Clay's Way

A wannabe punk rocker who writes bad haiku poetry, 15-year-old Sam is fed up with his middleclass parents, his geeky best friend, and his inability to do the raddest skateboard tricks. Then he meets Clay. Mistaking lust for fate, Sam becomes obsessed with the 17-year-old surferboy, whose island cool masks an internal conflict even darker than Sam's. Directing his furious energy toward winning Clay's heart, Sam goes on a reckless odyssey to become everything Clay seems to be. Through hurricanes, car accidents, teenage parties, and monster waves they ricochet off each other until, on a remote beach, in the flickering light of torches and campfires, the violence and tumult of Clay and Sam's dynamic propels them both through the hardest decisions and obstacles of their young lives. Set against the dazzling backdrop of Hawaii's Oahu and Kauai islands, "Clay's Way" seethes with the energy and the hormonally charged nihilism of its characters. Twenty-four-year-old first-time novelist Blair Mastbaum has written a startlingly authentic account of 21st-century teens, careening toward adulthood, devoid of guidance, fueled by alcohol, drugs, and rage.