War Boy.

War Boy * By Kief Hillsbery * William Morrow * $24

This first novel wins a tentative thumbs-up. In a story with no real sense of setting or continuity, five young characters traverse the country in search of adventure. Naturally they find sex, drugs, and trouble along the way. But just so the trip isn't a total loss, journalist Kief Hillsbery adds an environmental twist to the plot: This motley band of renegades is out to save the redwood forests. The novel's distinguishing characteristics is its format--disjointed, abrupt, and, to Generation Y, probably refreshing. In this sense War Boy is probably not unlike the journals of thousands of young gays and lesbians.