Clayton Zane Comber’s *100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze*: A Tender YA Story with Complicated Friendships

Clayton Zane Comber’s 100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze takes a familiar coming-of-age question—how do you find your place among other people?—and gives it an unusually tender frame. Xander is fifteen, devoted to lists, and worried about his grandmother, Nanna, who has stage 4 cancer. His new list of a hundred feats is meant to save her life, though its early entries turn toward challenges closer to his own: making a friend and then a best friend.

Xander Maze loves lists, and his grandmother is #1 in his list of People I Love Most in the World. But now that Nanna has stage 4 cancer, can a new list of 100 Remarkable Feats really save her life?

Particularly when his list contains difficult things like #2 Make a Friend and #3 Make a Best Friend.

That gap between the grand purpose of Xander’s plan and the ordinary, difficult work of connecting with people gives the novel much of its emotional pull. The book is funny and warm, and its reviewer found it an enjoyable read despite reservations about how some relationships develop. The result, in that reviewer’s view, is a sweet story with weighty concerns beneath its light-hearted surface.

Friendship, on Xander’s terms

The reviewer’s strongest hesitation concerns Lily and Lachlan, who enter Xander’s life and push their way into it. Their attention can feel less like steady friendship than like a response to his growing visibility: Xander has a place on the soccer team, and his list attracts local attention. The reviewer wondered whether these characters were taking advantage of him, even if the story presents their involvement as encouragement.

That discomfort matters because Xander’s list is so personal. It begins with his love for Nanna and becomes a way to attempt experiences that don’t come easily to him. As he makes progress, the reader can share his pleasure in seeing new possibilities open up while still questioning the motives and behaviour of the people around him. The reviewer never entirely lost the sense that Xander was being used, and felt the story didn’t give every character firm enough ground to resolve that concern.

The characters’ ages sharpen the question. Xander is fifteen, though the reviewer says he can initially seem more like eleven or twelve. Lily and Lachlan’s behaviour struck the reviewer as harder to understand in mid-teens than it might have been in younger children. Some of the older characters, including people who have left school or are preparing to start university, make a more favourable impression: they speak to Xander as a person and appear less inclined to use him.

The book also includes eating disorders and the serious illness of a loved one. The reviewer describes its overall feel as light-hearted and sweet, while acknowledging the difficult material. That combination lets the story explore care, vulnerability and social belonging without making Xander’s attempts at connection feel like a simple list of achievements. Each new experience can be welcome and still leave questions about how others treat him.

A question of representation

The reviewer reads Xander as written in a way that may suggest neurodivergence, but says the novel doesn’t address that possibility directly. They felt even a passing acknowledgement could have helped readers interpret some of his behaviour. They raise a particular concern about Xander’s affection for Ally, which some readers might find uncomfortable, and argue that the story could have offered more context for how to understand it.

It’s a pointed criticism, but it sits alongside appreciation for what Xander brings to the book. The reviewer welcomes having a protagonist like him at the centre of a YA story, one that can let readers encounter a different perspective and may also help some readers recognise parts of themselves. The other characters, they say, have their own problems and are reasonably well rounded; the shortfall is that some relationships and motivations could use more definition.

Lists, letters and a strong audio performance

Comber tells the story in first person, weaving lists together with messages and letters. For the reviewer, these shifts in form support Xander’s way of seeing the world without interrupting the narrative. The audio edition is narrated by Archie Greig-Lawson, whose performance the reviewer describes as effective, helping the story hold together across its different formats.

100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze was published in print on 2 June 2021 and in audio on 16 June 2021 by HarperCollins Australia and HarperAudio. The book runs to 288 pages; the audiobook lasts 5 hrs and 53 mins. It’s listed as contemporary young adult fiction, and the reviewer awarded it 3.5 stars.

For readers choosing their next YA novel, this looks like a good fit for anyone drawn to affectionate, character-led stories about family, friendship and finding room to be yourself. The reviewer’s mixed response is part of the appeal: Xander’s story may be moving, but the people around him invite questions about what genuine support should look like. That tension gives readers and book clubs something to discuss after the list itself is finished.

You can purchase 100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze via the following booksellers:

QBD | Dymocks | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

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