Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Winner!, 26 Mar 2004
By A Customer
Jessica Darling is a sophomore in high school. She's a top-notch honor student, has two good parents and a reasonably good life. At least, that's how she'll remember it. For now she's Jess, lowest of the low, unpretty, unpopular, plenty of guys but none of the right ones and - to make matters worse - her best friend just moved away. She and Hope have been best friends since forever and have always done absolutely EVERYTHING together; now she's gone, leaving Jess to suffer through lunch with the Clueless Crew (three tipsy blondes whose greatest fear is that they'll run out of foundation during fifth period) and to brave weekends alone. What about some male companionship? Well, there's Scotty...he's of the "jock" quality and is more full of himself than a balloon is of helium. Then, out of the blue, there's Marcus, a "dreg" so zonked out on anything that burns he can hardly remember his own middle name and is known around school for his scores amongst the "hoochies". Megan McCafferty will take you plummeting back into those "hallowed halls of academie" in an extremely accurate and vivid portrayal or life in high school. Many of the characters are not well-rounded, but in my opinion that too is an accurate portrayal of the world as seen through the eyes of a teenage student. McCafferty's style of prose is simplistic, serving to make it more readable for all audiences, yet not detracting from the imagery or the story itself. The plot is fairly simple...but just how dramatic WAS high school anyway? I greatly enjoyed this book...I read it all in a day and the second one the following day...while it's not in a genre I normally like it's style and the way the story moved along made it an extremely intriguing read. The book is geared toward adolescents but the style is sufficient to engage readers of all ages preteen on up. I wouldn't suggest it for the little kids...the teenage preoccupation with sex does come into play at times. All-in-all a recommended read. Another fun novel I also recommend is The Losers' Club by Richard Perez
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent and Fun Coming of Age Story, 7 Aug 2002
This debut novel offers up a fairly pleasing take on the high-school novel, replete with cliques of teenagers, sexual (mis)discoveries, angst and confusion, slang galore, and a high dose of comedy. The breezy novel takes the form of a year's worth of teenage journal entries, interspersed with letters to an absent best friend and various comic top 5 and 10 lists. Clearly McCafferty has read and absorbed books like Bridget Jones Diary and High Fidelity and applied the lessons to her own tale for a slightly younger set. It's a very apt novel in that not a lot happens on a day by day basis, and yet quite a bit happens as teenage Jessica struggles to find her identity in the social world of a public high school on the Jersey shore. Her main source of self-pity is that her supercool best friend moved away, leaving her with no one to hang with except the "Clueless Crew"—three blonde bubblegum bimbos. Her diary entries record the latter part of her sophomore year, the summer, and the first part of junior year.Of course a lot of the book revolves around her own ambivalence to the boys on offer at her school. There's the nice boy next door type who's maturing into an idiot jock, there's a the geeky underclassman in her French class, there's her secret crush on a senior, and there's the strange case of the stoner guy. Added to the mix is the popular theme of parents who just don't understand and a body problem (no period for many moons), and it's got all the ingredients. Of course, like many teens of film and fiction, Jessica does tend to write and analyze way above most 15-16 year-olds, but since she's the class brain, it's at least plausible. And in any event, the book is so enjoyable, one is hard pressed to care. McCafferty has created a wholly believable teenage realm, replete with all the right pop-culture references and icons. Especially funny are all the nicknames bestowed on various cliques, as well as the teen slang. The one quibble I have is that Jessica is a huge John Hughes fan, which seems a little unlikely as his movies (Pretty in Pink, et al) were really touchstones for those (like me), who were in high school 15 years ago. But that's admittedly nitpicking on my part, because the book is a definite pleasure. I would especially recommend it to parents of high school students as a tiny window into the world of their kids.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fun, and very teenage read!, 31 Jan 2007
A fantastic read, full to the brim with teenage angst and trivial worryings. As you follow Jess 'Not-so' Darling through her sixteenth-into-seventeenth year, beginning just after her best friend hope has 'U-hauled ass out of Pineville', you get sucked into her high-school world of bitching and boys, (not from Jess, that is, but her buble gum bimbo 'friends'). With a super high IQ and the fastest legs Pineville high has ever seen, Jess's constant battle with lonliness, self doubt and insomnia, all intensified by a mum who pops prosac and dotes on Jess's older sister, and a dad who lives for her track meets, is typical teenager.
Jess's twisted 'love' story, the Class brainiac and the high school Dreg Marcus Flutie, is completely and utterly absorbing. The kind of romance that secretly one wishes for, a little bit taboo but totaly exciting, despite a complete lack of 'action', it is made with lines like,
'Marcus brushed my hair back with his hand, leaned in and whispered, "I won't narc on you, cuz". He smelled sweet and woodsy, like cedar shavings. I felt his hand on my neck and his breath on my cheek. Suddenly, I was rubbery and red.' Yum!
The book is writen, although un-obviously, as a diary entry, with months as chapters, and follows the course of a whole year in Jess's life. It is VERY american, perfect for the British teenage girl, obsessed with Jocks, cheerleaders and the 'all- American high school'!
Quite long for impatient readers, and a just a tad too smart to be classed as 'chic lit', perfectly littered with sexy bits, I would unconditionally recomend this for any girls 14 and above, including women wanting a sneaky look into the older teenage mindset.
Just to finish, do not even think about buying this book unless you buy the second one with it, as you will NOT be able to keep from buying 'Second Helpings'.
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