- Source: Review Copy
- Pages: 294
- Publisher: M & S Publishing
- Publication Date: July 25th 2019
- My Rating: 3 stars
The Final Weekend: A Stoned Tale by Neal Cassidy is about the time in our lives where we must say goodbye to our carefree youth and the people who we spent it with. It’s about a group of college friends who are about to go their separate ways. It’s a unique coming-of-age story.
The book follows a wide range of characters that are very different from each other. Goodkat is a professor, who much like his students, isn’t quite out of the college boy mindset yet. He sleeps with his students and doesn’t remember their names. He is vain and shallow. He is an example of the people who have a hard time letting go of their glory days and dealing with adulthood.
Trent gets fired again and again due to his rude attitude. Clarence just became a cop. Schroeder is a drug dealer. He and his girlfriend have quite a strange relationship. Ling-Ling is a stickler for punctuality, unlike her best friend Courtney who has the coolest grandma ever. She has a crush on her friend Justin, but there’s nothing happening between the two beyond their incessant flirting. Courtney and Harry have been hooking up for years but are unable to commit to each other. Harry has already moved away for his career, and the group spends one last weekend together to have fun and to say goodbye to each other.
It was clear that all the boys desperately wanted to hold on to their youth and the carefree and silly time they had with each other. They were mostly caught up in the casual hookups scenario, but some of them wanted to have deeper connections. There are many flashback scenes from various characters’ memories. It showed how all of them were nostalgic for the good times they had with each other. I really enjoyed the bonding between Ling-Ling and Courtney, especially since they had such different personalities.
I understand that the author was just portraying how young people are, but I found most characters extremely unlikeable. It was hard to feel anything for them. Most of the boys were typical sexist jerks who made immature innuendos.
There are some monotonous descriptions of things that go on for too long. It could’ve been shorter and the plot more solid. The plot is vague even though it does manage to make its point. I found the twist at the end very unnecessary. This is a very light-hearted book, and I liked that, but I would’ve preferred the story to be stronger.
I really enjoyed the author’s writing style. The flashbacks, especially, were really well-written.
This book is a satire on contemporary society. By showing very stereotypes characters, it shows how the people of our generation behave and live. This book will work best for the kind of audience that will relate to it.
