ANGUS, THONGS AND FULL-FRONTAL SNOGGING by Louise Rennison

Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #1) by Louise Rennison • contains 247 pages • published by HarperTeen on 24. June 1999 • classified as Humour, Romance, Young Adult • obtained through Overdrive • read as eBook • shelve on Goodreads

Synopsis:

In this wildly funny journal of a year in the life of Georgia Nicolson, British author Louise Rennison has perfectly captured the soaring joys and bottomless angst of being a teenager. In the spirit of Bridget Jones's Diary, this fresh, irreverent, and simply hilarious book will leave you laughing out loud. As Georgia would say, it's “Fabbity fab fab!”

There were a lot of things about this book that I didn’t particularly like but to be fair, I did smirk and laugh a lot. Georgia was hilarious, if a little neurotic. She obsessed about some of the weirdest things and there were only so many times I could gloss over a character flippantly saying she could die. Her obsessions surely bordered on the unhealthy but I’ve met my fair share of people like her, so I did give the book props for encapsulating the hilariously shallow 14-year-old.

On one level, Georgia reminded me of my days when I was 14. I can’t remember how man hours I spent talking on the phone with my friends whom I, needless to say, met everyday in school. In retrospect, those hours were excessive indeed. My dad got so fed up, he installed a second phone line specially for me. Little things like that made me smirk because I recognized those situations all too well. But Georgia knew how to push the conventional amount of teenage stupidity and managed to shave off her eyebrows herself.

Then there were those other moments that made me cock my head in confusion and frustration. Georgia spent a lot of time trying to wear make-up so that she would look natural. Uhm, ok. Where did those ideas come from? Must be those stacks of Cosmo magazines she devoured, for sure. I also couldn’t help but wonder if Georgia had some weird fetish for knickers. I did a search on my Kindle. Apparently the term popped up 27 times in the book…

Her relationships with boys were partly in her head and partly with real boys. Those with real boys came across as very experimental but I guess she didn’t know what she was doing either, so I didn’t dwell too much on the uncomfortable parts of her romantic life. As for her friendships, they weren’t the healthiest either. They bordered on catty but at least she sort of had her support system with Jas set up. They had their spats but they were there for each other. For the most part.

Before I forget, Georgia’s three-year-old sister, Libby never failed to pull a smile out of me. I wanted to laugh at some of her antics but I was reading in public, so I held in my snickers. Either way, Libby was adorable and disgusting, as any toddler naturally is.

Even though the book was rather shallow, it was very entertaining. Anyone looking for a quick read and a good laugh won’t go wrong picking up Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging. There are embarrassing portions but really, Judy Blume added more blush to my face than Rennison did with her pilot book in the series.

On a parting note, let me leave you with my final sentiments: Hahahahahahahahahahaha.