Grand \u0026 Humble by Brent Hartinger

Grand \u0026 Humble Reviews

• 
  Louie the Mustache Matos

  A couple of things should be said up-front, just because people have their own ways that should be respected, so if you don't like YA, this is YA. I used to be anti-YA, but then you get step daughters, and all of a sudden, YA ain't so bad. Also, a minor character is gay and it's a minor plot point. So if those things trigger you, don't read this.
  
  The story is about two boys with opposing characteristics. Their lives are about as polar opposite as you can get, but there is something that despite their completely disparate lives, is shared. I will leave it there so as not to giveaway the MacGuffin, which comes somewhere near the end.
  
  The story is a mystery thriller, slice-of-life. The story does not tie neatly into a bow, although there is a distinct plot twist that is kind of common to soap operas, but not common in real life. I love that. The writing is a little odd, to me. I don't love the writer's voice, but the story was told in an intriguing, entertaining way. This is an unexpectedly good, fun read.
• 
  J.S.

  Harlan and Manny, two 17 year old boys, are opposites of each other. Harlan is the son of a Senator and lives a life of wealth and privilege with his aloof and distant parents. He's the star of the high school swim team and dates the prettiest girl in school. Manny lives with his dad, who acts more like a friend than a parent, in a poorer neighborhood. He's the school theater's audio/visual geek and is most certainly not popular. But it turns out they have a lot more in common than either of them know.
  
  I've had this on my Kindle app for a couple of years but hadn't really thought much about it. Until recently. Because I needed some fiction to offset the non-fiction I've been reading lately. And although initially I was a bit turned off - the writing just felt a little odd in some places and some characters sounded a little too cliché - I was pulled into the story before the mid-point and couldn't put it down. And the ending? I can see how some reviewers are turned off by it - I certainly didn't see it coming - but I thought it was clever. (Although I'm not sure why some reviewers are saying they didn't get it.) A read that surprised me by being much better than I expected.
• 
  Mel

  I would give this book a solid 3 1/2 stars. I loved the main characters, Manny & Harlan, and their sidekicks Elsa & Ricky and the story was very engaging from the start. The pacing was great and it was a great page-turner. However, I found the ending a bit lacking. I understand the message the author was conveying, but there were a couple of loops that just didn't feel closed to me. But all in all it was an enjoyable read.
• 
  Molly

  Very, very, very confusing. I did not understand the ending AT ALL, but it was confusing in a good way I think, as if it was actually written to be confusing. I'm glad I read it. I didn't put it down once while I was reading it, just sat for three hours reading, until the book was finished. I am a swimmer like Harlan, and this is the first book I've read that is even close to being accurate about the sport. I'm really critical of books that have swimmers in it, because it seems like they always get it wrong in some way, but this one actually did a good job. I'd recommend this book, although I think Hartinger should have made in longer and included more details in the end.
• 
  Alia

  Okay! So I finally finished it and what??? I had such high hopes ...
  
  Okay so it sets the book up as two boys trying to figure out what their seeing in their minds, and ends the book with it being the same person from two different realities...
  
  Manny is seeing flashbacks from his past of a car accident. Harlan is seein what he believes to be the future. Manny ha his friend Elsa helping him while Harlan has Ricky. Throughout the story they try to find out what happened/is happening. Their lives are parallels to each other.
  
  What we find out In The end is that both are having flashbacks to the car accident that happened when they were driving out to see the mom's brother. In Harlan's world, they survive the accident and the mom's brother dies a year later. In manny's world, the parents died in the car accident as he loves with his uncle, the mom's brother.
  In the last chapter it's both of their pov. Harlan ends up asking Manny's friend and Manny ends up either going on a date with Ricky, or befriending him and going to hang out.
  
  
  I just,... I hated the the twist. Sure I wasn't expecting it but it made no sense. I like the story leading up to it , but if it ended differently, I would have loved it more.
• 
  Felicia

  I probably died a little bit at the end of this one. The twist was one that I did not see coming. Well, I mean, I vaguely saw something, but nothing like this.
  
  It was a book worthy of being our book of the month and, although it wasn't scary like I thought it was going to be, it was a suitable October read nonetheless.
  
  In an effort to not have to put a spoiler alert on this, I'm just going to say that I loved this one in a manner akin to the way I loved Invisible. No lie.
  
  Probably the most amazing book I've read in a while.
• 
  Nikki Johnson

  I still have a couple of questions but overall, a good book!
• 
  Lisa RV

  3.5 stars. A quick read that kept me intrigued. I recommend not reading the synopsis and going into this book knowing nothing about it. The writing was okay; what I really appreciated was the concept. I enjoyed trying to figure out what exactly was going on (and failing).
• 
  Scot

  The author, in a prefatory note, says this is a revised and improved version of a novel he wrote earlier. Such an introductory comment might have raised my expectations too high.
  
  This is a young adult novel with two protagonists, whose separate but related stories and settings are told in alternate chapters. Harlan is the rich, popular alpha in their high school culture, a charming jock who is class president, while Manny is the lonely theatre nerd, an av kid in charge of lighting. But they are both dealing with typical adolescent issues like finding the right girl or problems with their parents. They are both also developing a gift of premonition, a second sight that suggests danger or even death looms ahead of them.
  
  I give this book credit for some well developed secondary characters (Elsa the overweight friend who wants more than friendship, Ricky the true bro who has your back through thick and thin) and the mother of Harlan is about as evil they come for coldhearted parental villains. However, the tension of the novel builds toward some inevitable meeting or collision between the two, where Grand and Humble intersect. When we got there I was very disappointed by how the author chose to complete the novel and tie up loose ends. I felt cheated and confused by what I see as inconsistencies that I guess I was supposed to overlook.
• 
  Kimoya Reads

  I still don't get what happened, but i do understand a bit about what happened, like someone had the wrong child and there is an extra child. And where did that extra child come from and how the hell they allow that to happen. Also I was a bit disappointment because I thought the two would meet and there will be an ending hard to forget, one that will keep us guessing and realizing what took place, unless there's a book two, but I doubt there will be.
  Anyways, yeah I hated the ending, I wanted the two boys to cross path and realized their lives had been mixed up. At one point I though it was 2 different worlds, 2 different countries but was really surprised to know that the two are practically in the same classroom. I doubt that's the ending. hmmm I guess it was.
  The read was interesting and I somewhat enjoy it. At a point I thought something was special about the two and in the end it turns out that they are brothers, or their parents was special. But, no we got this ending...
  
  ALSO IT SHOULD NOT BE TAGGED AS GAY, GLBT!! only one character said to be gay and he wasn't even one of the protagonist, a disappoint there. I was really expecting a gay prog too. Was also expecting Manny to be as well, I was really hoping then and there it would be revealed when he was in that fast-food restaurant, sucked to know I got tricked there...Someone needs to remove those tagging.
• 
  Karen Selander

  It's a YA book, that would have been helpful to know when I was looking for a book to read, but it got good reviews, so I downloaded it, and was not disappointed. It's a super quick read, but clever and unlike other YA books I've read, it speaks appropriately to it's intended audience. I thought both of the main characters talked, acted and responded just like a kid their age should. There was no overly witty placating banter about topics way over their heads, which was nice and reduced the common annoyance I feel with most YA books out there. And the plot line and twist was creative and well done
• 
  Kandice

  The author’s foreword says this is a rewrite to clean it up and clear some inconsistencies in anticipation of using this as the source for a screenplay. Boy am I glad I didn’t read the original version because this was a mess. I don’t see how this could ever work as a screenplay. Maybe a Disney Teen movie, with a ton of work, but a real movie? Never.
  
  I think he was trying to be clever and mystical, but the story just came across as silly. Two boys, having similar visions of sorts with parents who are mysterious, to say the least. That sentence right there sounds more interesting than the book ever got.
• 
  Pontiki

  I had high hopes for this book, especially since it's a "thriller". In my mind, that's a total misnomer.
  
  The premonitions and dreams of Harlan and Manny, respectively, are all explained at the end, but too much of Manny's conclusions are far fetched. I preferred Harlan's struggle for independence from his mother, but again, his blackmailing her at the end was out of left field for his character.
  
  I also thought they would cross paths sooner, and the title's underlying meaning would go a lot deeper than it did.
  
  The story was OK, but not well executed, with too many disjointed bits and terrible resolutions at the end.
• 
  Franklin

  I didn't know what the "twist" is, until it was mentioned by the end of the book. It took time for me to realize that "Manny" and "Harlan" are the same person. Although it would make sense if you reread it, and I'm definitely NOT doing that.
  
  I could have rated this higher, but I was just expecting that they're going to fall in love with each other (LOL how wrong I was).
  
• 
  Chelsea Harjo

  The whole book felt rushed and mediocre. The characters came to wild conclusions based on very little evidence, just to further the story along. It didn't feel very convincing. I was hooked, just to find out how it ended, but was disappointed in the ending and the story development along the way. The writing overall was subpar.
• 
  Bradley

  I love Brent Hartinger but this book disappointed. I think I'm at that point where I have read too much, watch too much TV/film because all forms of entertainment becomes predictable. I was twenty pages into this book and I had already figured out most of the plotline.
• 
  Gaby

  I thought, for once in my life, I outsmarted a thriller. Nope, I was wrong, Brent Hartinger does it again - this man is just a freaking genius and this book was soooo clever and I’m still annoyed about that. Wow, just wow.
• 
  Brenna

  This is not good.
• 
  Patricia Otto

  Confusing. Not sure what happened in the end and who the heck is Jerome? The voice was good and entertaining.
• 
  Isaiah

  To see more reviews check out
  MI Book Reviews.
  
  Brent Hartinger is one of my favorite authors, has been since I was in middle school. He is one of the authors that I actively check in on to make sure I am caught up on his books. Somehow this book passed me by. I grabbed a copy from the library the second I could and I am glad I did.
  
  Did you ever wonder what your life would be like if you had different parents? While this question is a spoiler, it doesn’t spoil things completely. I try to keep endings a secret, this instead is a reference to the adoption plot of a secondary character. He brings up that his dad doesn’t like him being gay, but that he is also adopted so he knows his dad feels like his “real” kid wouldn’t be gay. It was a wonderful little interlude in the middle of the book. The character was mentioned by both the main boys, but in varying degrees. I was really surprised that this background character was so fleshed out. There was so much to him, but he didn’t really play a major role in the book. He was a background best friend that swam with Harlan and ate lunch with Manny once. That’s it. He just left such a big impression on me that I had to gush about him.
  
  Another secondary character was Elsa. She was also a character that went between the two boys to varying degrees. She was Manny’s best friend, but just a girl to Harlan. There is implications that Harlan and Elsa might go on a date at the end of the book, but I don’t know where I see that going. He is the popular boy going through a hug emotional crisis, he probably isn’t ready to date anyone (read that as I love Elsa and I don’t want her hurt while Harlan figures out his stuff). Manny is clueless to how amazing she is and how much ambition she has. She is a bit of a pushover and that worries me. Again, another fleshed out secondary character. I would love a book about Elsa, but I doubt I will get one this far after this one was published.
  
  The main plot follows two boys, Harlan and Manny, as they deal with anxiety. They have anxiety for different reasons and they manifest in different ways, but they are both experiencing anxiety for reasons they can’t figure out on their own. They turn to the secondary characters to help them. It was a wonderful look at anxiety in teenage boys, something not often discussed. The boys weren’t gay, which is huge. The only teenage male characters I have read that have depression or anxiety have been gay. This gives straight boys something to help them deal with their anxiety.
• 
  Alison

  It was weird. It wasn't a bad book, but it was just weird! It wasn't my type of book, and there wasn't really a plot to me, it was just Manny having nightmares and Harlan having premonitions. I was just confused the whole time I was reading the book. Then, in the end, I kind of figured out what it was. (I think it's like alternate realities because the same thing happened to Manny and Harlan, so they're the same person but in Manny's reality his dad adopted him and in Harlan's his dad didn't) and then when I read it again the first sentence made sense but I was still confused through the whole thing. So I'd recommend it because it wasn't a bad book and there are probably people who love books like this, just not me.
• 
  Mariana

  Actual rating: 3.5 stars
  This was a quick and fun read, I was confused by the ending because I started reading expecting a love story between the main characters. It wasn't that, but I was a fine with the actual twist.
  The writing was not the best in my opinion and I hated the angst and the drama. Some of the parents were really unrealistic and so unidimensional.
• 
  Richard

  Although I have enjoyed other books by this author, this one was new to me. I believe it was some sort of sensation in 2006 and he has since revised it after producing a screenplay. It tells parallel stories of two high school students; those stories merge in an very original way at the end.
• 
  ѦѺ™

  One of the best stories I have read from Brent Hartinger!
  The mystery surrounding the two MCs kept me turning the pages as fast as I could and I was not prepared for the big reveal at the end! What a finish!