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Notes:
(1) The novel ends on a kind of downer if hopeful note. Alicia makes one last attempt to get back together with Sam for the sake of the baby, only for her mother to talk them out of it.
- She doesn't so much convince them with words as demonstrate then and there how unhappy a loveless marriage can be.
- Once again, it's shocking how traditionally-minded Alicia is, in contrast to her rather progressive parents.

Notes:
(1) "I'd slammed too. I'd never had a slam like this, though. The wheels had come off the trucks, the trucks had come off the deck, and I'd shot five metres into the air and gone straight into a brick wall."
- This isn't the first we've seen the titular line (likely the second or third) but it's the first time "Slam" has been given added subtext and been used as a metaphor for reality smacking Sam in the face.

Notes:
(1) Alicia: "'Some girls don't tell their parents [they're pregnant] for ages. Not until they have to,' she said. 'I've been reading stuff on the Net.'"
- Gee, that's a blast from the past. I've not heard "on the Net" for ages. Nowadays it's "on the Web." Though, what do I know, it may just be a British thing.
- I doubt it's exclusive to teen pregnancies. I find people in general aren't keen to face the music.

Notes:
(1) I usually hate dream sequences but I'm fine with this one since it's more so a peek into a speculative future.
- Also, it's played straight, and not the usual sojourn into a funhouse mirror world of forced symbolism.
(2) Sam refers to onesies as the "all-in-one tracksuit thing that babies wear."
- I don't know what tickles me more, the idea of babies wearing tracksuits or that tracksuits are adult onesies.

Notes:
(1) There are plenty of things to quibble about with this, but the one thing it gets absolutely spot-on is how, when you're a teenager, everything means everything.
- Every joy is the best feeling ever and every misfortune is your whole world crashing down. It's living in a constant state of hyperbole.
- Having said that, this is a book about teenage pregnancy, so that at least is worth being hysterical about.

Notes:
(1) Gee, this is a real mid-2000s time capsule!
- They're name-dropping everything from Joss Stone to Borders bookstores!
(2) This is a terrible choice of narrator.
- For one, he doesn't sound nearly skater enough.
(3) There are many reasons given for why Sam and Alicia want to have sex.
- Ultimately the one they settle on is to stop her from crying.
- Frankly, the revenge ones would have been less unsettling.

Notes:
(1) As a rule, my first time reading a novel has to be in prose. Ergo, all my audiobooks are "rereads." Though I've read a decent number of Nick Hornby novels, this is the only one I've read that my library has available in audiobook.
- I don't remember much from the first time I read this, mostly that I didn't really care for it and that it's about teenage pregnancy, skateboarding, and an imaginary Tony Hawk.