So Yesterday

So Yesterday is a stand-alone novel by Scott Westerfeld, exploring the science of cool.

Ever wonder who was the first kid to keep a wallet on a big chunky chain, or wear way-too-big pants on purpose? What about the mythical first guy who wore his baseball cap backward? These are the Innovators, the people at the peak of the cool pyramid.

Seventeen-year-old Hunter Braque is a Trendsetter, on the second level of the pyramid. His job: Find the newest, coolest thing for the retail market. His MO: Observe; don't get involved.

But he has to get involved when he and his crush, Jen, discover his cell phone belonging to his boss in an abandoned building-- and his boss missing. Hunter and Jen are soon snared in a web of brand-name intrigue: a missing cargo of the coolest shoes they've ever seen, ads for products that don't exist, and a shadowy group dedicated to the downfall of consumerism as we know it.


 * Action Girl - Arguably Jen. When Hunter hesitates, she dives right in.
 * Amateur Sleuth / Kid Detective - Deconstructed. Hunter admits that statistically, no amateur detectives ever solve crime in real life. He and Jen bumble around, averting common detective tropes, and mostly stumble on the truth.
 * Enhance Button - Subverted, as Hunter tries to get his friend Lexa (who makes a living off of computer graphics) to help him by zooming in and enhancing a cell phone photo, and she explains that the "enhancing" part is impossible; she then shows that the zoomed-in pixels can be made more comprehensible by blurring them.
 * Genre Savvy - Hunter, completely.
 * I Know Mortal Kombat - Played completely straight, with Jen's driving skills coming straight from Grand Theft Auto.
 * Lemony Narrator - Hunter, again. He has a penchant for Writing Around Trademarks and going off on tangents.
 * Meaningful Name - Futura Garamond, typeface designer.
 * Unusual Chapter Numbers - Chapter 0 and Chapter Whatever
 * Writing Around Trademarks - Used throughout the book, lampshaded, and occasionally subverted. Justified by the narrator's job as a "cool hunter" making him rather annoyed by product placement.