Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn

The publisher’s promotional material suggests this ‘is the perfect book for anyone who… never missed a single episode of The OC’. Certainly it reads like a pitch for a teen TV series.

On arrival at an elite prep school, the not so rich and not so handsome Gideon finds he is to room with two of the in-crowd, who promptly lay odds on how long it will take him to lose ‘the other half of his virginity’. Gideon happily participates in this demeaning bet and yes, the book does revolve around this issue, with a few forays into drugs and socialising. There were 32 pages missing from my review copy, but it didn’t make much difference to my ability to follow the plot. The title implies that one of the female characters has access to Gideon’s thoughts. She narrates the book from this privileged position, but there isn’t much difference between this and ordinary omniscient narration. The style is light, flippant and will appeal to a teen readership.

Undoubtedly this will find a sizable market, but it is basically a beach book for teenagers. School librarians should be warned that there is some fairly explicit content.