Elliot Allagash

f Elliot Allagash was a film, the wimpy kid would be played by Michael Cera, and Elliot himself by one of the Gossip Girl castmembers.

That's the immediate visual stimuli when reading this book of how Elliot Allagash, the richest kid in the world (his dad's dad's dad's dad or thereabouts invented paper) uses his wealth to turn our protagonist into the coolest kid in school. He doesn't need to work, he barely needs to be educated. All that is left to Elliot Allagash is the spirit of sport, an obsessive's notebook of those who have wronged him and a bottomless supply of pocket money. At this point, this book should be circling derivative in delivering the classic Trading Places scenario: what happens if you use your wealth to turn an unknown schlub into the coolest kid in school. How does he deal with that?

But it manages to circumvent hack-status by being so darned funny, by allowing itself to break high school hijinks conventions with a dark tone, by constantly reinventing itself.

The book pounds through three distinct movements, all related to different aspects of the Monopoly board, from Free Parking to Get out of jail free and on, and each one builds the tension up to fever pitch. How does Elliot get his way? Will he get his comeuppance? Will the narrator become a victim of his own success? When is it time for another hilarious anecdote from Elliot's permanently drunk dad?

It's wickedly funny and constantly surprising and always willing to go a little further to destroy its characters.