A review by belles_bookshelves
How Not to Be Popular by Jennifer Ziegler
4.0
This book was incredibly funny, though it's mostly because the main character embarasses herself so often. I found myself being embarassed for her a few times myself.
Qucik Overview: Maggie(Sugar Magnolia being her given name) has been moving around with her hippie parents her whole life and she's tired of it. Having to say goodbye to friends she just made, and having to be the new girl all over again. This last move was different though because this time she had to leave a boyfriend behind. A boyfriend that broke up with her because she's moving away. She makes a decision that this time she isn't going to make any friends. She's going to be by herself that way she can leave with no strings attached. Maggie is on a quest to be unpopular, but finds that she makes friends with a group of geeks and still manages to be more popular than ever.
I thought that Maggie would be a little more of a likable character, but she complained through practically the whole book. You understand her and feel for her though so it isn't too annoying. She does some pretty ridiculous stuff in her effort to be unpopular. Even though at times I wondered, she really does have a logical train of thought (although I would never come to the conclusions and courses of action that she does).In other reviews people mention how they hate when Maggie's mean to her friends. I admit that I almost hated her for doing it. I could see it coming, it was futile but I freaked out about how it was all going to go down. Really though it doesn't last very long at all so it's bearable. The message of the book is an old one but the author does a really good job of driving the point home. Showing us why we shouldn't care so much about what people think. Especially the ones that don't matter or that we don't like. Also the authors assessment of the high school dynamic was hilariously accurate (having moved around myself I can say that it's true for the most part).
I loved the friendships that Maggie develops. All her geeky friends are so weird that you have to love them. Even though Penny's awkward she's a great friend. It peeved me at first that the ending isn't totally wrapped up. The whole open ending thing kinda irks me. Most everything is resolved, but there's still room for other possibilities, but it makes sense. The author doesn't want other things to overshadow the true meaning of the book. One thing that I really feel needs to be mentoined is that it's a lot easier to be unpopular than Maggie portrays. If it was that easy to be accepted just about everyone would be popular. Still though a great funny, funny book with a good meassage that we have to keep on learning.
Qucik Overview: Maggie(Sugar Magnolia being her given name) has been moving around with her hippie parents her whole life and she's tired of it. Having to say goodbye to friends she just made, and having to be the new girl all over again. This last move was different though because this time she had to leave a boyfriend behind. A boyfriend that broke up with her because she's moving away. She makes a decision that this time she isn't going to make any friends. She's going to be by herself that way she can leave with no strings attached. Maggie is on a quest to be unpopular, but finds that she makes friends with a group of geeks and still manages to be more popular than ever.
I thought that Maggie would be a little more of a likable character, but she complained through practically the whole book. You understand her and feel for her though so it isn't too annoying. She does some pretty ridiculous stuff in her effort to be unpopular. Even though at times I wondered, she really does have a logical train of thought (although I would never come to the conclusions and courses of action that she does).In other reviews people mention how they hate when Maggie's mean to her friends. I admit that I almost hated her for doing it. I could see it coming, it was futile but I freaked out about how it was all going to go down. Really though it doesn't last very long at all so it's bearable. The message of the book is an old one but the author does a really good job of driving the point home. Showing us why we shouldn't care so much about what people think. Especially the ones that don't matter or that we don't like. Also the authors assessment of the high school dynamic was hilariously accurate (having moved around myself I can say that it's true for the most part).
I loved the friendships that Maggie develops. All her geeky friends are so weird that you have to love them. Even though Penny's awkward she's a great friend. It peeved me at first that the ending isn't totally wrapped up. The whole open ending thing kinda irks me. Most everything is resolved, but there's still room for other possibilities, but it makes sense. The author doesn't want other things to overshadow the true meaning of the book. One thing that I really feel needs to be mentoined is that it's a lot easier to be unpopular than Maggie portrays. If it was that easy to be accepted just about everyone would be popular. Still though a great funny, funny book with a good meassage that we have to keep on learning.