At his high school nicknamed “the tits” fifteen year old Micheal doesn’t exactly fit in to any clique or group. Yet neither does his small group of outcast friends nicknamed Bones, Mixer, and Tommy. Yet Micheal seems to like the idea of being an outsider. Gentlemen follows a group of “un-cool” sophomores who realize one of their friends (Tommy) has gone missing. They become driven to not only find him, but also find who is responsible for his absence. Micheal, Bones and Mixer suspect their crazy English teacher, Mr. Haberman, to be responsible for Tommy disappearance. They think Mr. Haberman kidnapped Tommy because of the teacher’s remarks to the boys and his unordinary teaching method. Yet that suspicion will soon lead Bones to beating Mr. Haberman to a pulp with a fish club this will create even more problems for this group of misfits.
Throughout Gentlemen a consistent theme of friendship is repeated. Northrop skillfully knits friend ship into the story that makes the reader question their own personal relationships. Northrop keeps the reader guessing how much longer Micheal can keep his friends together. After Micheal is forced to watch his teacher almost killed by Bones, Micheal realizes he can’t keep his friendship any longer. At Bones trial for the crime of assault with a deadly weapon an attempted murder Micheal tells the jury “ He (Mr. Haberman) was giving me a chance. I think maybe I knew it as soon as he opened that door for me. And how did I repay him for that? I sat there and watched him bleed on his own floor.” In this quote Micheal realizes he can’t keep looking out for his friends anymore he has to look out for himself and just tell the jury what really happened.
Although Gentlemen tells a great story with a spectacular plot the book shouldn’t be read by anyone under freshmen or sophomore level due to language and drug conten. Gentlemen is a very similar story to the book “A Child Called it.” Both books follow a main character that has a hard life and is pushed to tragedies that feel very real to the reader. Gentlemen is a great book with a twisting plot that will make you want to never put the book down, and a must read.