Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

Two boys, who on the outside couldn't be more different. Harlan Chesterton is good looking, popular, the rich son of a prominent Senator. He's an ace on the school swim team, he's dating the beautiful Amber, his best friend, Ricky, has street cred. If it weren't for the debilitating panic attacks, along with the flashes of tragic premonition that Harlan experiences, his life would be perfect. After all, that's what his mother is aiming for--running the lives of her husband and son until every detail is absolutely perfect.

Manny Tucker, on the other hand, is a geek. A theater geek, to be exact. Never one to attract attention, Manny prefers working behind the scenes with the lighting, bringing the stars of the stage into perfect, shining glory. He's not popular, he's often picked on by the other kids in school, and his good friend, Elsa, is deaf. He likes working on the computer, coming up with movies to film with Elsa, and living a simple life with his single-father dad. Except lately he's been having vivid nightmares that seem to portend a tragic ending.

How is it that two boys, so far removed on both a social and financial level, should share the same feelings of dread and uncertainty that Harlan and Manny do? And how is the intersection of Grand and Humble, a scene which both see in their unwanted "visions" of either the past or future, involved?

GRAND & HUMBLE is an engaging mystery that delves into the paranormal. The result is a thriller with twists and turns and a surprise ending that will leave even the best of detectives guessing until the final page. Not to be missed by all lovers of a good, thought-provoking "what if" story, GRAND & HUMBLE is sure to please! ( )

Richie's Picks: GRAND & HUMBLE by Brent Hartinger, Harper Tempest, January 2006, ISBN: 0-06-056727-9;libr. ISBN: 0-06-056728-7

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference."
--Robert Frost

GRAND & HUMBLE is the intriguing and surprising tale told in alternating points of view about two young men who attend Roosevelt High School. Both are struggling to survive intense and chronic episodes of internal psychological distress.

Harlan Chesterton is a leader and star swimmer at the school. His father is "United States Senator Lawrence M. Chesterton, Very Big Cheese." His power-wielding mother demands that Harlan regularly contribute to his father's image-building efforts by attending an endless series of local functions and photo-ops.

"The fact is, it wasn't just the characters in The Scarlet Letter who had two faces. Lately, Harlan did too. One face was calm, cool, and collected, always steady, always in control--one of the load-bearing social supports that kept Roosevelt High School from collapsing. That face had been elected student body president by the largest margin in school history.
"But the other face of Harlan Chesterton? Not so confident--in fact, downright fearful. And moody. And easily distracted.
"There was a reason, of course. For the past few weeks, Harlan had been having these occasional premonitions of disaster--visions of what seemed to be the future, usually death. At least they'd started out as occasional. Now he was having them two or more times a day."

Meanwhile, self-proclaimed geek Manny Tucker regularly gets to watch Harlan's perfectly-blond girlfriend, Amber, perform onstage from the darkness of the school theater's control booth where Manny reigns as lighting designer and master of the light board. But Manny has also been struggling to hold it together.

"He wished he'd never told [his best friend] about the nightmares. He'd been having them for weeks now. It hadn't been every night at first, but it was now. It was bad enough that he had to dream them; he didn't want to also have to talk about them."

Why have these two very different Roosevelt High School students--strangers to each other--been stricken with their debilitating psychological conditions? As Harlan and Manny travel toward their inevitable intersection, it seems that of the things they seem to share in common, the one that keeps surfacing is each one's respective connection to the crossroads downtown where Grand & Humble meet.

Richie Partington
http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com ( )

Two very different boys experience similar visions of death in a tightly-plotted, well-written, suspense book.

Manny is a geek. Into theatre lighting and film, he's practically invisible to at his high school. Harlan is a high-school superhero. A handsome, charming jock, son of a senator, with a smokin' girlfriend. The two boys have nothing in common, except both have been having debilitating nightmares.

The boys take different approaches to discover the source of the premonitions; Manny talks to his dad, while Harlan tries to hide the visions and their effect on him. Manny's dad, usually understanding and supportive, acts suspicious when Manny mentions the dreams to him, and it's getting harder and harder for Harlan to keep the terror he feels hidden, especially from his control freak mom.

As the two boys discover the root of their dreams, they discover surprising secrets about themselves, leading to a well done twist ending.

This is a fast and suspenseful read, one that I would not normally pick up on my own. The secrets to the twist ending are nicely woven into the plot, and the ending is a genuine surprise. Everything ends a little pat, but strong characters and a fast pace make up for it. (cross-posted from MeriJenBen) ( )

Mannie and Harmon are two 17 yer old boys at the same high school, but they have nothing in common. Mannie wears all black, does the lights for the school play and lives with just his Dad. Harmon is super popular, athletic and his father is a senator. Then Harmon starts getting "flashes" of accidents in his future. And Mannie starts having nightmares about being crushed. What's happening to these two boys and how are their lives connected?
I really loved this book mostly for the ending - which I won't give away. Once you finish it, you'll see how clever the author is. ( )

Two very different boys experience similar visions of death in a tightly-plotted, well-written, suspense book.

Manny is a geek. Into theatre lighting and film, he's practically invisible to at his high school. Harlan is a high-school superhero. A handsome, charming jock, son of a senator, with a smokin' girlfriend. The two boys have nothing in common, except both have been having debilitating nightmares.

The boys take different approaches to discover the source of the premonitions; Manny talks to his dad, while Harlan tries to hide the visions and their effect on him. Manny's dad, usually understanding and supportive, acts suspicious when Manny mentions the dreams to him, and it's getting harder and harder for Harlan to keep the terror he feels hidden, especially from his control freak mom.

As the two boys discover the root of their dreams, they discover surprising secrets about themselves, leading to a well done twist ending.

This is a fast and suspenseful read, one that I would not normally pick up on my own. The secrets to the twist ending are nicely woven into the plot, and the ending is a genuine surprise. Everything ends a little pat, but strong characters and a fast pace make up for it. ( )