Review: On the Bright Side... by Louise Rennison

Title: On the Bright Side I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God

Publication Date: 5-14-2002

Publisher: HarperTeen

Pages: 272

Format: Paperback

Source: Purchased

Challenge: TBR Challenge

Goodreads | Amazon

Goodreads Summary:

Fourteen-year-old Georgia Nicolson is back in British author Louise Rennison's irreverent, laugh-out-loud sequel to the Michael L. Printz Honor Book Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging. Written in diary form, these truly hilarious books chronicle the often minute-by-minute, very dramatic, and significant flip-flops of a teenager's psyche.

I don’t even know where to begin with this book.  It’s just hilarious! It reminds me so much of the Jessica Darling series by Megan McCafferty, but younger.  The book is written in diary form and tells the life of 14-year old Georgia Nicolson.  She is having such a hard life between the boys she deals with and school.  Her best friend is wrapped up into her own life more than dealing with Georgia.  Georgia has a crazy cat that can’t even be called a cat really; it’s some kind of wild animal. 

 

This book is the second in a series, so I don’t want to give away too much.  My main words of advice are that if you like the Jessica Darling series, then you should give this series a shot.  It is based off of a younger girl, but it is written in diary format, and it is just hilarious! I can feel Georgia’s pain at times and understand exactly how she feels.  It’s also great that the author is kind enough to give us a dictionary for those British words that may not sound familiar to very many people.  A very enjoyable read!

Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

Publication Date: 4-10-2001
Publisher: Harper Teen

Pages: 247

Format: Paperback

Source: Purchased

Goodreads | Amazon

Goodreads Summary:

There are six things very wrong with my life:

1. I have one of those under-the-skin spots that will never come to a head but lurk in a red way for the next two years.
2. It is on my nose
3. I have a three-year-old sister who may have peed somewhere in my room.
4. In fourteen days the summer hols will be over and then it will be back to Stalag 14 and Oberfuhrer Frau Simpson and her bunch of sadistic teachers.
5. I am very ugly and need to go into an ugly home.
6. I went to a party dressed as a stuffed olive.
In this wildly funny journal of a year in the life of Georgia Nicolson, British author Louise Rennison has perfectly captured the soaring joys and bottomless angst of being a teenager. In the spirit of Bridget Jones's Diary, this fresh, irreverent, and simply hilarious book will leave you laughing out loud. As Georgia would say, it's "Fabbity fab fab!"

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I want to start out by saying this was the funniest book I have read in a while.  Oh Georgia, could your life be any worse in your opinion?  She is such a downer, but her life is still hilarious.  The experiences she went through just made me laugh or roll my eyes.  

Looking at Georgia herself as a character, she is so depressing all the time.  She never thinks the best of things, but can rather find the bad in even the best situation.  She's always complaining about herself, her friends, her lack of a social life, her lack of a boyfriend, and her lack of good looks.  I don't think there is one thing she finds good about herself, oh wait...her teeth.  Georgia despises her smile and her nose, as well as just about every aspect of her life.

Of course, her parents and friends don't really help the situation.  They seem to have their own ways of making sure that Georgia never feels great about herself.  This is one book that I just flew through.  It was written in the form of a diary.  Each entry at a different time or on a different day.  I was able to follow Georgia's life for the entire year including her issues with boys, friends, family, Angus (her enormous cat that isn't really a domestic cat), and her three-year-old sister who is too smart for her own good.  

The year was full of laughs and fun.  The writing style was difficult at times because it used British terms that I wasn't familiar with.  Most of them were easy enough to figure out, but thankfully for the more difficult ones there was a glossary in the back of the book to help me out.  This definitely helped in understanding certain points in the book.  I really liked the format of the book and the writing style.  I just kept on reading because I was flying on through and enjoying Georgia's story.  This is definitely an "oldie", but a "goodie".  I'm planning on picking up copies of the rest of the series to see what happens.  Georgia is bound to learn to like herself, right?