Sloppy Firsts

Summary: Jessica Darling’s life just about ends when her best friend in the entire world, Hope Weaver, moves away across the country. Hope is leaving her to fend by herself with the annoying and skanky clueless crew, flirtatious Scotty, her bitchy sister Bethany’s wedding, and her parents who never understand her. On top of all this her period is officially MIA, and the mysterious Marcus Flutie has taken an interest in her life. Jessica Darling has an awful lot on her plate for just a sixteen year old.

Review: Okay, I am extremely iffy about my opinion on this book. I have friends who absolutely adored it and begged me to read it, so I did. I’m not sure I love it as much as they do. There is no doubt in my mind that Megan McCafferty is an amazing writer, and that this book is very well-written and believable. However, I had a big problem with Jessica. I couldn’t relate to her at all, literally the one part in the book that had me like ‘hey that’s me!’ was this part: “But I can’t think of anything (track, student council, Key Club, and so on) that gets me as psyched as that. Or as giddy as the Clueless Crew gets from organizing a pep rally or decorating the Jocks’ lockers before a big game. I wish I were artistic, like Hope. That’s passion. That’s something to get excited about. I do everything I do because it will look good on my college applications. Depressing isn’t it?”(pg 39).

Then from there on in the book, I didn’t relate to her or any of her friends. I found her very whiny and, excuse my language, bitchy. I found myself reading the book (fairly quickly I might add, it was an easy book to get through) waiting for something to happen and it never did. It was high school. Plain and simple it really was, and McCafferty does a splendid job making it realistic. I felt like the only real character development was at the end when she made the decision to tell Hope everything, besides that she remained mostly the same. It was a great book, I just did not enjoy it as much as other probably did.

My bottom line here is: It was a fabulously written realistic book, not my cup of tea.

Rating: 4/5 I’ve got to give such a well crafted book its props, even if I wasn’t the hugest fan.

Review from the Pros:
“Sloppy Firsts captures, in spare, truthful prose, the exquisite pain and ecstasy of being besotted by your best friend. The reader may flinch, but Megan McCafferty never does.” –Emma Forest, Author of Namedropper

“Sloppy Firsts is a spirited, down-the-rabbit-hole adventure in the madcap subculture of high school. With remarkable insight, tenderness, and with, Megan McCafferty offers us a compassionate, clear-eyed tale of how a sassy young woman survives teenage-hood.” –Laurie Fox, Author of My Sister From The Black Lagoon

“Sloppy Firsts perfectly captures the turbulent roller-coaster ride that is being a teenager. This is an intimate, (at times) painfully honest peek at a girl’s coming of age. Getting to know Jessica is like meeting a new best friend. I miss her already.” –Atoosa Rubenstein, editor in chief of Cosmogirl!

“Such a sharp, funny, poignant heroine, with an inner world we can all relate to.” -Sophie Kinsella, Author of Confessions of a Shopaholic