Well written, a little too many platitudes though, especially in the first 100 pages.
You recognize the writer age while reading. I was sometimes hearing my students talking.
Nevertheless, I really loved McDonell's sparse language, the short chapters and the constant switching point-of-view. White Mike is a well-developed character whose psychological flaws and strengths make him interesting and lifelike. The plot has its weak points. I got really used to this fatalistic stories, and in the end I wasn't really interested in who gets killed and who doesn't. Maybe I'm as nihilistic as the kids in this novel.
Just like watching series like Gossip Girl or any other teen drama I had to try to remember that the protagonists are just kids. Although, in contrast to these teen trash series the kids here are adolescents. They don't whine as adults do and above all they don't have adults supervising them and teaching them a valuable lesson once in a while. These soapy parents are only there to remind the young audience that they shouldn't try the things they see on TV at home anyway. In this novel there simply are no parents. ( )

A poorly written book by "up and coming" writer Nick McDonell. The guy was 17 years old and it showed in his writing. It was the sort of thing that you think is genius when you're a kid and writing is your "passion." What convinced me to buy the book is the wonderful reviews in New York Magazine and the blurbs in the back, featuring one by Hunter S. Thompson and Joan Didion. What the back cover doesn't mention, however, is that these are friends of his parents. I find it sickening that they would use their fame to promote a horrible writer.

I would more likely drink a gallon of gasoline and then smoke before reading this book again. ( )

Twelve produces a story in which is highly relatable given the society in which a person may live, as no matter the location it is reality. It all comes to an ending which stops the similarities only to switch to symbolizing how one event can completely change whom a person is. ( )

I enjoyed it at the time because I liked the person who loaned the book to me and because I thought it was very cool and transgressive of me to read books with copious drug use and sex. I have little interest now in reading about how much more hardcore this generation is than anyone else ever and I can't be shocked by the excess and supposed depravity that a book like this wants me to be shocked by. ( )

Read pp 1-2. Author is only 17 years old but guy writes like he is 30. Incredibly mature voice altho the story does drag in parts and Claude's huge shoot-em-up at the end goes over the top. White Mike's emotional connection to his cousin Charlie wasn't well-defined for me, wasn't convincing enough. Still, an amazing story.