I’m With Stupid is the third and final book in the Felton Reinstein trilogy, and in my opinion, it is the best ending series the series could possibly have, and it is also extremely accessible to people who haven’t read the other two books in the series. The Felton Reinstein Trilogy is written by Geoff Herbach, a creative writing professor at Minnesota State, and it mainly revolves around Felton Reinstein, who at the beginning of the series is about to enter his sophomore year in high school and will be on the football team.
Felton had been an outcast all of his life, with his best and only friend being Gus, who was in the same situation as Felton. However, the gift of puberty was bestowed upon him and he became stupid fast, which happens to be the title of the first book in the trilogy. He has trouble adjusting to his new status as a jock and all of the other troubles that come along in high school, and this is a common theme in YA novels. The Felton trilogy is special because the family situation takes the spotlight here, and Felton’s family is so unique yet so realistic at the same time that you can’t help but on Felton’s side, even if he is a dumb jock.
One of the biggest factors in Felton’s family and life is his little brother Andrew. Andrew is pretty much the polar opposite of Felton. Andrew is smart and is regarded as a prodigy, while Felton isn’t the smartest monkey in the barrel, but he is athletically gifted. Felton has trouble dealing with his past and realizing who he is, while Andrew is, in his words, “a whole person.”
However, their bond is the strongest family tie Felton has, because Felton’s mom, Jerri, is just a hot mess. She was messed up by her husband’s suicide which messes up Felton in the book, but she doesn’t try to deal with it. She just hides her husband and who he was from Felton and Andrew, and that revelation is the climax of the first book. However this review is about the last book, so let’s talk about that.
I’m With stupid takes places during Felton’s senior year in high school, which, considering what he has been through in all of these books, is probably the toughest year for him. The book has little mention of school life in terms of class work, really only talking about AP English, but it talks about how his football career and picking a college affects him and his peers. You see, in the book, Felton is the third ranked high school running back in the country, so he doesn’t have to work to get into college.
Everything is handed on a platter. He is from Wisconsin, and all of his friends expect to pick The University of Wisconsin, and this is bad, since after four visits to colleges, he realizes that he wants to go to Stanford University instead, but he puts on a face and says he wants to go to Wisconsin. Gus’s experiences with applying for college also affect him, and he realizes that he doesn’t really know what defines him, so he undertakes a quest to be meaningful. This leads to some of the most emotional and revealing moments in the book. This also leads to Felton doing some of the only positive things he does in the book, because while you are always on Felton’s side, he does some horrible things, and while these things are justified, you can’t help but facepalm when he makes certain decisions.
However, the book doesn’t make Felton seem like a bad person, even though he does bad things. It does a good job painting Felton and his friends in a positive light while not ignoring the fact that they are not angels; they are flawed, but you still see their good side. This book also has awesome characters, and it expanded on almost every character from the previous books and made them better. In fact, even Felton’s father, who committed suicide when Felton was five, is prevalent in all of the books and had a negative effect on Felton in the 1st and 3rd books and influenced his actions in this book.
Each of these characters are important in their own ways, because almost every part of the book, no matter how important it appears, factors into the end result, and it is very satisfying to see everything tie up and have closure. However, to get to that ending, this book takes a pretty long time, as the pacing is erratic, with some sections going along super slowly and others going really fast. These pacing issues didn’t bother me, but it may bother you. Also, this book covers some pretty heavy stuff, even for a YA novel, so I would recommend this book for mature readers who are at least in the 8th grade.
All in all, I’m With Stupid is the final book in a trilogy that has satisfied me more than every other YA series out there, and I’m With Stupid is a satisfying end.