Candy Everybody Wants by Josh Kilmer-Purcell
Blurb for the back cover:
“I really wanted to bitch slap the protagonist across the face”
Candy Everybody Wants is Josh Kilmer-Purcell’s first attempt as fiction following his memoir with I Am Not Myself These Days. It’s a coming of age story that follows Jayson as he is forced to leave home and live with his mysterious father in New York. Once there he falls in love and tries to make in big in Hollywood, a dream that he believes is his destiny. But as he rises to fame, he will have to deal with the family that casted him out, a boy from his past, and as always the ups and downs of love.
This story takes place in the 80’s which everybody seems to mention when talking about this book. Personally I didn’t really get the 80’s vibe from it. Maybe I am too young to catch the nuances of that particular decade. After all I was only alive for half of it. This made me realize that in a few years we’re going to be flooded with books that take place in the 90’s and I’ll finally be able to understand books that are filled with cultural references. Slap bracelets. Pogs. Neon. I welcome their return.
I had a fun time reading this book. It was my first post-school term book and I was aching for something fun to read. This was a book that I found enjoyable until the later half of the book when Jayson the main character started to piss me off and I really wanted to bitch slap the protagonist across the face and talk some common sense in to him. I guess that’s a good thing. You know, feeling connected to the characters and whatnot.
I tried really hard while reading this book to not compare it to IANMTD. They are different books I kept telling myself but the plots seemed similar and with a couple of subtle changes CEW could easily be changed in to a prequel of IANMTD. But speaking of sequels, this book ended in such a fashion that I felt that there was still a lot more story to tell about Jayson and now, as much as I hate to encourage sequels, I want a follow up to this book. Maybe Jayson in his early 20’s. Please?
JKP also raises goats on a farm in his spare time. His Myspace has pictures so go check those out.