Desirable by Frank Cotterell-Boyce.
Barrington Stoke, 2012 (2008)
A witty spin on the old adage ‘Be careful what you wish for’, cleverly linked in with teenage anxieties about being accepted socially for who you are, Desirable is designed to be accessible to readers of all standards as well as entertaining.
When George, the nerdy young male protagonist who’s normally shunned or even bullied by his peers, suddenly becomes instantly popular with his female contemporaries and even teachers, is it anything to do with the vintage bottle of aftershave labelled, significantly, ‘Desirable’? And when that popularity rubs the male students up the wrong way will he realise that there is a downside to his new found acceptance?
You can’t please all of the people all of the time but it is possible to find a select bunch of individuals with whom you do get on: it’s only a matter of circumstances coinciding with being yourself that may bring it about. In the meantime it could prove quite a ride, as Frank Cotterell Boyce’s dyslexia-friendly novella suggests.
Calmgrove 
Sounds most entertaining, although I suspect that there are many after shaves and the like still being sold that promise the unattainable…
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I’d like it if they were devastatingly honest, with slogans like
* Makes you pong like a brothel
* Stings like crazy and, er, that’s it
* The bottle it comes in is the best thing about it
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Remember Lynx? Supposed to make a man irresistable.
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Ah, that’s why all the ladies found me eternally resistable: I never sprayed myself this particular artificial pheromone. Or indeed any…
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I may have to start shaving.
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What, you mean you aren’t already as naked as the day you were born?! Anyway, hurry, stocks of Desirable are dwindling fast…
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On it.
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👍🏻
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