Review: Diary of a Awkward Girl
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 28, 2013
Not Pretty Enough is the comedic coming-of-age romance by Jaimie Admans that will keep the reader rolling on the floor-I know I was laughing throughout the whole book! Protagonist Chessie has big breasts and therefore thinks that fellow classmate Lloyd Layton should obviously fall in love with her since he is extremely tall. They both outrank their classmates in each of these attributes so it must be a match made in Heaven, right?! Along the path to True Love, Chessie dyes her hair red, gets Lloyd stung by bees, punctures his foot with a javelin, tells him that her step-father is abusing her (she has no step-father), invents a fake hair illness, sneezes a glob of snot on Lloyd's math book, stalks Lloyd, dresses up as a construction worker.... Need I say more? Chessie is simply a young woman whose father died several years prior, her mother works all hours as a nurse, and Chessie has body issue. The class bully tells her that she's fat and this adds to the already negative image that Chessie has of herself. However, she's no quitter. Despite all obstacles, Chessie perseveres.I thoroughly enjoyed this book as I saw many of my own teenage hijinks and embarrassing moments from high school throughout the pages. I also saw the insecurity that I felt and so many young people of today feel. Chessie's two best friends, Debs and Ewan, are crushing on each other but neither feels the courage to admit it. They don't believe that someone can honestly care for them. This is one of the most realistically true young adult books that I've read in quite a while. It highlights how technology and absentee parents, no positive role models or mentors, bullying and false body images in the media have made our children nervous wrecks-emotional cripples. And as funny as the book was, the ending was very sad and poignant, yet triumphant. Jaimie Admans is the new Beverly Cleary of pre-teens. I can't wait to read more by her! Five plus stars:)