The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“You don't have time to chitty-chat with loose women. We have work to do. And you have to save humanity. That's a lot of shit to get done.”- The House of Tomorrow, Peter Bognanni

Sebastian Prendergast lives in a geodesic dome with his eccentric grandmother, who homeschooled him in the teachings of futurist philosopher R. Buckminster Fuller. But when his grandmother has a stroke, Sebastian is forced to leave the dome and make his own way in town.

Jared Whitcomb is a chain-smoking sixteen-year-old heart-transplant recipient who befriends Sebastian, and begins to teach him about all the things he has been missing, including grape soda, girls, and Sid Vicious. They form a punk band called The Rash, and it's clear that the upcoming Methodist Church talent show has never seen the likes of them. Wholly original, The House of Tomorrow is the story of a young man's self-discovery, a dying woman's last wish, and a band of misfits trying desperately to be heard. 

Last year, one of my favorite nonfiction books was called Please Kill Me, an oral history about the punk movement. Highly recommended, especially since it focused mainly on the New York punk scene (after all, contrary to popular belief that's where punk originated). The punk of the 70s was dramatically different than the punk of today. It was loud and offensive and didn't give a damn whether or not you thought it was loud and offensive. There was always at least one member of each band who was a Neo-Nazi. My mother was a big Ramones fan back in the day, often seeing them at Toad's Place in New Haven, and I grew up listening to punk music. Needless to say, I have a certain fondness towards the movement.

I love the title of this book; it makes me think of some punk music venue. I also find the cover of the paperback more attractive than the hardcover, because it makes me think of The Sex Pistols. Now that I've got that out of the way, let's move on with the actual review.

Going into this novel, I had some pretty set expectations. I figured that I would hate Sebastian, that he would be written like your typical John Greenish hero- kind of like the titular character of Scott Stambach's The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko. I was wrong. Sebastian was far more compassionate and less annoying than those types of protagonists. He was sweeter; his intelligence and almost naivety didn't make him judgmental or pretentious. I could actually root for him, and when he made a mistake or said something that could be offensive he didn't just fall back on an
ambiguous disorder, he apologized and asked what he did wrong so he couldn't do it again. It was so much easier to like him than it was for me to like Ivan or Hazel (a rare female example), for instance. 

However, Sebastian, I felt, was the only really developed character, in my opinion. The other characters had hints of development, but they weren't that deep. Sure, I could tell that Bognanni was trying to have well-rounded characters, but he kind of fell flat, if you will pardon the pun. All the characters in this novel were interesting, but ultimately underdeveloped. Apart from Sebastian, the deepest characters are probably Nana and Janice Whitcomb, the only two adult characters, which I'm guessing is probably because Bognanni is more comfortable with adult characters than with teenager ones. 

Regardless, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. There wasn't as much music as I wanted there to be, but I still had so much fun reading this. It was an interesting and even unique take on how much power music can hold, with very little sugarcoating. Music isn't shown to be a savior, per say, but it does help these characters immensely through their struggles. The writing was very good, it felt like it was from the 90s. Some of Jared's lines had me laughing, too. I can't quite describe the feeling I had while reading this book, but it was not unpleasant. The closest word I could think of would be nostalgic, though I can't tell you what for. I think your enjoyment of the novel might be impacted about what your expectations were going in, and I agree with the Goodreads user who said that as a YA novel this is one of the best, but as an adult novel it's just okay. It's one of those books that could honestly go either way. Personally, as a YA novel I loved it, and as an adult novel I was underwhelmed.

Overall, I'm happy I picked The House of Tomorrow up. Not really much I can say about this book, other than it was worth my time. If you like punk music, or just music in general, I'm sure you'd really like it, too. I highly recommend it in that case.

8 out of 10