Pants on Fire (reread)

reading next: How To Be Popular

Pants on Fire
written by Meg Cabot



While Tommy Sullivan is, and will continue to be, my favorite Cabot boy, this book is nowhere near one of my favorites. The first thing that I disliked about the book occured before I even opened it--the cover. I originally had to have it shipped over without the jacket, just so I could have the book in the house without my parents' objections. It's a disgusting cover, and one that I'm sure had to turn some readers away, right? The other thing is the title. While Pants on Fire does describe the character well, the original intended title, Tommy Sullivan is a Freak would have worked so much better and been entirely more catchy. Reading through the book, it is more evident than most Cabot books (although I'm realizing more and more that this is true for most all of them...) that the main character is a spoiled, snobby, popular kid. I used to find these books so identifyable, until very recently. Yeah, the characters have their issues, but at the root of things, they are all ridiculously popular, even Mia, the one who most would probably easily identify with (if you object to this statement, you clearly haven't read the last two PD books). Kind of makes it hard to sympathize with them... Tommy Sullivan is the only thing that breathes life into this otherwise dead book about a flirty, slutty, teen. I do agree with the more rebellious aspects of it. (For heaven's sakes, I live in a football town. No truer statement has been uttered than Katie's rant, "I hate the way we worship the Quahogs, and for what? They don't save lives. They don't teach us anything. They just chase after a stupid ball. And for that, we treat them like gods." EXACTLY what I've been saying for years.) This is just going to have to be another one of those "It had potential, but..." books.

Rating: 3/5