For years I have seen Megan McCafferty's lime green book Sloppy Firsts I've even checked it out a couple of times in an attempt to start reading it. The first time was when my friend moved from New Jersey to Louisiana. I had heard the book was about something similar and thought it would be great to read. I mean I'm from New Jersey (relatively the same region in the book, though I can't quite pinpoint where the author has located Pineville) and my friend had just moved. Well I couldn't get through it that first time. I then picked it up again and that attempt failed also. Must be third time's the charm. I finally read it. It seems fated that I hadn't read it yet. The series starts of with Jessica Darling in the middle of her sophomore year of high school. If I had started reading this at the oh-so-young age of 14 I really don't think I would have understood it or been able to appreciate what happens to Jessica (this coming from someone who started to read adult romance novels and the age of 15). But I honestly think any appreciation I would have had for the book would have been lost.
To begin with, I can appreciate where Jessica lives. I think this has always been the most intriguing factor. Its about where I live. Someone actually thought the place I live in was important enough to write about! Other than wining the Little League World Series over a decade ago (wow it's scary that it has been that long) and a few other local things my town (small city by population definition) is just like most other American towns, unless that town is called Forks. Oh and I forgot that I also live near the former(?) summer home of MTV. Nothing (other than the gobs of money poured in to the area) makes this fact a good thing. But anyway...The mall mentioned by name is the same mall I go to for all my mall needs. Jessica listens to 98.5 at a time when it was the hottest music station around. The newspapers she reads are the ones that are regular visitors to my house every Sunday (although one has now become a free paper delivered on Fridays). For all intents and purposes, Pineville might as well be my town! It was so weird to have such a strong connection to something fictional
What else was great? The fact that I practically re-lived my high school years. Now, that's not something I would have elected to do given the option, but this was as a completely observant person who has already gone through high school and the highs and lows that come with it. Jessica seemed to have a foot in everything and so you had a bird's eye view of this microcosm and the emotional roller coaster it can be. A little be of everything is thrown in and I loved every minute of it. Even though the series is for young adults (minus the fifth book, which is, at least in my library, shelved with regular fiction and not young adult fiction) it really should be something someone reads not long after high school and even college, but ruling is still out on that since I haven't finished the series yet. As good as the books I can't stress how great I think they are having been through high school and college. I finished Second Helpings and I am currently reading Charmed Thrids (with Fourth Comings and Perfect Fifths waiting in the wings). I also think this series is best read consecutively. I know everyone who was a fan of the books before had to wait most likely a year if not more for the next book in the series and was in agony waiting to know what happened next, but I don't think that necessarily works in the favor of the books here. This series doesn't have the same effect that has me dying to know what happens next. I'm not left on a cliff desperately wanting to know if Jessica is going to survive to the next book. But I do want to know what happens. The books aren't quite consecutive (at least the first three aren't) because they don't pick up immediately where the last one left off. The first ends in the middle of Jessica's junior year and the second picks up the summer before her senior year. I like this. I don't think anything is lost by the gap. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the series because I've "been there and done that". It just seems very appropriate to be reading this right now.
Listening to "Just Ran Out of Whiskey" by Gaelic Storm
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