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laurennlesliex's review against another edition
I HATE THIS BOOK!! I don’t recommend to ANYONE!
I bought this book from the charity shop, because I love the film, but never have read the books so I thought why not. This book was written about 25 years ago now and some of the language that is used in this book is just not acceptable in today’s day and age. At the very least, this book should come with a list of trigger warnings.
⚠️ TRIGGER WARNINGS ⚠️
This book has many jokes about suicide and the main character, wanting to commit suicide (she says it not seriously, i.e. she is not depressed or struggling with mental health; she says it constantly and very nonchalantly). The amount of times she says ‘I should just kill myself’ and other things similar is not nice to read. I can imagine for somebody who has struggled with mental health, has lost someone to suicide, or has struggled/is struggling with suicidal thoughts, this could be very triggering, upsetting and hurtful.
There are loads of inappropriate and outdated views on being gay especially lesbian. She says things like ‘ugly clothes that only a lesbian would wear’ and how because she hasn’t had a boyfriend, she’s starting to worry that she is lesbian. I think this could be damage into a child reading this if they are confused about their sexuality or are gay and have still not come out yet, as reading things like this could make them think that them being gay is not okay. She also uses derogatory names/words for gay people (words that are outdated and should not be being used anymore because they are hurtful).
I also think this book should come with a trigger warning for eating disorders and body dysmorphia as she has very casually said things like how she wants the ‘ anorexia model’ look. Throughout the book, she constantly criticises her own appearance. However, that feels very personal to her, so I don’t think it affects the reader, too much, however, saying things about anorexia and needing to lose weight to look like she has anorexia can be very damaging to somebody who has/is struggling with eating disorders. in addition to this, she uses a lot of negative language about overweight characters in the book. She makes a lot of jokes about her teacher being overweight. Nothing she says is constructive; someone said the things that she says to a plus size person, it would really upset them. She says some really hurtful things that wouldn’t be seen as a joke.
Likewise, she has made jokes about how another characters knees looks like the knees of a wheelchair user. I don’t think I need to go into too much detail about how I think they’re saying that is very distasteful and damaging to somebody.
There are other things mentioned in the book that are just strange and uncomfortable to read, such as her constantly saying jokes, or passing comments about her family, being incest (even though they’re not). There is a certain moment in the book where she’s in her bedroom and her dad comes in to check in on her and she implies that her dad either fancies her or has a thing for her, as she said that she doesn’t know why her dad is checking in on her, but incest clearly runs in the family. There have been other parts during the book where she mentions how her family must be incest because different things happen (nothing that actually is incest or is strange) so this is just very awkward and uncomfortable. I can just imagine a child reading this and then because their dad checks in on them other night before bed that they would go to school and say that her dad is incest and has a thing for her, which could result in all sorts. Again, I don’t think I need to go into too much detail about Roy. This is uncomfortable to read and how a young person reading this thinking that this behaviour and this language is normal could cause so much trouble.
These are the only things that I have read about in this book that I can think to put into this review as to why I would not recommend it. I have no desire to continue reading the series, so I have no idea if the books get better or worse throughout the series.
I thought this was going to be a book that I would hand down to my maybe daughter one day and show that this is what being a teenager is like However, I would not want a child in this day and age to read this book because I think it will start to set us back.
The film I think is brilliant, and I’d said the film is based off the story, but thankfully they’ve cut out all of the things that I disagree with this book. Also one of the main differences between the book, and the film is that in the film, Georgia is a new teenager about 14 years old and it’s seeing her experience things for the first time like boys and friendship fallouts and wanting to feel like an adult, but still wanting to feel like a child and family break up and relationship relationship break up and lots of young adult teenager vulnerability with a normal girl, experiencing self doubt and all of the normal teenage things we all feel in that period of our lives, however, Georgia in the book is a really horrible person. I would not want to be friends with her and if she was my daughter, I would have a proper talk with her because she is not a nice person. She is horrible to her friends, especially Jas whereas in the film, despite them falling out, they are very good friends and they have respect for each other and they help each other out, Whereas in this book, She is horrible to her.
Long story short, don’t recommend it.
I bought this book from the charity shop, because I love the film, but never have read the books so I thought why not. This book was written about 25 years ago now and some of the language that is used in this book is just not acceptable in today’s day and age. At the very least, this book should come with a list of trigger warnings.
⚠️ TRIGGER WARNINGS ⚠️
This book has many jokes about suicide and the main character, wanting to commit suicide (she says it not seriously, i.e. she is not depressed or struggling with mental health; she says it constantly and very nonchalantly). The amount of times she says ‘I should just kill myself’ and other things similar is not nice to read. I can imagine for somebody who has struggled with mental health, has lost someone to suicide, or has struggled/is struggling with suicidal thoughts, this could be very triggering, upsetting and hurtful.
There are loads of inappropriate and outdated views on being gay especially lesbian. She says things like ‘ugly clothes that only a lesbian would wear’ and how because she hasn’t had a boyfriend, she’s starting to worry that she is lesbian. I think this could be damage into a child reading this if they are confused about their sexuality or are gay and have still not come out yet, as reading things like this could make them think that them being gay is not okay. She also uses derogatory names/words for gay people (words that are outdated and should not be being used anymore because they are hurtful).
I also think this book should come with a trigger warning for eating disorders and body dysmorphia as she has very casually said things like how she wants the ‘ anorexia model’ look. Throughout the book, she constantly criticises her own appearance. However, that feels very personal to her, so I don’t think it affects the reader, too much, however, saying things about anorexia and needing to lose weight to look like she has anorexia can be very damaging to somebody who has/is struggling with eating disorders. in addition to this, she uses a lot of negative language about overweight characters in the book. She makes a lot of jokes about her teacher being overweight. Nothing she says is constructive; someone said the things that she says to a plus size person, it would really upset them. She says some really hurtful things that wouldn’t be seen as a joke.
Likewise, she has made jokes about how another characters knees looks like the knees of a wheelchair user. I don’t think I need to go into too much detail about how I think they’re saying that is very distasteful and damaging to somebody.
There are other things mentioned in the book that are just strange and uncomfortable to read, such as her constantly saying jokes, or passing comments about her family, being incest (even though they’re not). There is a certain moment in the book where she’s in her bedroom and her dad comes in to check in on her and she implies that her dad either fancies her or has a thing for her, as she said that she doesn’t know why her dad is checking in on her, but incest clearly runs in the family. There have been other parts during the book where she mentions how her family must be incest because different things happen (nothing that actually is incest or is strange) so this is just very awkward and uncomfortable. I can just imagine a child reading this and then because their dad checks in on them other night before bed that they would go to school and say that her dad is incest and has a thing for her, which could result in all sorts. Again, I don’t think I need to go into too much detail about Roy. This is uncomfortable to read and how a young person reading this thinking that this behaviour and this language is normal could cause so much trouble.
These are the only things that I have read about in this book that I can think to put into this review as to why I would not recommend it. I have no desire to continue reading the series, so I have no idea if the books get better or worse throughout the series.
I thought this was going to be a book that I would hand down to my maybe daughter one day and show that this is what being a teenager is like However, I would not want a child in this day and age to read this book because I think it will start to set us back.
The film I think is brilliant, and I’d said the film is based off the story, but thankfully they’ve cut out all of the things that I disagree with this book. Also one of the main differences between the book, and the film is that in the film, Georgia is a new teenager about 14 years old and it’s seeing her experience things for the first time like boys and friendship fallouts and wanting to feel like an adult, but still wanting to feel like a child and family break up and relationship relationship break up and lots of young adult teenager vulnerability with a normal girl, experiencing self doubt and all of the normal teenage things we all feel in that period of our lives, however, Georgia in the book is a really horrible person. I would not want to be friends with her and if she was my daughter, I would have a proper talk with her because she is not a nice person. She is horrible to her friends, especially Jas whereas in the film, despite them falling out, they are very good friends and they have respect for each other and they help each other out, Whereas in this book, She is horrible to her.
Long story short, don’t recommend it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Incest, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Transphobia, and Lesbophobia
jayishino's review against another edition
2.0
This is a coming-of-age story about fourteen-year-old Georgia.
I’m trying to think of good things to say about this book, but I all can think about is the laundry list of content warnings.
*deep breath*
I’ll start with some troubling content.
* How many incest jokes do we in such a short book?
* Lesbian jokes really?
* Transvestite jokes, no, just no. Stop.
* So much bullying and mean girl stuff, girl on girl hate
I’ll end with THE MOST problematic.
* Georgia is repeatedly molested by her cousin. (There are multiple awful scenes with this.) THIS IS GLOSSED OVER AND NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN. Holy hell that’s a real big problem.
* Georgia is also sexually assaulted by boys she knows. Again, this happens and is never mentioned again.
I guess there is one good thing I can say about this book. Rennison gives Georgia a very distinct voice which remains consistent throughout the book.
All in all, I had a very hard time reading this book, and I only did so because it was challenged at our school. Had reading this not been for that express purpose, it would have been a DNF.
I don’t think I can in good conscience recommend this book. I definitely will not be continuing the series.
I’m trying to think of good things to say about this book, but I all can think about is the laundry list of content warnings.
*deep breath*
I’ll start with some troubling content.
* How many incest jokes do we in such a short book?
* Lesbian jokes really?
* Transvestite jokes, no, just no. Stop.
* So much bullying and mean girl stuff, girl on girl hate
I’ll end with THE MOST problematic.
* Georgia is repeatedly molested by her cousin. (There are multiple awful scenes with this.) THIS IS GLOSSED OVER AND NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN. Holy hell that’s a real big problem.
* Georgia is also sexually assaulted by boys she knows. Again, this happens and is never mentioned again.
I guess there is one good thing I can say about this book. Rennison gives Georgia a very distinct voice which remains consistent throughout the book.
All in all, I had a very hard time reading this book, and I only did so because it was challenged at our school. Had reading this not been for that express purpose, it would have been a DNF.
I don’t think I can in good conscience recommend this book. I definitely will not be continuing the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Lesbophobia, and Toxic friendship
readasaurus_lex's review against another edition
It pained to try to read this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia
Moderate: Bullying
Minor: Sexism