Me on Marco Impossible

Title: Marco Impossible
Author: Hannah Moskowitz
Release Date: March 19, 2013
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (Macmillan imprint)

Thirteen-year-old best friends Stephen and Marco attempt a go-for-broke heist to break into the high school prom and get Marco to confess her love for (and hopefully steal the heart of) Benji, the adorable exchange student and bass player of the prom band. Of course, things don't always go as planned, and every heist has its share of hijinks.

Marco Impossible is an adventure of epic proportions, at least from Marco and Stephen's point of view. It won't be an easy adventure, and there might be times when they want to give up, but this is one of those life-changing adventures they won't ever regret if they follow it through to the end.

Stephen and Marco are two best friends, different in the ways that work, Marco plans the schemes and Stephen records everything. They work well off each other, Stephen as the cautious sidekick with Marco as the sometimes fearless sometimes battered wildly creative leader who desperately wants to confess his love before it's too late. An awesome pair with their own set of problems.

They're on a mission, a very important mission, like two detectives who never believe they could be in over their heads at any point (well, Stephen thinks they're in over their heads, Marco's too focused on the goal). But what would they do if they happen to end up involved in something sinister?

What I enjoy most about Hannah's books is they're about people, people with big flaws, big hearts, big problems, big dreams, big plans. Gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, genderqueer, questioning. Even fishboy. It's about people, it's people that matter. And Hannah writes about people in such a wonderful way.

Like any Hannah Moskowitz book, reading this was an unexpected surprise. Her books are always honest, always emotional, often brutal, and always heartfelt. This is something more sweeter than Teeth, her most recent YA novel, but it is by no means any less complicated for its characters.

(I received an e-galley to review from Macmillan through Raincoast Books.)