King of the Screwups

King of the Screwups (2009) is a young adult novel by K. L. Going. It is a humorous coming-of-age story about seventeen-year-old Liam Geller, who seems to have everything: looks, money, travel experience, popularity…but nothing he does pleases his father. After he is caught seducing a girl in his father’s home office, he is kicked out of the house and sent to live with his father’s estranged brother, Pete. Pete is gay, a glam rocker, a night-shift DJ, and he lives in a trailer park. Although Liam tries to remake himself into someone that he thinks his father will like and respect, “Aunt Pete” and his glam rock band show him the value of being himself. Told from the first-person point of view, many of the chapters begin with a short, italicized memory from Liam’s childhood interactions with his parents.

Liam is absolutely convinced that everything he touches turns to mud. It seems to him that he can never do or say the right thing to please his father, Allan, who is the CEO of a major financial company. Liam’s mother, Sarah, was a famous model, but over the course of the book, it is revealed that her husband never approved of her profession, was jealous of her, and pressured her to retire. Now, she owns a high-end boutique, and Liam helps her, learning about the modeling and fashion industry. Liam is also good at sports, but his grades are so poor he is banned from playing.

As the story opens, Liam, drunk, is caught with Delia in his father’s office. His father kicks him out of the house, first trying to send Liam to his own parents (neither of whom like Liam anymore than Allan does; they think he is an undisciplined disappointment). However, Sarah intervenes and arranges to send Liam to Allan’s brother, Pete. They had been friends, back in the day. Allan cut ties with Pete after Pete told Sarah to leave Allan because Allan is emotionally abusive.



Liam moves into Pete’s trailer. Pete is a nighttime DJ, so he sleeps during the day, working the 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift at the radio station. He still has a glam rock band that plays the odd gig. There’s Orlando, who is Pete’s longtime boyfriend, and Eddie who owns a boutique, and Dino who is a local cop. Liam also meets Darleen, the girl next door who hates him.

The first day of school is a disaster. Liam wakes up late, and Pete loses the transcripts and temporary guardianship papers. The second day of school is no better. He arrives late to his classes, panics and fails a preliminary physics test, finds out that Orlando is his English teacher, and seems to be instantly popular without even trying, which draws Darleen’s seething ire. Liam decides to do everything possible to not be Mr. Popularity. He intentionally wears the dorkiest clothes he can manage (often scrounging awful t-shirts out of Pete’s closet), awkwardly avoids the cool kids (which does not work; they have already accepted him as one of their own), joins the AV club, and reads the school announcements for the school’s morning news. He tries to make that uncool by being campy on purpose (which just comes off as suave) and then he repeats the morning news in flawless French, thinking it will earn him uncool nerd points. This also backfires; the school is both entertained and impressed.

Liam gets a job working on Saturdays in Eddie’s boutique. Eddie’s business is not making enough money and he has a hard time attracting customers. Liam has a natural touch for fashion and selling fashion, so he works as a window model and arranges an end-of-summer sale on bathing suits when he hears about the last pool party of the season. He makes some calls, and the shop is swamped with his classmates, all buying swimsuits for the party. The cheerleaders hatch a plan to host a runway auction show as a fundraiser for homecoming, and Liam agrees to help run it.



Things at school do not improve, however. Liam’s grades are poor, his attention wavers, and he never brings his books to English—nor does he put any meaningful effort into his classes. He is partnered with Darleen for a physics lab, and completely bungles the experiment so badly they are unable to finish. He suggests copying what another team wrote for their conclusions, not realizing the teacher is standing behind him, unimpressed with the idea of cheating. He is sent to the guidance office and given a failing grade for the lab.

Liam is on a downward spiral. His father is unhappy with him no matter what he does, and his mother always takes his father’s side. Liam decides to attend the pool party, gets drunk, and is the only one caught when the cops show up. Lucky for him, he is arrested by Dino, who lets him sober up in a cell until Pete collects him in the morning. Pete tells him he won’t kick Liam out, and that he should be himself. Liam calls his father, to remind him that his birthday is coming up and that he’d like to discuss his life goals with him. His father tells him that he is pleased Liam has come around and tells him to be ready on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, he has a little party with Pete and the band, and they give him a modeling portfolio and a gift certificate for a photo shoot. However, that afternoon, his father does not come to see him as Liam expects. Instead, he sends an army recruiter. Devastated, Liam promptly self-destructs. He blows off his classes and shows up to English drunk, before leaving out an alarmed door. He also calls the recruiter and accepts the deal. Pete talks him down. At a meeting with the school principal (wherein all the major characters are present), Liam apologizes to everyone for his behavior, and he tells his father he is not going into the military or moving back home. He wants to finish the year, help with the fashion show, and complete his community service. As he is eighteen, he can legally make that decision for himself. The epilogue shows him backstage running the school fashion show.



The novel was nominated for (although it did not win) multiple awards, including the Rhode Island Teen Book Award, Milwaukee County Teen Book Award, Florida Teens Read, and Missouri Gateway Readers Award. Along with its bildungsroman storyline, it also engages with LGBT issues with humor and warmth.