Title: Adorkable
Author: Sarra Manning
Pages:385
Publisher: Atom
Release Date: 24th May 2012
Tagline: 'Love, hate, whatever'
Source: For review (I was lucky enough to get the chance to review this book because I am an Atomics reviewer! Thanks to Team Atom for sending me this review copy of Adorkable!)
"Jeane Smith is seventeen and has turned her self-styled dorkiness into an art form, a lifestyle choice and a profitable website and consultancy business. She writes a style column for a Japanese teen magazine and came number seven in The Guardian's 30 People Under 30 Who Are Changing The World. And yet, in spite of the accolades, hundreds of Internet friendships and a cool boyfriend, she feels inexplicably lonely, a situation made infinitely worse when Michael Lee, the most mass-market, popular and predictably all-rounded boy at school tells Jeane of his suspicion that Jeane's boyfriend is secretly seeing his girlfriend. Michael and Jeane have NOTHING in common - she is cool and individual; he is the golden boy in an Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirt. So why can't she stop talking to him?"
Michael Lee is a typical teenager, and the cliché of
perfect. He excels at everything he does, be it playing football or writing
essays, he’s good-looking, popular and wears Jack Wills and Abercrombie.
Jeane Smith is anything but typical, and definitely no
cliché. She’s strongly opinionated, sarky, a self-confessed dork, head of her
own lifestyle brand, Adorkable, and dresses as outlandishly as possible.
Adorkable alternates between Michael’s and Jeane’s
perspectives, which meant I really got to know and understand both main
characters. I felt that whichever character’s viewpoint I was reading, I really
empathised with – for example, at the beginning, when seeing through the eyes
of Michael, Jeane really did seem very rude and snarky and not at all likable.
However, when I read from Jeane’s perspective, I saw that there was more to her
than her abrasive surface and, despite her not-so-nice facade, I actually found
myself liking Jeane.
In fact, you really can’t help but admire Jeane. Aged only
17 and living alone, she is already a massive success with her own brand,
Adorkable. She writes columns for teen magazines, speaks regularly at
conferences and made the Guardian’s list of ’30 People Under 30 Who Are
Changing The World’. This is not the sole reason behind my admiration for her,
however. What makes me really admire Jeane is how sure she is of herself. She knows
who she is. She knows what she wants. She knows what she believes in and she
believes in herself. Jeane is incredibly
quirky and unique, but she’s not afraid to be different. In fact, she relishes
in being different! She is so completely her own person and she won’t let
anyone or anything get in the way of that. This, I think, is a very admirable
quality because most teenage girls are constantly worrying about how they look
and what people think of them; I can honestly only think of a maximum of two
people I know who are so secure within themselves like Jeane is.
At first, I didn’t particularly like the relationship
between Jeane and Michael. It seemed weird to me how they hated each other and
the only basis of their relationship was that they liked kissing each other.
However, it was very nice to see how their friendship grew and progressed – it
was by no means perfect, but then again, in real life nothing is really
perfect, is it?
I was expecting Adorkable to be a light-hearted, enjoyable
read. It was very light-hearted and funny, but it was actually so much
more than that. There are some meaningful messages behind Adorkable that
I think teen readers will definitely be able to relate to – for example, it’s
okay to be different, and it’s okay to be whoever you want to be.
I loved this book – Sarra Manning has written yet another
amazing novel for teens – Adorkable was funny, quirky and totes
adorkable!
Jeane sounds like a great character. I love independent heroines. The story also sounds very cute and i actually like when a book is a bit more profound. Lovely review, doll!
ReplyDeleteOoh that looks really great! awesome review!!! :)
ReplyDeleteBookaholic @ www.blogofabookaholic.blogspot.com
This book seems like a fun and light read, can't wait!! lol
ReplyDeletehttp://thecrossbreeds.blogspot.com/
Awesome review! I loved this book too, and I loved how it was deeper than it seemed, even though it was really light and funny at the same time.
ReplyDelete