A Man With An Agenda

Four friends have planned the ultimate road trip to celebrate graduating high school, with stops at funky roadside attractions, out-of-the-way museums and, best of all, it culminates in a tour of the set of their favorite TV show, Wiz Kids. The show is how they became friends in the first place and what they hope will keep them together when they all go off to separate schools in the fall. A last-minute invite, made in jest, is sent to Wiz Kids star Cash Carter and he accepts! The reality of the actor who plays their screen idol might be more than these friend can handle, especially when they've all got secrets of their own. These five are going to learn what its like when people stop being polite and start getting real.

I was looking forward to reading this ever since we received the arc, because I enjoyed 'Struck by Lighting' and I know a lot of people are devoted to his 'Land of Stories' series. I'm sure that there are some significant edits still to be made, because there were times when the omniscient narration got choppy, tracking different characters' thoughts in a confusing way, but I still didn't like the story. There were some deeper problems with the plot. The positives are that the characters' situations are relevant to a lot of younger readers and Colfer touches on a lot of important issues. I've written before about liking stories simply because of the importance of their content, about the fact of a conversation being more important than the quality of the conversation, but it wasn't enough to sway me this time.

The story's not for me, there was a lot of humor and angst, but in the end there was no sincere heart. I'll still read the next one.