Bookreview - Slam by Nick Hornby

Slam is a teen novel, written by Nick Hornby in 2007. Hornby has also written many other novels, such as the book About A Boy (1998). There can be many themes in this book but I think that the main theme in Slam, Is about teenage pregnancy and what problems they can cause. The narrator of the book is Sam, and the story is written around his perspective of things.

Sam is a normal teenager that worships skating. His parents are divorced, and Sam lives alone with his mother. His dad is never around, and sadly Sam’s relationship with him shrinks every day. Because of this and other problems in his life, Sam talks with his idol, the skater Tony Hawk that Is depicted on a poster in his room right above his bed. When Sam`s got problems and questions in his life, he lays down on his bed and talks with Tony. Usually, Tony helps him solve his problems. But sometimes, he just answers him stupidly.
Sam and his mother are bearly getting by, but are happy enough. However, Sam`s life changes dramatically when he decides to have sex with Alicia, a girl that he meets at a party. After a few months of casual sex and dating, Sam gets sick of Alicia and he decides to break up with her. Suddenly Alicia thinks that she’s become pregnant. On Sam’s birthday she tells him the heartbreaking news. Scared by the new course of his life Sam runs-off to Hasting trying to avoid the growing problems in his life. Luckily a day later he returns home very determined to take responsibility for his actions. Alicia and Sam’s parents take the pregnancy badly, but finally, after some pretty fierce conversations they decide to support Sam and their daughter to have the baby.
What’s weird is that Sam is having these dreams about the future and they all seem to come true. And in the end, Sam and Alicia have the baby which they name Roof. Sam and Alicia live together, but only a few months later they break up and get new boy and girlfriends. Sam grows up in the book and finally learns how to take responsibility for his actions.

I think this novel was really good, mainly because it gave me an insight in how a normal teenagers life can suddenly change when making a girl pregnant. This book shows us how important it is to take responsibility and that sometimes you have to grow up faster than you want to.  The writer also sends us a message while reading this book. I think that he wants to tell us that all teenagers feel some kind of sex pressure in their teenage life. 

Nick Hornby writes in a way that is easy to understand and the book is very well written. The story of Sam is a convincing and well-written story. I can recommend this book for all teenagers that think that they are the only ones who have problems in their life's. 

I will give this book an attribute of 4 out of 6