School for Scumbags -- Danny King

I'd never heard of Danny King when I picked up this book from Serpent's Tail, but after a few pages I was sold. I even liked the dedication: To Me."

The narrator is Wayne Banstead, and he's fifteen. He's also a thief. He likes stealing, and he can't understand why anybody wouldn't feel the same. That's why he winds up in the Gafin School for Misdirected Boys. Hogwarts, it ain't, and this is no kids' book. I hate to spoil any surprises, but if you read the book, you'll twig pretty quickly that the school isn't exactly as advertised, and you might even figure out something further, something that takes the author about half the book to get to. When he gets there, the book takes a turn that I'm not going to talk about because that would spoil the fun.

And it's fun, all right. This is a very vulgar and funny novel. Plenty of action, too, maybe too much in the last 100 pages or so. It takes care of business.

One thing I didn't like is the ending. Too many loose ends left over for the sequel. I don't mind a little selling of the next book, but I think King goes a little overboard. You might not feel the same way, so check it out.