Thursday 29 August 2013

Review - Not Pretty Enough



Not Pretty Enough by Jaimie Admans
Age range: Young teen



Meet fourteen year old Francesca (Shortened to Chess or Chessie). Like most teenagers she has normal interests; shopping, hair dye and of course, boys. She's going through the experiences teenage girls all over the country have faced:

"I look terrible today. My thighs feel fatter than normal, my face feels spottier than normal, and my glow-in-the-dark pale legs are on show because we're stuck wearing our gym kits all day"

There is one particular boy she is trying to get the attention from. She is positively obsessed over him; Lloyd Layton. Everything she does is to gain his attention. He's hot, popular and does not even know she exists. 

So what happens when he does start getting interested in her? She panics and makes a complete fool of herself. 

My rating: 4/5

Firstly, I picked this book up due to the price; £0.77 on Amazon and I was rather bored. Secondly, her name is Chessie or more importantly; Francesca. It's rather rare I share the same full name and nickname as a book character; although unlike Chessie, I don't mind being called Francesca; I just hate Fran. Anyway, I digress.

I've given it quite a high rating because it really is not a bad book. I just did not personally enjoy it. I felt I was a little too old (I'm basically ten years older than Chessie), and I honestly don't wish to remember my high-school days. (Yes Chessie, teachers are ALWAYS that sarcastic). It is a book to give to those just starting high school, or perhaps those in year 9/10. Not that adults won't enjoy it; as I'm sure many do and have enjoyed this book, I just feel it would be a perfect book to get teenagers to read more! In fact, I think I'm going to introduce the series to my little sister.

She is not the most intelligent of characters either and she does make some rather poor decisions. Whoever told her it was OK to dye your hair in the bath needs some serious help, or the wonderful idea of dyeing your hair with food dye! Some of the other incidents, while far fetched, are somewhat possible. For example lying to your crush about being beaten by your step father... I agree with Chessies mother when I say this:

"Teenagers," my mum says, throwing her hands up in despair. "Bloody teenagers. It's always about a boy."

In all, Chessie is a horrible character. She is selfish, self centred and only really cares about getting with Lloyd Layton. She even stalks the poor boy! And while Lloyd turns out to be a horrible character, I just wanted to bash their heads together. 

One positive about her, is that in the end, she does have her priorities in check and she redeems herself slightly towards the end of the book. When Lloyd 'tries it on' with her, she turns him down. Thank you!  Message to all teenage girls over the country; you don't have to be forced into anything you don't want to do! She realises she does not need to be pretty and popular;

"I want to be myself, and if other people like me or if they don't, at least I will like myself."

Hopefully in the next book of the series, Chessie would have learnt from her mistakes, and perhaps work on what is really important... good grades.

Price: £0.77
Buy it: Amazon

0 comments:

Post a Comment