Cover of Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before

If Albert Kim has learned one thing in his tragic adolescence, it's that God (probably a sadistic teenaged alien) does not want him to succeed at Bern High. By the end of sophomore year, Al is so tired of humiliation that he's chosen to just forget girls and high school society in general, and enjoy the Zen-like detachment that comes from being an intentionalloser.

Read more

Then he meets Mia Stone, and all the repressed hormones come flooding back. Mia, his co-worker at the Bern Inn, is adorable, popular, and most intimidatingly, the ex- long-term girlfriend of Ivy-bound, muscle-bound king of BHS and world class jerk, Ryan Stackhouse. But — chalk it up to the magic of Al's inner beauty — by the end of a summer vacuuming hotel rooms and goofing off together, he and Mia are officially "something."

Albert barely has time to ponder this miracle before the bomb drops: Ryan has been diagnosed with cancer, and he needs Mia's support, i.e. constant companionship. True, he's lost weight and he's getting radiation, but that doesn't make him any less of a jerk. And to Albert, it couldn't be more apparent that Ryan is using his cancer to steal Mia back. With the whole town rallying behind Ryan like he's a fallen hero, and Mia emotionally confused and worried for Ryan, Al's bid for love is not a popular campaign. In fact, it's exactly like driving the wrong way on a five-lane highway.

In this desperately funny novel, David Yoo tells an authentic story of first love, and therein captures the agony, the mania, the kicking and screaming that define teenage existence.

Audience
young adult
Length
medium · 386 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Club Meds Shares young adult, realistic fiction, humor
  2. Cheesus Was Here Shares young adult, realistic fiction, humor
  3. Hero-Type Shares young adult, realistic fiction, fiction
  4. A Field Guide to High School Shares young adult, realistic fiction, humor

“People who read Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Castration Celebration
  2. Nothing But the Truth
  3. Good Enough
  4. Ignatius MacFarland: Frequenaut!

“If you want more of the same (literary fiction about diversity), start with these.”

  1. 24 Girls in 7 Days
  2. Into the Wild Nerd Yonder
  3. The Gospel According to Larry
  4. Teen, Inc.

“If it was the realistic fiction that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowenstein
  2. Girl, Aloud: The Teensy Talent of a Reluctant Rock Chick
  3. Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie
  4. The Girls

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Effortless With You
  2. The Guys Are Props Club
  3. The Girl Next Door
  4. Painting the Desert