Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schreiber

TITLE: Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick
AUTHOR: Joe Schreiber
PUBLISHER/YEAR: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/ 2011
GENRE: YA, Thriller
SERIES: No
SOURCE: Local Library


Goodreads 


I spend a lot of time reading book blogs, reviews, whatever I come across. It's fun and a great way to hear about books I would have never picked up otherwise. Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick is one of those books I found through somebody else's review (in this case it was Good Books and Good Wine's review from a little under a month ago). The review sounded intriguing so I recently went and picked it up at the library. 


It was a fun read. It only took me a day to get through reading it on the bus and I'm glad I did. It's not a substantial book, but it's fun. The story follows Perry Stormaire on prom night. All Perry wants to do is perform with his band in New York City, but he's forced to take Gobi, the foreign exchange student who has been living with his family, to prom. He's expecting a pretty boring night, but little does he know that Gobi has plenty of secrets. Soon he's caught up in gunfire and car chases as Gobi takes him around New York with a hit list, bent on completing all five hits before the night is up. 


Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick is like an action adventure movie in book form. It's light. It's action packed. It's not particularly memorable, but that's okay, it fulfilled it's purpose. The book's format is one of the more interesting parts. It's broken up into incredibly short chapters all headed by prompt questions for college application essays. It's a clever trope and fun. It doesn't add a lot to the story itself, but it's eye catching all the same. 


Like I said, nothing in this book is completely memorable. Perry and Gobi aren't strong characters in that they're not well developed. Gobi is clearly based on the hit-woman stereotype found in so many films, fifty percent lethal, fifty percent sexy. She's just as willing to use her sex appeal as her guns. Perry on the other hand fulfills the high school virgin trope, naive, a little weak. They aren't so much individual characters as easily recognizable stock characters. It's a downside for me as I found myself not really caring about them or their fates. 


I don't know if there's that much more to say about this book. Schreiber succeeded in creating a fun, action packed story that's good for a quick read.