Review: Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty

Title: Sloppy Firsts
Author: Megan McCafferty
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Crown
Publish Date: August 28, 2001
Source: Library

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You're a Young Adult fiction fan.
• You like funny writing.
• You like witty writing.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "“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?"

My Two Cents: 

Oh man, I don't know why I waited so long to read this book! I've heard so many good things about these books from fellow bloggers. I've been hearing those good things pretty much since I started book blogging but there wasn't any time to read it. I was so happy that I finally got a chance. I loved it. This is a great contemporary Young Adult book. And I am so looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

This book is about 10 years old at this point, a little over. 10 years ago, I was in high school too. As far as I can figure, I would have been a freshman when Jessica Darling, the main character, was a sophomore in this book. So for me, this book was a fun look back at high school. The trends have changed a little bit towards then so it really made me a little bit nostalgic. Even though things have changed since then, I think this book still has the way high school is down pat. There's still the same situations and emotions that high schoolers face. There's the best friends and the unattainable guy and the guy that you didn't know you should be looking for in the first place. They're all there, same as it ever was.

One of the outstanding parts of this book is the characters. Jessica Darling is so great. She's funny. She's sarcastic. She's real. I loved her correspondence with her best friend, Hope. It's funny and poignant. She makes all sorts of these funny observations. And Marcus Flutie is a great bad boy (who didn't want the bad boy at least once when they were in high school? Isn't that like a right of passage or something???). On the surface, he's definitely a bad boy who is probably lucky that he hasn't ended up in the special school for the bad kids. And yet, underneath it all, he's just severely misunderstood. Aren't all the bad boys misunderstood?

This book was a great read. It would be a great summer read. The only thing that I had read from McCafferty before was Bumped, which was really not my favorite book (the story was a little strange to me). I think that the Jessica Darling books will be much more to my liking.