Review Detail

At 16, Jessica feels like her parents don’t even know her, hates her friends, feels like a “loser”, and makes up for her feelings of inadequacy by judging (especially slut-shaming) everyone she comes into contact with. Jessica is not a perfect person, and though she doesn’t make monumental mistakes, she doesn’t always act in the best way. Personally, I couldn’t really connect with Jessica, and I saw nothing of myself in her. I have a great relationship with my parents, I love my friends because they aren’t judgmental, I make a point of not calling other girls “sluts”, “ho-bags” or “wenches”. While obviously I make plenty of mistakes, they aren’t even slightly similar to the mistakes Jessica makes.

As a character-driven reader, that created a bit of a problem. I mean, I still liked this book and was looking forward to the sequels, but at the same time, I often had to wonder WHAT exactly Jessica was doing because our brains do not function in the same way. Not at all.