A review by mehsi
IT-girl by Katy Birchall

4.0

I read this book in Dutch, but I will write the review in English (as I am planning on reading the second book and I will read that one in English).

I set Josie Graham on fire.

And that is how, dear readers, this book starts. And from there on our girl Anna (short for Anastasia, but don't call her that) will go from one unlucky moment to another, it seems she is quite the clumsy person. Setting people accidentally on fire, her dad's office, letting her dog go loose, making weird noises when in the neighbourhood of her crush (Brendan), stumbling against various furniture (and falling backwards when there are visitors). The list is endless, but you know what, I like Anna. Even though it seems she is pretty accident prone, she is a great girl, though she really needs to find her priorities. Popularity or friends for life? Which one will she pick? At times I wanted to shake her and show her the truth.
Anna's life is really a rollercoaster of fun (and also typical teenager stuff). Starting with a new school, the dad being romantic and falling in love with a famous star, first love and confusion, best friends, and so much more.

I also loved how interesting Anna's home situation was. Generally parents are either together, are single parents, or divorced. But no, not with Anna. Anna's parent were never married, nor were they together for long. Anna was the product of them getting together for a bit, Anna's mom getting pregnant, and voilĂ  Anna was in the world. Anna's mom and dad are great friends, and Anna's mom sometimes visits Anna when she is in town (she is a travel journalist, so she is generally in some part of the world). Oh don't worry, Anna's mom is sure to call her daughter or mail her quite a bit of time. Even bringing very odd presents back from wherever she was the last time.
Anna's dad is a writer (and apparently a good one), and Anna lives with him. And in their house there is a crazy and weird dog, named Dog (yes, he is called Dog, maybe that is why he is so crazy).

The book made me laugh out loud so many times, I even read some parts out loud to my boyfriend who was also laughing hard after hearing them.

Anna's best friends are great, though I didn't trust them that much in the beginning. I am not sure how to explain, they seemed like they took Anna under their wings for some bad reason. Luckily, as the story progresses I could see that they all really cared about her. Jesse was a great girl and really funny. I loved how in such a short time she knew exactly what Anna would do, or how she would react to stuff.

All the stuff about being famous, becoming famous, becoming popular, they were all really great and I enjoyed reading them. It was fun how Anna went from unknown to suddenly very popular, and how she had to learn how to handle that suddenly fame, but also the popularity that came with it.

The book is mostly just story from Anna's point of view, but we also have some parts that are mails, and also parts that were notes that Anna and Jess wrote to each other during class. I really liked that this was done, it gave the book some variety and made it even more fun to read.

All in all, this is one book I would recommend. It is one book I will be adding in English to my collection. I will also be sure to check out the second book when it comes out. I just want to know how stuff continue for Anna. I hope the next book will bring the wedding, some more romance between Anna and a certain character, and some more hilarious antics. I can't wait!

Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/