Waiting for Gonzo

Cousins, Dave. Waiting for Gonzo.
8 January 2015,January 8th 2015 by Flux
E ARC from Netgalley.com

Teenager Oz (the cover makes him look a good five years younger than the age of the character) and his family have moved from London out into the boonies so that his sister Meg is away from her boyfriend and his mother can teach at a college and work on her art career. Unfortunately, early on in the book, Oz is involved in an car accident that causes his mother to break her arm. She hires the local "psycho girl", Isobel, to help her with her sculpture, and Isobel bedevils and scares Oz... but he also grows to like her. He has trouble fitting in at school, and his problems increase when he finds out that Meg is pregnant and her boyfriend comes to the house to try to win her back.
Strengths: I really liked 15 Days Without a Head, but it hasn't been available in prebind or hardcover, which is disappointing. This had some funny scenes, and Cousins has a good sense for writing about teenage boys. Impulsive behavior, bad decisions, epic catastrophes-- it's all here.
Weaknesses: This is very British, and is hard to follow at the beginning. It gets better, but I find it a little alarming that in just about every single YA book where a girl gets pregnant under difficult life circumstances, she has the baby. In this case, Oz is the force behind Meg feeling connected to her fetus, which Oz has named Gonzo. This seems unrealistic, extremely manipulative, and unnerving.

Yep. Apparently no good covers of this one. Will pass.