You Killed Wesley Payne

This book moves quickly, the dialogue is intersting, and the characters were very intriguing.
4Q, 3P
This book is best suited for highschoolers.
It was selected because it looked nifty.
Grade (of reviewer): 11th
(JD-AHS-NC)

You Killed Wesley Payne was just too much for me. While in the midst of being surrounded by Beaudoin’s originality and creativity I was lost more than once, and bored a good third of the book. After finishing the book I was a little ticked off. There’s a thin line between a great plot twist and

Show More

some random bloshite* and Beaudoin tip toes his way back and forth on that line.

You Killed Wesley offers readers some extras: a clique chart and index, a glossary because readers will really need this, and a few original Dalton stories. On screen this is a brilliant idea. On paper the chart is complicated, difficult to follow, with bolded text, bigger bolded text, and lines crisscrossing whichever way. The index was massive blocks of text that after two full paragraphs I gave up entirely. The glossary and extra stories I had no qualms with. Those I enjoyed immensely especially with the continuation of Dalton’s side notes and remarks.

With the actual body work of the novel the language is the first thing I picked up on. Some reviewers called it neo-noir. I have no idea what that means and will not pretend otherwise, but as I stated previously, the glossary will help out immensely. Secondly I noticed the lack of authority figures and the amount of violence and corruption there is in the book. Dystopia, anyone, within a high school setting? That’s a new one for me. Continuing through, readers find scenes dealing with relationship issues—parental, siblings, and opposite sex wise. Realistic, almost contemporary fiction? I’m a fan of contemporary. So You Killed Wesley Payne was imaginative, definitely something I haven’t particularly read, with two possible genres that I’ve enjoyed before, with a murder mystery at the forefront; what’s not to love? The answer to that question is the pace. The heavy text, the random dialogue that does not fit, and the slow crawl with no action set the book back so far.

In the end I did not enjoy You Killed Wesley Payne. There is a big audience for the creativity that You Killed Wesley Payne demonstrated, but I am not part of that audience.

*a term originated by Beaudoin

Show Less

Product Description
He's come to do a job.
A job that involves a body.
A body wrapped in duct tape found hanging from the goal posts at the end of the football field.

You Killed Wesley Payne is a truly original and darkly hilarious update of classic pulp-noir, in which hard-boiled seventeen year-old

Show More

Dalton Rev transfers to the mean hallways of Salt River High to take on the toughest case of his life. The question isn't whether Dalton's going to get paid. He always gets paid. Or whether he's gonna get the girl. He always (sometimes) gets the girl. The real question is whether Dalton Rev can outwit crooked cops and killer cliques in time to solve the mystery of "The Body" before it solves him.

Sean Beaudoin (Going Nowhere Faster, Fade to Blue) evokes the distinctive voices of legendary crime/noir authors Dashiell Hammett and Jim Thompson with a little bit of Mean Girls and Heathers throwin in for good measure. It'll tease you, please you, and never ever leave you. Actually, that's not true. It's only a book. One that's going to suck you in, spit you out, and make you shake hands with the devil. Probably.

Ok, I give up. I’m throwing in the towel. As my husband and most people who know me will attest, it is a very rare occurrence for me to not be able to finish a book. I received an ARC of this book back in early December and I’ve been struggling with it every since. Perhaps it’s because I’m not a teen (but I read and enjoy quite a bit of young adult/teen novels without any problem.) Maybe I’m just not the right person for this book.

I couldn’t figure out what the author intended with this book. Was a futuristic story with a throwback to the vintage pulp noir? Was a cynical commentary on teens and how high schools operate? I don’t know. I do know that the book gave me a headache every time I tried to read it. I did like that Beadoin included a chart/index with descriptions of all the different cliques, but I hated that I had to keep referring to it and still could not keep everything straight.

I really wanted to like this book. I thought it was going to be a wonderful teen mystery (I love mysteries and did I mention I really like young adult/teen novels?). But I can’t fight it any more. The truth is I dislike the book so much I can’t finish it. I found the writing to be disjointed and confusing. And horror of horrors, I couldn’t find one character I remotely liked.

In the interest of fairness, I am hoping to find a teen that will read the book and give me their take on it. It’s possible that as an adult I just don’t get it. If I do, I’ll ask them to provide a guest review.

Show Less

This is a young adult mystery written in the noir mode. Dalton Rev who idolizes fictional detective Lex Cole has come to Salt River High School to find out who killed Wesley Payne. He finds himself mired in the corruption at the school. The teachers are on the take. The cliques are running the

Show More

place. No can be trusted and no one can be believed. This is a novel of very dark humor just perfect for someone who loves the work of Raymond Chandler or Quentin Tarantino. It had some great one-liners and descriptions that were very Humphrey Bogart in the Maltese Falcon.

I could recognize how clever the book was but I didn't love it. My sense of humor doesn't slant that way. I thought it was more dumb than funny.

Show Less

I really liked You Killed Wesley Payne. I usually don't really like mystery books, but this book is making me rethink my viewpoint. It was all about an young investigator trying to buy body armor for his military brother. He has done all sorts of cases, but gets the one that could finally get him

Show More

enough money to get the armor for his brother at Salt River High. This twisted tale of double crosses and secret agents entranced me from start to finish. This is easily one of the best books I have read so far.

Show Less

You Killed Wesley Payne by Sean Beaudion is about a private investigator named Dalton Rev. He's hired by Wesley Payne's siter to find out who killed Wesley. Everyone thinks it's a suicide, but then again everyone knows he was murdered. Since the day Wesley was killed everyone at Salt River High has

Show More

pretended that he wasn't even there.
Now Salt River High is not your usual school. It's full of cliques and every clique has a secret. They all want to out rival each other to become the ruler of the school.
This book is filled with tons of twists and turns.You never know what's gonna happen. It left me guessing the whole way through. I literally didn't know who killed him until the book told you:)!

Show Less

It really must be an internal struggle for YA authors when deciding whether or not to swear (use curse words) in their books. On one hand if you do you risk offending a share of your audience, and potentially limiting readership, but on the other you risk quality of dialogue. Usually YA authors

Show More

tend to go the cleaner route. Some do it seamlessly, while others truly suffer in readability. Never has this seemed more Apparent than in Beaudoin's You Killed Wesley Payne. Close approximations are used continuously ("shite" and "farck" come to mind), which eventually grated on my nerves and seemed to enjoy doing so.

However, there is more to this book than just foul, errr, appropriate language. I thought the first 20-30 pages of this book were awesome, really had me sucked in, and then somewhere it just lost me. I've been trying to pinpoint where, and can't decide on a particular spot. It might be the work as a whole being totally unrealistic that did it. I think kids would want to read a book like this for some sort of connection to their own lives, and their lives at school. I cannot imagine any student feeling much of an affinity to the story. A prevailing theme in the book is the all-invasive high school cliques, and sure every high school has cliques, but not to the strength of Beaudoin's groupings, something that YA readers will identify quickly. Also, the characters are only partially developed, and the parts that are developed are not particularly endearing. And to wrap it all up, the reader discovers at the end that Beaudoin withheld information that the main character knew all along, which really doesn't fit with the narrative format. I felt cheated out of effort and time.

I would be willing to try a second of Beaudoin's books based on the beginning of this one, but will be wiser to heed my feelings of putting it aside after significant signs of disorientation.

Show Less