Monday, April 9, 2012

Sloppy Firsts By Megan McCafferty

The first book in the Jessica Darling Series... Holy crap I'm in love!!!  This came out in 2001????  Where have I been?  How did I miss this?  Oh well the important thing is I've FINALLY read it, and I LOVE!!!
Jessica Darling is a high school junior whose best friend has moved away.   Now she has to make nice with the Clueless Crew?!   This is not going to go well.   Jessica is too smart and cynical to enjoy being with people who say "Omigod" and "quote unquote".   But suffer she must because WHAT ELSE IS SHE GONNA DO??
She continues on with her junior year running track, avoiding Krispy Kreme (the school druggy who takes an interest in her), avoiding Scotty (the jock who has/had a crush on her), and dodging the Clueless Crew (including the new girl Hy), preparing for her sister's wedding, and dealing with her parents and the pressure she feels from them to be someone she's not.... all the while giving hilariously honest commentary on her situations.

Like I was saying before, I really did myself a disservice by not reading this 10 years ago, but anyhow this is what I thought:  Although i wasn't like Jessica all that much in HS, I feel like I totally relate to her in so many ways.   I think that I think similarly to her.... kinda negative, kinda mean, but not near as funny or witty.   The sub-characters were awesome, mostly in bad ways, but you gotta love that love to hate character(s)!  Especially Manda, I wanted to hose her down with Lysol too!  Marcus (Krispy) never grew on me like I thought he would.  I guess I couldn't get over the fact that he was a former druggy, current slut, and know-it-all.  I don't know what happens in the other Jessica books, but I'm not hoping for this couple.
I love how the beginning of each chapter was a letter to Hope, this broke everything up nicely.   And I love how the author didn't censor stuff like sex, drugs, swearing.   Sorry but it drives me nuts in books when teens go to parties and they drink pop and eat chips... what planet are these people living on?? I get it's about the message, but it's not reality!  If you want to read a book that pretty accurately portrays teenage life, this is soooo it!
(I may be slightly biased because I went to HS around the same time this was written, so with all the pop-culture references it feels like high school to me :)   

Add it to your To-Read List!!!  









How I Got This Book: Library
Date Published: 8/28/2001

3 comments:

  1. Yay you finally read it!!! I can see how you wouldn't be crazy about Marcus, although I did like him. He gets better in the rest of the series, I think. And I agree about the parties - I think she does a good job of portraying them. Although, it also bugs me sometimes in movies when the kids have giant parties with kegs and stuff. That kind of stuff never happened in my high school. For one thing, no one had money to buy kegs. So I guess both things can be unrealistic.

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  2. Very true!! In college yes, kegs kegs and more kegs, but HS not so much... we were lucky if we could get a 6 pack! And if there ever was a giant party (like Cant Hardly Wait style) it wouldve been broken up within minutes, not at the end of the night when it was pretty much over anyway :) ....and I got Second Helpings today at the library, now im addicted!

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    1. Yay! I'm so glad you like it. I think Second Helpings might be the best one in the series. Or maybe the last one.

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