Advance Book Review: SEX ON THE MOON By: Ben Mezrich

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Ben Mezrich knows a good story when he sees one. While both Bringing Down the House and The Accidental Billionaires seem to have come under fire for...questionable fact?- both were page-turners, both were best-sellers, and both were made into successful films. That being said I was very grateful to receive an advance copy of his new book Sex on the Moon.

Sex on the Moon is the story of Thad Roberts- a NASA intern who after a rather fascinating and bumpy ascent to NASA infamy has the brilliant (albeit illegal) plan to steal moon rocks that while NASA has deemed them "trash" have a street value of millions of dollars.

The character of Thad Roberts is one of Mezrich's strongest- not surprising as it seems Thad was cooperative with Mezrich and granted multiple interviews. Part of what makes Thad such a fun and sympathetic protagonist/antagonist is the time spent at the beginning of the book learning about Thad's sad history with his family. In contrast to the lead characters in Bringing Down the House and The Accidental Billionaires- Thad did not have everything handed to him and faced actual hardship. Even though Thad was at times obnoxiously arrogant ultimately I still rooted for him to succeed.

My only complaint is the swearing- and I have NO problem with swearing. But as the book seemed to be primarily in the limited third person with Thad it felt very out of character for a "recovering" Mormon who blushes when he realizes he's looking at a girl's cleavage to say fuck, shit, etc. It's not a big deal, but to me it was a noticeable jump as most of the book felt very organic.

I think that this will be the least-challenged of Mezrich's non-fiction as the facts of the heist have been made public knowledge by both NASA and the FBI. In addition this is by far the most film-ready of all his books and I think will take the least amount of change to the actual story when this inevitably gets made into a feature film.

I venture to say that this is my favorite of his books so far and I think the big leap for me was the main subject of the book was motivated by something other than just ambition or wealth. I'm sure his horrific abandonment factored in, but aside from that he was motivated by a plain old love story.

A-

IN STORES JULY 12th!