King of the Screwups by K.L. Going

Liam Geller has screwed up for the last time. A popular, fantastic looking, athletic, perfectly dressed guy, Liam is kicked out of his house by his successful CEO father to live with his grandparents. Knowing his grandparents will be no different than his father, Liam has his supermodel mother arrange for him to live with his father's brother Pete. Pete and his father haven't spoken in years because Aunt Pete (what Liam calls him) is a gay, cross-dressing Glam rocker, living in a trailer in small town Pineville. Liam decides that to make his father proud, he is going to use this opportunity in a new school to reinvent himself as a nerdy, academic, unpopular guy. Everything he does backfires and no matter what he tries to do to be unpopular, it makes him more so. Aunt Pete's band members and best friends become important to Liam; Orlando, Liam's English teacher, Dino, the cop, and Eddie, the owner of a clothing store. Liam is a screwup. And you will love him. You will love him because you understand his potential, and that the pain inflicted by his father is controlling his life. Aunt Pete becomes the central figure he needs in his life. While the root of this story is not light, Going does a fantastic job of keeping the humor in between tense, heart wrenching  and tender moments. For mature readers (eighth  grade) based on content.
Reed Reads Score: 4.5