Everything Sucks: Losing My Mind and Finding Myself in a High School Quest for Cool
Grade 9 Up—In this brutally funny and provocatively honest memoir, Friedman details her ambitious attempts to forgo a life of absurd obscurity in exchange for one of glamorous popularity. Having been bullied in middle school, and homeschooled briefly on her father's band's overcrowded tour bus, the author decided to take her destiny into her own hands and entered a prestigious boarding school as a scholarship student. She describes her "quest for cool" as she strived for the perfect wardrobe, perfect boyfriend, perfect GPA, and membership in the most popular clique. Though filled with wit and hilarity, the darker side of the story reveals that the author also had a drug habit, an eating disorder, and an identity crisis. While the insider's view of teenage popularity, casual social cruelty, profound academic stress, peer pressure, first love, desire for belonging, drugs, clueless adults, sex, and a friend's death are elucidating, the engaging nature of the exposition belies the very real dangers that some of Friedman's choices present. As such, this book would not be recommended for teens who are not reflective enough to understand these greater implications. Overall, though, this is a good choice for discussion.—Joanie Terrizzi, New York City Public SchoolsEND