Monday, August 27, 2012

Review: Confessions of an Angry Girl by Louise Rozett

Confessions of an Angry Girl (Confessions, #1)

Goodreads Summary:
Rose Zarelli, self-proclaimed word geek and angry girl, has some confessions 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 now enraged 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 My best friend has been replaced by an alien, and I see red all the time.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.)

My Review:
Despite feeling a little misled by the book title, overall I liked the book. Why misled? I didn't feel that Rose was an angry, Angry Girl. Especially considering her father died mere months before the story started. Maybe I just knew a lot of angry people. Or my family was right and I was an angry little dwarf during my high school years. (I'm exactly 5 feet tall.) I felt like I spent most of the book waiting to see Rose become the "Angry Girl". So why did I keep reading?

A lot of what went on with Rose and her best friend, Tracy, seemed to perfectly capture the decisions and problems of the teen years. I think that the author really did a good job of capturing the whole sex issue that teenage girls face when, during the novel, Tracy is being pressured by her boyfriend to have sex. And Tracy feeling like, I guess, her and Rose are the only virgins. And they are freshman. Which is really sick and sad. But as a former teacher, I can tell you that every middle school I taught at had quite a few pregnant girls.

I'm putting on my "Mom Hat" now...even though it seems like boys are ready to have sex earlier than girls, they aren't. They just are more open and vocal about the wanting to have sex. Proof? Teen Pregnancy. If boys were truly more mature and developmentally ready to have sex earlier, there wouldn't be a teen pregnancy problem because a mature teen boy would insist that his girlfriend was protected. And that's just protecting your girlfriend at the most basic and minimum level- making sure she doesn't get pregnant or end up with a disease. The fact that many boys can't even meet the basics of respecting their partner means they are in no way ready to protect a girl emotionally from the consequences of having sex. And "Confessions of an Angry Girl" managed to show all of this without getting preachy.

At the end of the book, there's a mention of a second book in this series that will cover Rose's sophomore year in high school- Confessions of an Almost Girlfriend. I'm actually happy to see this because many realistic fiction books are stand alone books. And when you're writing about a teen with problems- alcoholic parent, deceased parent, drug abuse, etc.- it's hard to really wrap that up in one book. Life just isn't that neat. So, I look forward to reading the next books in the series and following Rose all the way through high school.

Overall Rating: 3 stars
Genre Rating: 3 ½ school lockers

Louise Rozett's Website
Louise Rozett's Twitter
Confessions of an Angry Girl (Confessions, #1)


7 comments:

  1. Wow!
    Well, I have heard a few things about this book, but havent read it yet. I dont normally like to read about angry people so the title didnt really interest me.
    Anyways... It sounds good and like it has important messages, so I might just pick it up.

    Great review

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  2. I really want to read this book, it sounds interesting! A different take to the contemporary genre!

    great review:)

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  3. Sounds interesting. Thanks for the review! :D

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  4. Haha I'm reviewing this tomorrow and I feel the same! I kept reading and thinking "If this is her angry, my temper must be ridiculous"

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  5. Such an eloquent, well-written and insightful review. :) I'm not sure if I would read this ever, but because of your review, I'm intrigued. :) And I agree, it isn't often you come across too much contemporary novels that are made into series.

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  6. I've read quite a few reviews of this book and I think it's one I'll like (when I finally read it) and I like that it's not as 'issue'y' as it sounds. I also like that it's a series, or at least will have two books (hopefully more). It's not often you see that in YA. I'm glad you enjoyed it even if it was a tad disappointing to you.

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  7. Thanks so much for the review!!!

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