Please Don't Kill the Freshman: A Memoir

This book is beautiful. The metaphors are lovely. The style is unique. It is full of wit and humor, but most of all it is truthful. Yes, it is WRITTEN by a high school student, but that's what makes it fabulous! So often I read high school books written by authors that have not been in high school for ten years, and I resent ths people trying to portray high school when they so clearly can hardly remember it. But I found myself yelling out loud, "THAT IS SO TRUE!!" as I was reading this book. I found myself smiling the entire way through and finding it nearly impossible to close. I was intoxicated by the originality. But, I am a high school student. I want to read something that relates my life flawlessly and accurately. I want to read something by someone I could easily have known, and can imagine knowing. It's like reading about my own life, but written more eloquently than I could have done and with much more interesting friends and events than I have in my own life. Don't READ this book if you don't want to read about high school! It's as simple as that! If you're forty-five or ten, then you won't enjoy the accuracy and the honesty. But if you're fifteen, you'll adore it like I did.

this book was so amazing. it's hard to even describe. one of my top 3 favorites. zoe trope does an incredible job telling her story and really reeling you in. there is so much you can relate to, but at the same time it keeps you at the edge of your seat wanting more. it was one of those books i didn't want to end and was sorely disappointed when i came to the last page. please read this.

This weekend I finally got around to reading a book that an 8th grade student recommended to me before Christmas. Please Don't Kill The Freshman, by Zoe Trope. It's an autobiographical novel by a 15 yr old author. She details the process of writing the novel, publishing, public readings, and so on. It's sort of a book about writing the book. During the course of the year covered in the book, she also questions her sexuality, savages the public school system, and tolerates her parents. The book does not begin well, at least, not for me. I read the first 4-5 pages half a dozen times over the months and just couldn't get into it. Yesterday on the train for hours, I got through the beginning which just seemed wild, undisciplined, and aggressively adolescent. As the book progressed, her writing style, her maturity, and my enjoyment of the book all grew at a steady clip. I'm about 25 pages short of finishing the 300 page book. I'll finish it today, but I'm already convinced that I need to give this book to a few kids. I see the audience for the book as two distinct groups. First, teens of a special nature, gifted, talented, frustrated, but not exactly angst-ridden, should read this book. Second, teachers and parents who deal with such children would gain considerable insight from this rare and personal glimpse into the real life and thought process of an extraordinarily gifted and self-aware kid. The author is not at all a bad girl. She doesn't smoke or do drugs. She is not promiscuous. She doesn't get pregnant. She reminds me of just a handful of girls I've known over the years. She definitely does exist. She has a filthy mouth, an interest in experimenting with her (bi-?) sexuality, and a sense of "becoming"...something. I'll let you know if the last 25 pages do anything to change my high opinion of the book.

I'm a year away from a freshman, a mere thirteen, but Please Don't Kill the Freshman caught me telling the pages, "Exactly. That's it!" There are a lot of books out there in that kind of teen-diary/letter format, but Zoe Trope does it in a way that is just... good. I aspire to be a writer, and her opinions and metaphors were a huge inspiration to me. I would find myself saying one more page, one more page, until I had finished the book, and was left disappointed - only because it ended far too quickly. The author's views on love, hate, superiority, distance, and just high school in general were refreshing. I felt like finally, after all these Princess Diaries and the like, someone had published a book from my end of the spectrum. PDKTF is worth however much it costs, whatever age you are, because it's true - and you can't deny the truth.

this book is not for freshmans only. nor high schools. this book is, as zoe puts it, 'about you'. anyone who sat in a class, feeling their mind about to explode if the clock won't move faster. and your lip being sore from biting it so hard from going through so much frustration and confusion, all so fast. basically, anyone who went to school, anyone who was 14, would sympathize in one way or the other with this book. i don't think i'm good in words, not to write a decent review for this book.all i can really say is that i stopped not twice to melt over certain sentences and paragraphs that hit me right in the stumach. not wanting them to ever fade away from my memory.buy it.