Grade A Stupid is book one in The Darcy Walker series. Fifteen year old Darcy Walker your typical teenager. Well, except for the fact that trouble seems to find her. She seems to run to danger instead of from it. Then let's not forget her extremely confusing relationship with her best friend Dylan. I'm not even sure she's aware of what's going on there. But when a dead body turns up in the dumpster across the street from school, Darcy stops at nothing to uncover the truth and prove her friend Oscar's innocence.

Even though this series is written for young adults in mind, it's a fun read that any age would find engrossing. AJ Lape has written a humorous series that kept me laughing throughout. Darcy is the type of character we can each identify with at some point during our teenage years. There's gorgeous love interests for Darcy, if she can untangle herself from the grasp of her equally handsome best friend Dylan. There's a great mystery that kept me guessing until very end, definitely a must read for everyone! Be sure to check back on my blog in the coming weeks for my review of the rest of the series. ( )

Bienvenue sur Darcyville, où les choses semblent toujours aller de travers!

Don't have a clue to what I just said? Let me start again.....

Welcome to Darcyville, where things always seem to go awry! Why do I say that? Well, that is simple. Because they do. Darcy is one of those characters who always seems to make a fool of herself in the most inopportune times. You will see what I mean!

"But that was Darcyville. Stuff happened in Darcyville, and you were left to either accept it or annihilate the SOBs that caused it."

The characters in this story are just perfect! Darcy with her determination to make the wrongs that she feels she started, right. Her friends..... They are the perfect combination of daring, caring and sarcastic bunch of high schoolers.

One can never tell what is up and what is down. This book is a combination of teenagers being teenagers and part sleuth. Part sleuth? Well, you have to read the book to find out that part.

"EXPERTS SAY THEY may have identified a gene for the daredevil. I think I was first in line when God was passing out that type of idiocy."

I laughed so much throughout this book. It is pure genius! The combination of seriousness, teen angst, sarcasm, heroism and comedy.... I couldn't get enough of this story! This is the type of book that will appeal to both adults and teenagers! And to boot.... the use of "cuss" words is perfect! I would totally allow my teenagers read this without having to worry about its contents!

"Stupid's my favorite word. It could be a noun, an adjective, or an adverb dependent upon the way you phrased it in a sentence."

One can say that Darcy lives in Darcyville which falls in the center of Stupidville? Maybe. Maybe not. My bet is on not. Darcy is far from stupid. I have my suspicions on the weird encounter at the end of the book. I can't wait for more of Darcyville to find out if I am right! ( )

This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Fifteen years ago, Darcy Walker's parents thought it was a good idea to give her a unique name: Darcy, meaning "dark walker." Whether that was a stroke of genius or stroke of stupid, they definitely nailed the irony. She lacks direction, her grades stink despite a high IQ, she's boringly average—although flirting admirers claim otherwise—and God help her, she's infatuated with a bad-boy. A bad-boy that her hottie best friend, Dylan, wishes would get acquainted with his fist. And, oh yeah, there's that tattoo that was a royally stupid idea. With her life spiraling out of control, everything changes when she skips class and finds a dead body...in fact, it gets worse. It jump-starts Darcy's inner-verb, and her brain hardwired for action gets caught up in a situation she can't let go. Set in the fictional Cincinnati town of Valley, Ohio, Darcy falls into a world of threats, violence, and gangland exploits, chasing down every clue to finger the murderer. When a fellow misfit is arrested for the crime, Darcy goes from zero-to-sixty trying to clear his name—constructing aliases, breaking the law, everything that makes perfect sense to her, but reeks of Grade A Stupid to everyone else. Trouble is...will she live to see sixteen?

As a fan of Nancy Drew, Velma, and other meddling girl detectives, I loved the idea of this book. The book itself, however, was a letdown. The length of the book and the sheer number of characters overwhelming. At the 40% mark, I had to acknowledge that I was getting lost and losing interest because I couldn’t remember who anyone was. At that point, I skipped to the end of the book. I’ve never done that before, and I feel like I cheated. One shouldn’t get the benefit of the ending if they are not willing to do the work to get there. Be that as it may, I skipped better than 50% of the book and was able to grasp the resolution without feeling like I missed anything pivotal. That is not a good thing. To me, that means there were a whole lot of pages of unnecessary filler. The climax of the book was very exciting and action-packed, but with some fairly implausible physical feats. The villain apparently had Flash-like acceleration; a nice touch in fantasy novels, of which this is not one. The characters ranged from obnoxious to obsessive to abusive. All of the guys are either gorgeous or icky, and poor Darcy is just so plain and boring that the all the boys want her(?!?).
Don’t get me wrong, this book wasn’t awful, but it was frustrating. I’m giving it 2.5 stars because I did feel compelled to read the ending rather than just leaving the book unfinished. ( )

Bienvenue sur Darcyville, où les choses semblent toujours aller de travers!

Don't have a clue to what I just said? Let me start again.....

Welcome to Darcyville, where things always seem to go awry! Why do I say that? Well, that is simple. Because they do. Darcy is one of those characters who always seems to make a fool of herself in the most inopportune times. You will see what I mean!

"But that was Darcyville. Stuff happened in Darcyville, and you were left to either accept it or annihilate the SOBs that caused it."

The characters in this story are just perfect! Darcy with her determination to make the wrongs that she feels she started, right. Her friends..... They are the perfect combination of daring, caring and sarcastic bunch of high schoolers.

One can never tell what is up and what is down. This book is a combination of teenagers being teenagers and part sleuth. Part sleuth? Well, you have to read the book to find out that part.

"EXPERTS SAY THEY may have identified a gene for the daredevil. I think I was first in line when God was passing out that type of idiocy."

I laughed so much throughout this book. It is pure genius! The combination of seriousness, teen angst, sarcasm, heroism and comedy.... I couldn't get enough of this story! This is the type of book that will appeal to both adults and teenagers! And to boot.... the use of "cuss" words is perfect! I would totally allow my teenagers read this without having to worry about its contents!

"Stupid's my favorite word. It could be a noun, an adjective, or an adverb dependent upon the way you phrased it in a sentence."

One can say that Darcy lives in Darcyville which falls in the center of Stupidville? Maybe. Maybe not. My bet is on not. Darcy is far from stupid. I have my suspicions on the weird encounter at the end of the book. I can't wait for more of Darcyville to find out if I am right! ( )

Darcy Walker (she considers her name a verb that she needs to live up to) is a high school sophomore who finds a body and becomes determined to find out who killed the guy. What results is a wild result in Darcyville where she investigates possibilities. She also has to deal with the girls lusting after her best friend, a boy named Dylan who was super-hot and very possessive probably because Darcy is doing some of her own hunk-gazing.

I couldn't stop reading this it was fun with something happening all the time. You probably aren't going to want to read this if you're hoping for a fine piece of literature with language to match because this is about high school students and I think Ms. Lape does a great job channeling their language and attitudes. Can't wait to read the rest of the series. ( )