cover image Start Here

Start Here

Scarlett MacDougal. Alloybooks, $4.99 (200pp) ISBN 978-0-14-131020-6

Underneath its glitzy veneer of Brazilian bikini waxes, semicasual sex and brand-name fetishism, book one of the Have a Nice Life series is actually a conventional prom-date romance jazzed up with a supernatural plot twist. Clarence Terence, an intergalactic angel who's a dead ringer for rocker Lenny Kravitz, arrives in Madison, Wisc., to fulfill a mission he describes as ""It's a Wonderful Life meets Terminator II.... I'm here to show four high school seniors their futures so they can fulfill their karmic destinies and I can finally redeem my sixth incarnation."" Zola, Olivia, Min and Sally, lifelong best friends, each has her own personal version of boy trouble. As if it weren't enough to travel briefly into the future with one's own hipster guardian angel (who calls himself a ""fairy godmother""), this adventure coincides with the momentous night of the senior prom. Can the high schoolers avoid their largely unpleasant futures by changing their behavior in the present day? Only the series' upcoming volumes will tell (including the simultaneously published book two, Play). The novel's tone may be shrill, its characters broadly drawn and the pop culture asides nearly dated already (e.g., Clarence serenades Olivia with Britney Spears's version of ""I Can't Get No Satisfaction""), but hidden deep within the trendiness and gossipy fluff are a few serious points about self-respect. Ages 12-up. (Dec.)