Witty and Charming

Ben Philippe’s Charming as a Verb is full of all the dry humour and snark we have come to expect from his novels and I am here for it!

In this story we meet Henri, a high school senior and first generation Haitian-American. He runs a successful, if only slightly deceitful dog walking business and has dreams of heading to Columbia in the fall. Attending a private high school on scholarship he is incredibly charming, invited to all the parties and friendly with all the right people. When he forms an unlikely friendship with Corinne, an extremely high strung classmate he slowly begins to learn that he can’t charm his way out of everything.

Charming as a Verb is incredibly engaging. I really enjoyed Henri and Corinne’s voices and felt they were incredibly honest characters. They certainly reminded me of people from high school, those who seemed to be friends with everyone and those who found social situations somewhat challenging. You could just feel the city vibrating, almost as another character in the story. The hustle of New York City provides the perfect backdrop to this story of teenagers on the cusp of adulthood. I also personally loved the touch of Montreal added into the story as Henri explores the McGill campus as a potential choice of school for post secondary.

As all great teen/young adult books have, there is a big problem that threatens to change the trajectory of Henri’s life and it was caused by Henri himself. You will be reading and screaming at the book for him to stop and at first I was so mad about the choice but then realized that teenagers make bad choices all the time and it certainly made for a dynamic conclusion. 

Exploring what it’s like to be a first generation American, attending a private school on scholarship and navigating the dissonance, Charming as a Verb will speak to so many readers!