“After I finished brushing my teeth, the clock on my nightstand said it was past midnight. 12.03 am, to be precise. That meant it was Saturday afternoon in East Asia.�
That’s a really exciting amount of detail about the whole process. It makes you think you’re there watching someone brush their teeth and observe a clock on a nightstand. Kadri really knows how to paint a picture with words. The great thing is that he always paints the whole picture, leaving nothing to the imagination.
Kadri is certainly no boring poseur. Just because he changed his surname to Cadre to make it sound less third world and more cool doesn’t mean his writing isn’t genuine, heartfelt and honest to the max.
September 11, 2016
A non-realistic tragicomic novel set in a high school. The overall arc plot is extremely hokey, but it deals with a ton of big issues --- the difficulty of fitting in and finding love, racism, rape, how we live our lives --- while also being chock full of hilarious high-school novel jokes. The book was originally written in 2000, and I read it years ago and liked it, but the Kindle edition [which I've just read] is a more-or-less complete rewrite. has more details. The rewrite is missing one of my favorite passages, but I'm willing to take the author's word that it's overall better. I enjoyed it immensely and think this book deserves to be better known. Strongly recommended.
August 1, 2016
It took me a little while to get into this book, but not because it was bad. The narrator genuinely had meaningful observations about the world, and his voice was probably my favorite part. It made me stop and think about the things he said, why people are the way they are, etc. I flew through the second half of the book because of all the issues the narrators family and friends deal with, and the ending is sad but brings it all together.
"Since she was a beautiful person, I couldn't help but see her as beautiful. How would she look to me if I knew nothing about her as a person?? I can't even imagine"
"Since she was a beautiful person, I couldn't help but see her as beautiful. How would she look to me if I knew nothing about her as a person?? I can't even imagine"
November 7, 2009
This book starts off with a heavy punch and doesn't relent until the very last page. It's not the literary genius many hope for when picking up a book but it sure is one of my most favorite books. A story about a young man's typical adolecent struggle that goes completely ascue. I would gladly recommend this book to all teenagers who'd like a crazy read.
October 25, 2009
I've read better books, but I loved this book nonetheless. It's a really charming book. Also hilarious.
Read
October 25, 2014Abandoned half way through. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I found Cadre's tone here really grating—everything sounds like someone writing a book, no one sounds like a real person. Bummer.
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