Sloppy Firsts (Jessica Darling #1)

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.

Reader reviewed by ambeen

**spoiler alert** I started out expecting to really like this novel because so many of my friends did. I didn't. I was put off by Jessica's superior attitude, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt and the teenager excuse. I started really enjoying the novel once the Clueless Crew started leaving her out of things and she peed into the yogurt cup for Marcus Flutie. Then what felt like the big climax occurred: the break up of the Clueless Crew and Marcus acknowledging Jessica exists. I really felt like the novel would wind down and end after that. However, there was another 65 pages left. It was then all very anti-climatic and not what I was expecting. I still liked the novel though. And maybe I'll read the rest of the series someday. This rating should really be around a 3.5, because I don't think it deserves a 3 but not quite a 4 either.