Karo, Aaron. Lexapros and Cons.

Karo, Aaron.      Lexapros and Cons.      Macmillan/Farrar Strauss      230p $16.99 978-0-374-34396-5       hs          VG      Realistic Fiction

Chuck Taylor, a 12th-grade AP student, has OCD. He faces many problems getting through high school activities and making and keeping friends. A compassionate yet bawdy look at the life of an obsessive-compulsive personality.  

Chuck Taylor only wears Chuck Taylor Converse sneakers, the color of Cons depending upon his mood.  Chuck is neither a nerd, geek nor athlete, and that causes him to feel unconnected to school. The only thing he is looking forward to is Senior Weekend.  This year it is a muddy campout, which is the exact opposite of the environment that germaphobic Chuck wants.  Chuck’s other compulsions involve his masturbation tally sheet and his obsession with turning his locker combination 14 times before being able to attend class.  Chuck reluctantly attends therapy sessions for his OCD at the insistence of his parents and tries behavior therapy and drug (Lexapro) treatment.  The book degenerates into a typical high-school novel of boy wants girl, gets girl, loses girl and heroically saves her at the end of the book.  When Chuck’s best-guy friend of many years is consistently bullied, Chuck turns a blind eye until Senior Weekend, when Chuck comes to his friend’s rescue.  The frequent use of the “f” word in variant forms and the bawdiness used to tell of Chuck’s obsessions may limit the purchase of this book for some libraries. But others will enjoy the ribald humor of an adolescent mind.                                                                                          --Lois McNicol