Review: The Worst Girlfriend in the World by Sarra Manning

Published by: Atom
Release date: 1st May 2014
Series: n/a
I got it from: NetGalley
Goodreads summary:
Alice Jenkins is the worst girlfriend in the world according to the many, many boys who've shimmied up lampposts and shoplifted from New Look to impress her, only to be dumped when she gets bored of them. Alice has a very low boredom threshold.

But she never gets bored with Franny, her best friend since they met at nursery school. Friends are for ever. Ain't nothing going to come between them. Girls rule, boys drool is their motto. Well, it's Alice's motto, Franny doesn't have much time for boys; they're all totes immature and only interested in one thing.

But then there's Louis Allen, lead singer of The Desperadoes, the best band in Merrycliffe-on-sea (though that could be because they're the only band in Merrycliffe-on-sea). He's a tousle-haired, skinny-jeaned, sultry-eyed manchild, the closest thing that Franny's ever seen to the hipsters that she's read about on the internet and she's been crushing on him HARD for the last three years.

She's never worked up the courage to actually speak to him but she's sure on some deeper level that goes beyond mere words, Louis absolutely knows that she's his soulmate. He just doesn't know that he knows it yet. It's why he cops off with so many other girls.

So, when Alice, bored with callow youths, sets her sights on Louis it threatens to tear the girls' friendship apart, even though they're better than fighting over a boy.

They strike a devil's deal - may the best girl win. Best friends become bitter rivals and everything comes to an explosive conclusion on their first trip to London.

Can true friendship conquer all?
 
My review:
I was so excited when I got the approval to read this arc. I lot of the stuff I read via Netgalley is by either debut authors or authors I've never read before, so when I get a chance to read something by an author I know and love, it's like coming home to a big, warm hug.

Franny B is a spectacular character. Not least because she reminds me a bit of myself at that age. I wasn't any kind of cool, style icon, and luckily I didn't have to deal with a mother like Franny's. But I did leave school to go to college and study art, and I was a shy, naive, barely-been-kissed type. So I found myself identifying with Franny on a number of levels. It always instills a lot more book love in me when I really get the characters.

One thing I didn't have at that age was a best friend, and I envy Franny that. Her relationship with Alice is brilliant in so many ways. She might be the Worst Girlfriend in the World, but I still kind of love her. Us quiet, shy types need a loud, outgoing sidekick to drag us out of ourselves.

Then there's the boys. Oh my, those boys. I love Manning's boy characters so much. Louis is all kinds of wonderful, but not for the reasons you expect. And he's not the only piece of boy brilliance in this book, but I'm keeping shtum on the other boy talent, you'll just have to read for yourself.

Manning writes teenagers SO well. She brings back all the insanely intense stuff I felt at that age. Because when you're growing up and feeling all these things for the first time, it is intense. And you might have mental screaming matches and you might feel incredibly small and immature afterwards, but I'm pretty sure it's something all girls go through, and the way Manning writes it makes it just so real. Also, pretty funny when you're on the outside looking in, with many years of experience to fall back on.

I have to give a nod to the joy of reading good Brit fiction. I mention it a lot when I'm reading British books, but our market is so swamped by US stuff that I have stand up and give Brit brilliance a shout-out when I can.

I'm now left with that bittersweet feeling I get when I've just finished a book I loved. I'm happy because I've found this amazing collection of words, but I'm sad because I've finished reading it for the first time, and no matter that I will love it for years and read it over and over, no subsequent reading quite captures the euphoria of reading and getting to know these characters for the first time.

Dorky Reviews: Life in Outer Space and Adorkable

The universe likes synchonicity. You wake up with a song in your head, and it's the first thing you hear on the radio. Something bothersome happens to you one day, and that night the same thing happens to a character in your favourite TV show. You request a random book on Netgalley, and the next day a book you forgot you ordered from the library arrives, and it turns out they're both about the same thing. And neither of them are American. And it's not even a vague thing, like romance or vampires - it's way more niche than that, because really, how many books about dorks are there out there? So it happens that I have both Adorkable by Sarra Manning, and Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil in my possession. So I figured I should do some kind of comparison review, or possibly just two reviews in one post. I'll start writing and see what occurs...

Adorkable by Sarra Manning

Goodreads says:
Jeane Smith's a blogger, a dreamer, a jumble sale queen, CEO of her own lifestyle brand, and has half a million followers on Twitter. Michael Lee's a star of school, stage, and playing field. A golden boy in a Jack Wills hoodie. They have nothing in common but a pair of cheating exes. So why can't they stop making out? This novel is about an unlikely relationship, but it's also about roller derby, dogs on skateboards, dogs on surfboards, dogs doing any form of extreme sport, old skool hip hop, riding your bike downhill really fast, riot grrrl, those boys you want to kiss but punch in the face at the same time, dyeing your hair ridiculous colors just because you can, stitch 'n' bitch, the songs that make you dance, the songs that make you cry, being a bad ass, cake, love, death, and everything in between.

My review:
I read Adorkable first because I'm in the midst of a love affair with Sarra Manning (see my review of Let's Get Lost), and I couldn't wait. I advise reading Guitar Girl before Adorkable, not because it's necessary, but because you get to see a character or two further along the road and it's nice to catch up with them again. 

I loved Adorkable. I loved Jeane, and I especially loved Michael. I think I might be a bit of a dork myself. 

Most young dorks keep quiet about it. They feel different, separated from the 'in' crowd and often alone. Jeane is a different breed of dork though - dork and proud! She stands up for dorks the world over. Her blog and twitter feed offers friendship and hope to lonely dorks everywhere. She is wise beyond her years, speaking out about politics, the environment, fashion and cute puppies, tracking and announcing trends before anyone else has noticed them. She lives like an emancipated minor, alone since her sister got a residency in America, so she spends the time when she's not doing her A-levels working on her brand, watching videos of cute dogs and training her boyfriend to be who she wants him to be. She is still a 17 year-old girl though, so her flat is a pigsty and she lives on Haribos and coffee. 

Michael has a good home life. His parents love one another and him, they encourage him in everything he does, and he is perfectly happy. He is also perfectly perfect in just about every way. He is popular, clever, sporty and hot, and going out with the lovely Scarlett. But all is not well in that relationship - Scarlett is more interested in Jeane's boyfriend Barney than she is in her own boyfriend. So, we are left with a pretty conundrum. Michael is aware of Scarlett's straying eyes, but when he tries to do the decent thing and let Jeane know he ends up with a face full of verbal abuse. This sets the tone for the not-relationship between these two. Every time they try to talk, they end up in a shouting match. Jeane is the first person not to accept Michael's perfection, and he is the first person to try and get beyond her prickly exterior. All that negative energy has to go somewhere though, and somehow they end up kissing. 

There are so many things to love about Adorkable. There's the teenagers who, for the most part, actually act and talk like teenagers. There's the fact that Jeane is not pretty, or even secretly attractive in any way, yet Michael is still drawn to her. There are the brilliant arguments and undeniable chemistry between Michael and Jeane, which is, quite frankly, making both their lives an awkward sort of hell.  There is the fact that Michael is mixed-race gorgeous, because there are not enough mixed-race characters out there. There are the little pockets of sadness and honesty which make this story rise above the usual cute contemporary teen life. There are all manner of references to life as a teen in the UK, which I can actually get and identify with because I'm a Brit reading a brilliant Brit book, and that doesn't happen often! 

It's funny and sweet and all of those cutesy, awkward things, and it's heart-rending and big and real. J'adork!

Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil

Goodreads says:
Sam Kinnison is a geek, and he’s totally fine with that. He has his horror movies, his nerdy friends, World of Warcraft – and until Princess Leia turns up in his bedroom, he doesn’t have to worry about girls.

Then Sam meets Camilla. She’s beautiful, friendly and completely irrelevant to his life. Sam is determined to ignore her, except that Camilla has a life of her own – and she’s decided that he’s going to be part of it.

Sam believes that everything he needs to know he can learn from the movies ... but now it looks like he’s been watching the wrong ones.

My review:
When I started reading this, I thought Sam and his little band of misfits were the dorks. And they are, but then I realised that they're not the only ones - Camilla is another dork queen. Sam is actually a geek, but I think he's a dork too. I need to sort out my terminology - dork, geek, nerd - who can give me proper definitions? Anyway, so there's Sam and his friends. They spend most of their time avoiding Justin Zigoni and the A-list kids, who have a habit of using Sam & pals for fun when they're bored. Then Camilla turns up. She's not like anyone else Sam has ever known. She has the power to reverse the universe and make things different. 

Camilla is uber-cool. Her dad is huge in the music business, she's lived all over the place, she's met tons of famous people, been to awards ceremonies and she has an English accent. Camilla wears whatever she feel like wearing, regardless of fashion. She doesn't get ridiculed for it, she gets revered. She's the kind of girl who can join the chess club, the volleyball team and the spring dance committee. Somehow she crosses the divide between the geeks, the dorks and the masses. She is guaranteed a position at the top of the school, being fawned over by a posse of acolytes. So why is she insisting on hanging out with Sam? Because she plays WoW, and while she's gotten used to starting over at new places and hanging out with whoever will have her, Sam and his friends are the ones she actually wants to talk to.

Life in Outer Space is funny. Sam's observances are hilarious as well as sweet and awkward. It's unusual to read a book solely told from the boy's point of view, but Sam is a great boy to read. He's at that oh-so-awkward stage in life - sweet 16 and never been kissed, but he's such a shy dork that he doesn't see his own potential. Just the fact that Camilla appears to want to be friends with him is astounding enough - the thought of anything more than friends is so far beyond his frame of reference that he doesn't even consider it. 

Littered with film references, LIOS is such an entertaining read. It's not particularly original as stories go, but it's done really well and is so enjoyable. It's a chunk of a normal boy's life. His best friend is being weird and secretive, his parents may well be splitting up, his screenplay isn't working, and this amazing girl is somehow insinuating herself into his life. It's fun, kooky, sweet, endearing and adorable. Oh, and it's Australian, which is another example of that synchronicity, because I rarely get Aussie books to read, and I just finished, loved and reviewed Saving Wishes by G J Walker-Smith.

UKYA Review: Let's Get Lost by Sarra Manning

Published by: Hodder Children's
Release date: 2nd February 2006
Series: n/a
I got it from: Library
Goodreads summary:
Isabel is the girl who rules the school with an iron fist and a gang of minions who do her bidding. Her friends are scared of her, her teachers can't get through to her, and that's just the way she likes it. With her razor-sharp edges and tall walls, nothing gets to Isabel and no one, but no one, is ever going to discover her dark, sad secrets. Then she meets Smith. And Isabel learns that sometimes when all the expectations and pressures are too much, you just need someone to help you get lost.

My review:
I can't believe I haven't come across Sarra Manning before. I'm having one of those epiphical moments you get when you discover a new author and want to scream 'where have you been all my life?' and immediately obtain their whole back-catalogue. And even better, it's a Brit author! I love reading about the American kids and their kooky lives, but I'm all for supporting home-grown talent and sometimes it's nice to come home, to be able to imagine the place I'm reading about and understand the lingo. My first thought when reading Let's Get Lost was, hang on, I've found a British Sarah Dessen! Which is most definitely a good thing - I love Dessen's books, and to have found a British version is just my idea of heaven. Manning's writing is convincingly teenish, yet peppered with insights and wisdom to make you think and smile.

Isabel is the girl you love to hate. She's the best kind of character - flawed but redeemable. I can see elements of myself in her, which is not necessarily a good thing for me, but is a good thing when it comes to reading about her. There's something soothingly familiar about reading about her time at school - I'm so used to reading about the US school system, which is confusing and strange to me, than when I actually get to read about Brit school life I'm transported back to my own time as a poor, misguided teen right away. Isabel plays at being a bitch because it means she doesn't have to let anyone see inside her. No talking about feelings, no heart-to-hearts, absolutely no little chats about her mother.

The thing about being a bitch though, is that once you start it's hard to stop. It spills over and before you know it you're being hateful to everyone around you, letting no-one get within 10 feet without a caustic remark being thrown their way. But then there's Smith. He's not like anyone else she knows - he doesn't let her get away with being a bitch, and so maybe, just maybe, with him she can be someone else, if only she can figure out how to stop her mouth spouting out vile remarks. The only problem is that there is a mountain of lies stopping her from being true to him, and she doesn't know how to start climbing it.

If Isabel is the girl you love to hate, then Smith is the guilty crush, the foxy geek, the rather adorable if slightly emo student who you can't help but love a little bit. Again, Manning has him exactly right - the slightly older student, but most definitely still a student. You have to feel sorry for him at times, getting involved with Isabel, but then he says something perfect and you're soon cheering him on again.

I'm off to find more Sarra Manning...