Every now and then, I’ll hear someone’s name and think that it perfectly matches her vocation. Lara Zeises is one of the lucky few whose name is so utterly cool that she perhaps could make it as an indie rocker or a world-famous astrologer on the strength of her name alone. Instead, she chose to be a writer, and we’re lucky she did, because the result is her recently released third novel Anyone but You. Kirkus praises the “pitch-perfect narration.” This is a book that knows its audience, a teen angst chick spin that’s rowdy enough for grown-ups who are into reading for a good time. And why shouldn’t reading be a good time, people? The tone reminds me of Katia Noyes’s recent debut, Crashing America, which happens to already be gaining a sort of cult following in San Francisco. Here’s a taste of Zeises’s (try saying that ten times, fast) latest:

Jesse helped, giving Layla half the cash he earned jockeying slushies at the Sip-n-Stop down by the Movie King. Me and Critter were supposed to pick up part-time jobs, too, but when Critter failed English (again) and I scored my own F in biology, it was no go. For one thing, summer school started right after the Fourth of July, and no one would hire us for the few weeks we had off before the start of our Loser Kid classes.