Spud--The Madness Continues...

How has no one reviewed this book yet? Spud: The Madness Continues is a sequel to van de Ruit's book Spud. The books are basically Adrian Mole at a South African boarding school (not named), except that John (Spud) Milton isn't an idiot (like Mole) and actually learns from his mistakes. The story is told as his diary, and is exclusively in the first person. John Milton is a small boy, whose voice breaks during the book (hence the nickname), and is from a lower middle class background. He won a scholarship to the school prior to the events of Spud, which one student said cost $20,000 a year, in 1991 no less. He tries hard to fit in with his dorm room mates, known as the Crazy Eight, and succeeds to a degree. The Crazy Eight include their leader Rambo, Boggo, Fatty, Simon, Mad Dog, Rain Man, Spud, and Roger the cat, who replaced the deceased Gecko. The exploits of the Crazy Eight are the focus of the book, and the parts that will make you start laughing until you have chest pains. In Spud, The Crazy Eight were the youngest year, and were fending off abuse from the upper years. This time around they have their own first years to torment, and they do it with such creativity and nastiness that you thank God that it's not happening to you, all the while your sides are heaving. There are also the usual romantic entanglements for poor Spud, though it's more on the backburner than it was in the first book. His battles to kiss his sort of girlfriend the Mermaid (Debbie) are quite funny, even as she moves him into friend territory. I could not recommend this book more if you want something to make you laugh. It takes the Adrian Mole premise and so improves on it to the point that you won't look at the other series the same way again, assuming you've read it (the first book even mentions Mole in passing). John van de Ruit is a brilliant comedic writer, and I can't wait for his next book in the series.