Author: Louise Rozett
Published: August 28, 2012
272 Pages
4 Gold Stars
(summary from Goodreads)
Rose Zarelli, self-proclaimed word geek and angry girl, has someconfessions to make…
1. I'm livid all the time. Why? My dad died. My mom barely talks. My brother abandoned us. I think I'm allowed to be irate,don't you?
2. I make people furious regularly. Want an example? I kissed Jamie Forta, a badass guy who might be dating a cheerleader. She is nowenraged and out for blood. Mine.
3. High school might as well be Mars. My best friend has been replaced by an alien, and I see red all the time. (Mars is red and "seeing red" means being angry—get it?)
Here are some other vocab words that describe my life: Inadequate. Insufferable. Intolerable.
(Don't know what they mean? Look them up yourself.)
(Sorry. That was rude.)
High school sucks, right? This book gives you the very average, very likely high school freshman. Enter Rose Zarelli, a girl who is thrown to the wolves like the rest of us were the first day of high school I for one got lucky, my older brother was already at my school when I started so everyone left me alone (he was kind of goth and kind of scary, so they didn't touch me) but Rose is not so lucky. Her older brother Peter has left for college so she has no protection against the evilness that is high school cheerleaders. She's not invisible either (which can be a very good thing in high school) because her dad passed away over the summer so everyone in town knows her face now. As if her life doesn't suck enough already, her best friend has turned into a pretty girl and joins the cheerleading squad. Needless to say, Rose is one angry girl.
For the first half of the book, I didn't really feel her anger. I understood her pain and I wanted things to go her way because she's already been through so much, but then the anger comes out and it's perfect. See Rose has caught the attentions of a senior who just happens to be dating one of those aforementioned cheerleaders. This doesn't sit so well with them and Regina (yes, this is officially a mean girl name) decides to make her know it pisses her off. Like I said earlier, I was never bullied by cheerleaders but I wasn't popular either. Regina is mean, no question about it, and Rose has good reason to be angry at the whole situation.
Bullying seems to be a trend in young adult right now and there's no better time for it. The actions done through others reflects what our society has become and I'm glad authors are making note of it. Bullies need to be stopped and if writing about it in a novel will make those who are getting bullied come forward, then maybe we can stop it. Rose doesn't come forward because she knows the effects that will have on her life. The fear is what makes the bullies continue. Unfortunately there are mean girls in real life, everywhere, and Rozett writes this one too well.
I'm on the fence about Jamie still, as I was finding it hard to see what all the fuss was about. But the other minor characters fit into the story well. Peter is trying to move away from high school and his messed up family, but Rose finds it difficult to let him. Tracy is just trying to fit into high school and Rose doesn't seem to understand why. Robert is just annoying, but so very high school boy that I must give props to Rozett for creating such a puppy dog. Regina is, well, Regina is down right cruel. Boy am I glad I've never come across anyone like her, especially in high school. There is talk about sex galore, which surprises me because I was certainly not thinking about sec when I was fifteen. But I'm sure times are different, I mean it has been 12 years. The thing I liked most about this book were the chapter headings. Rose is a self proclaimed word nerd, so each chapter starts with a word and its definition and Rose's minor note as to how it relates to the chapter. This gave me more insight into Rose's head than most of the book did. I didn't feel her grief or her pressure to fit in as well as I could have. But I did enjoy her sarcastic humour and the trials and tribulations of trying to make it through freshmen year. We all know how hard it is to get through any part of high school. So I can't wait to read about her adventures in the sequel, Confessions Of An Almost Girlfriend (see also: sophomore year)
“Bad things happen whether you're scared or not, so you might as well not bother being scared. It's a waste of time.”
No comments:
Post a Comment