Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty

Book Name: Sloppy Firsts (Jessica Darling No.1)
Author/s: Megan McCafferty
Source:Bought
Publisher, year: Crown, 2002
Page total: 304
Date Read: February 08 to 09, 2011
Genre/s: YA, Coming of Age
First line of Book: Tonight I've been thinking about the mosaic Hope gave me the night she U-hauled ass out of Pineville.

Read the other review by Ginny

“My parents suck ass. Banning me from the phone and restricting my computer privileges are the most tyrannical parental gestures I can think of. Don’t they realize that Hope’s the only one who keeps me sane? . . . I don’t see how things could get any worse.”

When her best friend, Hope Weaver, moves away from Pineville, New Jersey, hyperobservant sixteen-year-old Jessica Darling is devastated. A fish out of water at school and a stranger at home, Jessica feels more lost than ever now that the only person with whom she could really communicate has gone. How is she supposed to deal with the boy- and shopping-crazy girls at school, her dad’s obsession with her track meets, her mother salivating over big sister Bethany’s lavish wedding, and her nonexistent love life?

A fresh, funny, utterly compelling fiction debut by first-time novelist Megan McCafferty, Sloppy Firsts is an insightful, true-to-life look at Jessica’s predicament as she embarks on another year of teenage torment--from the dark days of Hope’s departure through her months as a type-A personality turned insomniac to her completely mixed-up feelings about Marcus Flutie, the intelligent and mysterious “Dreg” who works his way into her heart. Like a John Hughes for the twenty-first century, Megan McCafferty taps into the inherent humor and drama of the teen experience. This poignant, hilarious novel is sure to appeal to readers who are still going through it, as well as those who are grateful that they don’t have to go back and grow up all over again.

When I started reading this book, I wasn't very sure of what to expect. Okay, I knew what it was about, and I had been told it was really good, but the first chapters didn't get me convinced. At all. However, my opinion did change as read further into the book.

Jessica is not your usual heroine. She is sarcastic, cynical, pessimistic, fatalistic, and could sometimes be a bitch. Those were the things that made me dislike her at first, but as I got to know her better, my opinion changed drastically, and those same things were what made her become one of those characters I'm sure I'll not forget. Because Jessica is also honest. She is fresh. And she is not afraid of expressing her opinions. I think that to me that was the breaking point, when she finally decided to let people know what she thought, because, honestly, her psyche is quite amazing.

The plot is simple. It's pretty well explained and summarized on the book's synopsis so I won't explain any further. Usually this would have bored me to death. The reason it didn't was- you guessed it- Jessica Darling. As she went through (and snarkly commented) all of her situations, I couldn't help but either laugh or worry or simply care because of the girl herself!

Megan McCafferty's debut was great, and she succeeded in creating a very unique character who I'm sure i'll not forget easily. Now excuse me, because I want to start Second helpings.

4/5

"You can only be in a bad mood for so long before you have to face up to the fact that it isn't a bad mood at all; it's just your sucky personality."

"It just makes me wonder what subject you blame for talking to me every night.'
I'm still settling on an answer for that one. Probably Chemistry.
Jesus Christ. I can't believe I just wrote that."

Book Review: Sloppy Firsts (Jessica Darling #1)

Title: Sloppy Firsts (Jessica Darling, #1)
Author: Megan McCafferty
Publisher: Three Rivers Press, 2001
Page total: 280 pages
Date read: March 30th, 2010
Genre(s): Young Adult; Chick-lit

Reviewed by Ginny

Tonight I’ve been thinking about the mosaic Hope gave me the night she U-hauled ass out of Pineville. I wasn’t supposed to open it until my birthday, but I couldn’t wait.

I’ve been toying with the idea about writing a review of this book for quite a long time, but every time I tried, I came up with nothing.
I know what you’re going through your head. Why? What’s the big deal of writing a review? Just write down what you liked / didn’t like and pep it up with some quotes and done!

It just doesn't work for me. For me, writing a review has a great meaning. I just don’t write down what comes to my mind at that moment and deal with it. Not because I want to impress everybody with my writing but rather because I know that people are going to actually read what I wrote. My thoughts might, no matter how little, influence them. I have to be especially careful with something most people don’t know about. Their opinion isn’t formed yet - they might form their own opinion based on what they read, i.e. what I write. See what I mean?

I haven’t been able to come up with an okay-sounding review because Sloppy Firsts is a very unique novel. And by unique I don’t mean the cover, the format, or the author’s creativity of creating some mind-blowing plot. By unique I mean the main character, Jessica Darling. I know that everybody is supposed to be unique, and that most authors manage to create unique characters, but Jessica is the most unique character I’ve encountered in my life (which is not that long).

This book is written from Jessica’s point of view, so we get to hear her most private, most intimate and also most honest and unique thoughts. I’d never thought that there could be teenagers like her. Not that the author was a teenager when she wrote the novel, mind you.
Jessica is smart (like really smart), observant, sarcastic, funny and somehow different from normal teenagers. But I’d rather not say how and why I’d liked it exactly because I want you to have the chance to form your own opinion. I don’t want to interrupt yours with mine.
The plot is simple, actually: Her best friend Hope leaves the tiny hometown with her family. Jessica is devastated, now that the only person she could really communicate with is gone. How is she supposed to deal with the boy- and shopping-crazy girls at school, her dad’s obsession with her track meets, her mother salivating over her big sister’s wedding, and her nonexistent love life? And how is she supposed to feel about Marcus Flutie, the intelligent and mysterious “Dreg” who works his way into her heart?
It’s Jessica’s personality that makes this book so unique. Try it.

Quotes (can’t find better quotes right now!):

I got the Scholar Athlete Award. My GPA has risen to 99.66. The crazy thing is, the higher my GPA gets, the more I realize that high school is useless. I’m serious. I memorize notes for a test, spew it, ace it, then forget it. What makes this scary for the future of this country is that I’m in the tip-top percentile on every standardized test. I’m a model student with a very crappy attitude about learning.

Today is the one-year anniversary of the first day of my last period.
I'm not exactly celebrating.
[...]
Oh, the irony. I'm decades ahead of my classmates psychologically. Physically, however, I'm a goddamn kindergartner.