Poor choices land four delinquent teens in summertime mandatory community service. Deemed good-for-nothing by those who judge, they label themselves The Nothing Club. The fast-paced and energetic novel is told from 15-year-old Grady’s humorous, often self-deprecating and sometimes insightful perspective.

Anyone who likes an adventure story frequently interrupted by long diatribes about spirituality and religion, will enjoy this novel. Personally, I question trying to meld two very different approaches: the fast-paced, well-written, rollicking adventures of a group of disparate teens, and random, dragged-out, touchy-feely dialogues about everything from zodiac signs and Christianity to indigenous spirituality and meditation. It felt, well, disjointed, unevenly paced and a little agenda-driven. A sample:

Community-service leader Reg: “Through our failures, we become vulnerable, which leads us to deeper connections with ourselves and others. That boosts our sense of self-worth and gives us a new way forward, with support along the way.”
“So how does spirituality fit into all this?” I blurt out.
“It’s different for everyone,” Reg says. “But the way I look at it, when we believe in something greater than us, whether it’s God, or the universe or whatever, then we see ourselves as part of something good that — even if we can’t understand it with our senses — connects us all. Something that helps us see our similarities instead of our differences. I think spirituality helps us respond to ourselves and each other without judgement, in a more compassionate manner.” “So we’re able to forgive more easily,” says Free Throw, “and be forgiven.” He looks visibly relieved.

But let’s concentrate on just the action-packed adventure aspect for a moment. It’s well written, often humorous, and although the entire story is in the first-person voice of 15-year-old Grady, it very much shares the action and personal growth of all four well-drawn teens thrown together in a community service program – plus some ancillary characters that share their world. There’s who-done-it mysteries to solve, bad guys thrown in for some serious tension, and gripping chase scenes.

Unfortunately, one of the characters, Nikki, is a highly annoying, unrealistic uber-geek who speaks in Wikipedia paragraphs. Let’s just say her trope is overdone.

“I have spent days reading on the law of attraction, spirituality, karma, vibrations, intuition and more.” She presses her fingertips together. “I continue to find nothing definitive, and yet, I cannot deny the presence of something positive associated with this inexplicable domain, at least on an anecdotal level. But I still require scientific evidence to support my observations…
During meditation, I have unquestionably experienced physiological changes. And I cannot rule out the role of expanded consciousness in understanding things that cannot be understood with our senses, which,” she says with a grimace, “may indicate that there is spiritual energy at work.”

On an entirely different note, I’ll admit to being shocked when another of the team members, Tattoo Girl, deliberately seduces a bad guy to buy time for her compatriots to attempt the rescue of an abducted character. Or, as the text itself puts it, she “pimps herself.” Yes, this is a young-adult novel, but readers should be warned it’s that edgy. Also, it’s implied that another character, Catherine, may have been raped during the abduction, but it turns out she’s only tied to the bedposts. Drugs and addicts also populate this novel.

Overall, again, for anyone unbothered by, or attracted to, the group’s frequent conversations on spirituality, this is a fun, compelling read, peopled by fascinating characters and ending on a positive note.
– Pam Withers