Good Idea Gone Bad

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Choyce’s fifth young-adult novel, his grittiest to date, deals frankly
with a major societal concern—teen violence. In an afterword, the
author explains his thematic choice: “I explored violence in this book
because I was interested in examining the root of violence both in
myself and in the world around me.” Choyce’s fictional vehicle is
Mick, a high-school student from Halifax, Nova Scotia, who begins the
book’s action by joining three skinhead-type friends in a senseless
beating of a young man they suspect of being gay. Dariana, “the girl
of [Mick’s] dreams,” accurately characterizes Mick as a bigoted,
racist, sexist pig “who can’t tolerate anybody who’s different.”
In a shallow attempt to get closer to Dariana, Mick becomes the drummer
in her three-person band, Good Idea Gone Bad, in which Dariana is both
keyboard player and songwriter. Mick’s involvement with the band
becomes the catalyst of his gradual character change as he begins to
“hear” and respond to the “social consciousness” lyrics of
Dariana’s songs.

Within the YA novel’s length constraints, Mick’s transformation
will be believable to the book’s middle-school audience. Beyond the
principal theme of violence, the plot touches on censorship when some of
the group’s lyrics, such as those for “The Condom Song,” provoke
an organized protest from a faction of conservative adults.
Additionally, the book questions music-industry values as the band
members must choose between remaining true to their musical vision or
abandoning it for commercial success. Recommended.