On a July long weekend, eight teenagers, heady on alcohol and impending freedom, mockingly bestow nicknames upon each other, such as the Drifter, Miss Demeanour, SuperBarbie, and Psycho Superstar. They sarcastically decide to identify themselves as The Indifference League (or, as Mr. Nice Guy insists, “The Not-So-Super Friends”). Twelve years later, to celebrate their collective 30th birthdays, Mr. Nice Guy activates the “Brat Signal™” (a mass email) to reunite the League at the Hall of Indifference (his cabin). Of course, circumstances change over time, and still being saddled with an archetypical handle from youth may serve to highlight an unintentional irony or two.

Thus begins celebrated YA author Richard Scarsbrook’s new novel for adults, an initially promising, ultimately facile examination of archetype versus reality. The story strives to be a cheeky commentary on the inescapable decay of the ideals held by Generations X and Y, but the book’s goal far exceeds its reach.

The novel’s main conceit – the characters are known solely by their aliases – is both its strongest notion and biggest drawback. At moments, contrasting the cast’s psychological pseudonyms with reality works surprisingly well, especially concerning the Statistician’s troubled marriage to Time Bomb. However, these instances are almost too successful: the strength of individual pieces highlights the novel’s shortcomings. Aside from the Statistician and perhaps his brother, the Drifter, the members of the League rarely rise above the level of types. The premise never matures beyond being a literary experiment.

Hindering it further is the overused Big Chill–type reunion framework and the rather unsurprising “revelation” that people don’t match their nicknames. Mr. Nice Guy isn’t that nice. SuperKen and SuperBarbie are intolerant fundamentalists. The Hippie Avenger uses name-brand toothpaste “because brushing with baking soda like her parents do makes her breath smell like a yeast infection.” The Drifter is the most rooted of them all.

The Indifference League wants to reveal the super in the everyday and the normal in the super. Regrettably, its potential, like the potential of many of its characters, goes unfulfilled.