Cruise Control (Stuck in Neutral, 2)

I read the first book in this series and immediately wanted more. But Cruise Control didn't deliver what I'd expected to the extent I'd wanted. To much was spelled out, some things felt repetitious, some too shallow. The secondary characters weren't fleshed out enough. The conclusion was too neat, especially the part that dealt with his father issues. I'd expected this book to be about Paul's relationship with his brother, and partly, it was. But it was more about his relationship with his father and his anger issues.I think I'll just go reread Stuck in Neutral.

It seems like a true book written by a confused high school student. The language is a bit touchy, but I think that's how a super athlete in high school, the big brother of a handicapped little brother, would have spoken and acted.

I am a Special Education teacher and I read the book which I thoroughly enjoyed. It makes you wonder what exceptional students are really thinking. Our students are so much brighter than everyone who does deal with these student knows.

Great! Got it as a follow up for one of my students who lvoed the first one!

This book is not a sequel to Trueman's masterpiece, but it does offer another viewpoint of the tragic Shawn McDaniel. The ending is very trite,but it will please those who loved Stuck in Nuetral and other Trueman books.

This book was for my grandson, who loves author Terry Trueman - thanks!

I would recommend reading Cruise Control. It was a great book because it showed what families go through with a troubled child. The book Cruise Control also realistically portrays what most teenagers go through. The first person view of the main character, Paul gave great detail with his thoughts, feeling, and experiences. Cruise Control also was not to slow or too fast.The bond with Paul and his Dad is very sensitive to talk about. His dad went away without saying a word, which made Paul very mad and he never wanted to see him ever again. What I think of the bond they have is that Paul should be mad. Having one of the two people in your life just leave that's jacked up. I feel that Terry had an influence on Paul's life. Again, I would recommend this novel because of how it takes us into the world of Paul. In other words, it wasn't boring, was understandable, and had a detailed story plot. If you read Cruise Control, you'll definitely learn something.

The thing I liked most about this book is that it gets the first person male narration of a senior in high school pretty spot on. Paul is a highly successful athlete and scholar in his last year in high school, but is constantly brimming with a pressure-cooker full of rage. He's angry at his father, at people who try to get too close to him, and at the unfairness of life. Most of all, though, he's angry at himself and his confused feelings he feels towards his fourteen-year-old brother who is a "veg", as Paul describes him.Many boys will enjoy this book because of the tone of the narration, but also because of the sports story and buzzer-beater ending. While there are some occasional 4-letter words (hello? as I said, he IS a senior in high school), I will recommend this probably to some select kids in my middle school classroom.