Don’t Get Caught by Kurt Dinan

Summary: When Max receives a mysterious invite from the untraceable, epic prank-pulling Chaos Club, he has to ask: why him? After all, he’s Mr. 2.5 GPA, Mr. No Social Life. He’s Just Max. And his favorite heist movies have taught him this situation calls for Rule #4: Be suspicious. But it’s also his one shot to leave Just Max in the dust… Yeah, not so much. Max and four fellow students-who also received invites-are standing on the newly defaced water tower when campus security “catches” them. Definitely a setup. And this time, Max has had enough. It’s time for Rule #7: Always get payback.  Let the prank war begin.

Most of the time, when a book is touted as ____ meets ____, I am disappointed at the result. Usually the story only holds the vaguest of resemblances to the well-known movies or books it’s being compared to. In this case, however, the tagline of “Ocean’s Eleven meets The Breakfast Club” is dead-on. Dinan’s high school caper novel delivers all the intricate fun of Danny Ocean’s schemes and all the self-revelatory teenage relationships of the brain, the athlete, the basket case, the princess, and the criminal, with all the heart of both.

Max doesn’t intend to turn the school on its ear when he and four other random students are framed for painting a lewd message on the school’s water tower. But he and his new crew quickly determine that the Chaos Club – a long-standing and secretive group of pranksters – is behind it, and they use everything they’ve learned from a million heist movies to plot their revenge. Max wrestles with just who he wants to be – Just-Max, the guy who coasts along and stays out of trouble? Or Not-Max, the guy who shakes things up? Along the way, he has to reevaluate everything he knows about his friends, his family, and himself. All while pulling some pretty epic pranks.

DON’T GET CAUGHT is out now.

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