Meh. I don't dislike Ethan Hawke...but the thing is that Ethan Hawke is, clearly, very fond of Ethan Hawke. So fond he's essentially written a book about what it's like to be Ethan Hawke and what people think of Ethan Hawke...sort of a novella sized "Enough about me...what do you think of me?" Except that by fictionalizing the character, the author becomes both narrator and subject. And Ethan Hawke is not interesting or talented enough to pull that off.

I think Ethan Hawke is the least talented published author I have ever come across.

Ethan Hawke will break your heart. The Hottest State chronicles one year in the life of young, dashing William Harding: aspiring actor and charming lover. When he first meets Sarah, a girl unlike any he's ever seen, he knows from the beginning that he's a goner. She's beautiful. She's elusive. Every little thing she does strikes William greatly. The passion the two share, the chemistry; it's all so surreal, that even he can't believe it. He knows right then and there, that she is the one, that she's the one that he'll love forever, but little does he realize that though she may be the pursuit of his pleasure, he is just a twenty-year-old fool in love, and by time he's twenty-one, he'll just be a broken-hearted man. The way Hawke captures your interest in enthralling. He makes you become William Harding. I by all means, am not a helpless twenty-year-old boy in love, but throughout reading the book, I really felt like I was. All of William's movements and thoughts, I could relate with. It was so eerie. When William cried, I felt like crying, and when he got psychotic over his breakup with Sarah, I could feel the pain tugging inside of him. There's this one funny scene where he throws furniture around, and it's not funny like "haha!", but funny because, it's a scene where it should have been a turning point. I should have said "Wow, this William is nuts". But I didn't say that. Instead, I found myself cheering him on, because as crazy as he was, the emotion that was seeping throughout all of it, was so legitimate. This novel was by far one of them most entertaining novels I've ever read, and not only because I feel like it's something straight out of my own past, or future, for that matter. Ethan Hawke will make you laugh, and he'll make you love William's story, but in the tragic end, Ethan Hawke will break your heart.

Pure literary sewage of the Generation X slacker milieu that one finds depicted in movies like the author's Reality Bites or by limited film director Kevin Smith. It is a simple story that masquerades as a complex, insightful, and pretentious one depicting the pathetic romance between a temper tantrum throwing Texan with mommy and daddy troubles and his girlfriend who won't sleep with him. The book does deserve at least one star for the complaints that it got for its depiction of women.

I'm glad I read Hawke's latest book, A Bright Ray of Darkness, before I read this one, or I would've had more hard feelings for his debut. It's really admirable to see how much he's grown between the young, vulnerable artist he was at my age and the older, venerable artist he is now. There's too much of a young man's severely delicate masculinity and obsessive selfishness in this for me to have enjoyed most of it, especially personally knowing a terrible abundance of young men like the main character (and dating a few). Obviously, Hawke is a boobs guy, because breasts are mentioned in just about every non-childhood-related excerpt as well as many times in Bright Ray, which. Had me rolling my eyes a few times.

But there are similarities with Bright Ray that kept me reading--which was *very* quickly for my normal pace, I devoured this novel in 4 days. Hawke's writing voice/perspective is just so genuine and sharp; the meaning he sees in everyday details that people overlook is something compelling. Even though I didn't enjoy his debut, I appreciate having read it.

I can't explain why I love this book, I've read it several times over the years and although I get older and hopefully change some of my viewpoints, this book hits me every time... Maybe because it's simple, sincere, straightforward, but at the same time one of the warmest books I've ever read.

Ironically I picked up The Hottest State because I thought to myself: "I haven't read any male authors lately. I'm looking to get a masculine perspective on something for a change of pace." So I start to read, and I realize "Oh, shit. This is Ethan Hawke. He has emotions and shit."

The main character falls messily in love with a mysterious curvy girl who has serious boundary inconsistencies. Readers are led to empathize a little tiny bit with the protagonist's love interests, but mostly we're stuck in the protagonist's potential narcissism.

I'm glad it was a quick read.

My favorite part is some poetry the boy wrote when he was seven years old:

The cowboy rides
Through desert by desert
Traveling by horses
He gets dirty
Like a rag buried in the sand
And he dies full of age
and bullets

A hat is shaped in lots of different ways
A big bump in the middle
And flat on the sides
And nothing like a jacket.

Fort Worth is the hottest state I know
My dad lives there
My grandma too
Most every grandparent
except a few

It's so cute! I want to give the boy hugs! (But the grownup not so much.)

Ethan hawke is a romantic man. I know very little about him but I feel like I know this? I am a huge fan of his work, especially Juliet, Naked which isn’t even if most well-known. His voice just oozes romance and to read a book by him, I only heard it through his voice. I imagined him as William. He’s all I could picture. He actually writes so beautifully. I truly wondered if these were his real thoughts? I always like male authors for some insight into a mans mind and peaking into Ethans mind was a beautiful thing. Strange but beautiful. This book really ensured me that men are bad with their feelings. I feel like they can’t help it? Emotions freak them out. William couldn’t handle rejection well but a lot of it had to do with his Daddy issues. I felt bad for him. I don’t think I like Sarah. She would never allow herself to feel but I do agree the relationship became pretty toxic so it was good they ended it. Ethan Hawke has much more depth than I’d ever imagined.

don't bother

I like Ethan Hawke as an actor. He’s quite understated, yet intense. Sensitive and self-aware. And he surely has playing the broody, conflicted man/boy down. Those character-centric qualities are ever-present in his first novel, The Hottest State, though they certainly don’t translate as well through his words as they do through his performances.

I must admit I was intrigued to read this because I had read most negative reviews of it. Why that piques my interest, I couldn’t say. I don’t typically seek out reading novels written by celebrities. In fact, I don’t think I ever have read one written by anyone else. But I just sort of stumbled on it while perusing the bookshelves at the library and thought, why not give it a go?

It’s not bad. It’s just…forgettable. The protagonist is needy and pathetic. He latches on to a plain-Jane girl, Sarah, and becomes instantly enamored with her and grows increasingly frustrated when he can’t quite figure her out, or why she doesn’t reciprocate his feelings in the some comparable manner. She is guarded and cautious, scared and self-conscious. And because it told in first person from William’s perspective, as readers, we aren’t privy to the inner workings of Sarah. But William speculates and obsesses. And he has strange urges, such as hoping she will get pregnant or spontaneously proposing marriage. He recognizes his oddities and attributes them to a childhood of being raised without a father. He laments on the memories he has of his father, how he wishes he could have been there. How he wouldn’t be so fucked up of he were.

It’s isn’t some psychological examination, this novel. It takes place in a rather short span of time. A few weeks, really. That’s how long it takes for this relationship to begin and blossom and then deteriorate and end. More than anything it is a coming-of-age story about a man in his early twenties trying to figure out a way to exist in a world he doesn’t quite like or understand.

As for the creative merits of the book, there are few. The prose is pedestrian and plain, lacking any sense of whimsy or flow. It could almost be a diary for William. Likewise, the dialogue is sort of odd an unnatural in many instances, often times taking you out of the story.

I can’t say I recommend it. Again, it’s not bad. It’s just missing something, I think. And I suppose it didn’t help that I found the protagonist kind of unlikable. He even creeped me out a bit. In the end, I just didn’t understand how he formed such intense emotions and pursued this romantic relationship. At times, he didn’t even seem to like Sarah. SO why bother?

I guess the same could be said for The Hottest State.

I don’t even fully understand why in giving this book a 5 stars. I don’t know how to describe this book. I don’t know how to summarize this book. To be honest i don’t even know how to give a review on this book. Not because it was bad, but because it was so captivating. the entire time i’m reading this book, i scratch my head on what the characters are experiencing or doing. For some odd reason, i loved the story. It was so raw, vivid and real. Because of that, i couldn’t put it down, i read it in a day. As i’m writing this, i’m still confused why i’m giving it 5 stars. Maybe ill never know why, maybe its a mystery.

a must read if you want a raw and not so happy romance.

This was not a good read. There probably will be spoilers in this review.

This was basically r/niceguy the novel. The main character is so incredibly unlikeable. William is sex-obsessed, oblivious, selfish, and misogynistic. He only likes women for what they can give him, for what they look like and their sexual appeal. He is also aggressive and violent. He literally knocks over Sarah’s refrigerator when she breaks up with him. Like ?? For what? When he is upset, he destroys things. There are multiple occasions he thinks about physical violence towards Sarah and Samantha.

There are occasions of sexual assault that the book wants me to think is romantic, like when Sarah was asleep. Can William only get off when girls are sleeping??

William also stalks Sarah. He wants to “get the last word” or “show his strength”. He yells things outside her window after she’s made it clear she needs space from him. So weird. It totally reminded me of r/niceguys because despite all this, William and his mother refer to him as a “great” or “nice” guy. William blames everything on Sarah.

There was also a really weird sequence of gay panic that William was having, which would have been more understanding if William actually ended up being gay or something. Then, this obsession with the F-word and being “manly” would make a bit more sense. Even his weird anger and hostility towards outwardly LGBT people could be explained away as internal homophobia. But, nope. We have William’s downhill spiral and then it’s never really brought up again. Add homophobic to William’s list of undesirable traits.

William didn’t really go through any character development by the end of the story. He is still rather selfish and he still sees women as objects. I don’t understand what the point of this story was. If William did all of this awful stuff then changed, then yeah, I would understand why that stuff was in the book. But, from what I read, William doesn’t change.

I have had this book on my book shelf for years and wanted something quick to read—I would not recommend this book for anyone, unless you’re a guy wanting to know how exactly not to behave.