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Sloppy Firsts: A Novel (Paperback)
by Megan McCafferty
| Category:
Teens, High school life, Novel |
| Market price: ¥ 158.00
MSL price:
¥ 148.00
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Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
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 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A girl's diaries consist of a wonderful funny fiction, including that everything we can imagine in a girl's life. |
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Author: Megan McCafferty
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Pub. in: August, 2001
ISBN: 0609807900
Pages: 304
Measurements: 9.4 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BC00323
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0609807903
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- Awards & Credential -
“Such a sharp, funny, poignant heroine, with an inner world we can all relate to. I love it.” - Sophie Kinsella, author of Confessions of a Shopaholic
“Sloppy Firsts captures, in spare, truthful prose, the exquisite pain and ecstasy of being besotted by your best friend. The reader may flinch, but Megan McCafferty never does.” - Emma Forrest, author of Namedropper
“Sloppy Firsts is a spirited, down-the-rabbit-hole adventure in the madcap subculture of high school. With remarkable insight, tenderness, and wit, Megan McCafferty offers us a compassionate, clear-eyed tale of how a sassy young woman survives teenage-hood.” - Laurie Fox, author of My Sister from the Black Lagoon
“Sloppy Firsts perfectly captures the turbulent roller-coaster ride that is being a teenager. This is an (at times) intimate, painfully honest peek at a girl’s coming of age. Getting to know Jessica was like meeting a new best friend. I miss her already.” - Atoosa Rubenstein, editor in chief of CosmoGirl!
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- MSL Picks -
Megan McCafferty's first novel, Sloppy Firsts, takes readers back to those angst-ridden days of high school when one wrong move can determine your status of popularity. I had so much fun reading the novel, I've already loaned my copy to my friends at work and told all my on-line buddies to grab a copy.
Jessica Darling, not so aptly named, shows us a year in the life of a teenage nightmare. Her best friend, Hope, has moved away, leaving Jessica to brave high school with the rest of her friends, with whom she's not really that crazy about to begin with. Her ex-boyfriend, Scotty, still follows her around like a puppy dog, even though they dated three years ago and only for eleven days in the first place. And the dreg of society, Marcus "Krispy Kreme" Flutie, has chosen Jessica to bear the brunt of his mental games.
I haven't read another book this year that made me laugh and groan in sympathy as much as "Sloppy Firsts". This is definitely a keeper!
(From quoting the publisher)
Target readers:
Teens, high school students, young adults.
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Megan McCafferty was senior articles editor at Cosmopolitan and has written for Glamour, CosmoGirl!, YM, Maxim, Details, and other top magazines. She also wrote an ongoing serial from Hope’s point of view on twistmagazine.com. She lives in New Jersey, where she’s at work on the next Jessica Darling novel.
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From The Publisher
My parents suck ass. Banning me from the phone and restricting my computer privileges are the most tyrannical parental gestures I can think of. Don't they realize that Hope's the only one who keeps me sane?... I don't see how things could get any worse.
When her best friend, Hope Weaver, moves away from Pineville, New Jersey, hyperobservant sixteen-year-old Jessica Darling is devastated. A fish out of water at school and a stranger at home, Jessica feels more lost than ever now that the only person with whom she could really communicate has gone. How is she supposed to deal with the boy-and shopping-crazy girls at school, her dad's obsession with her track meets, her mother salivating over big sister Bethany's lavish wedding, and her nonexistent love life?
A fresh, funny, utterly compelling fiction debut by first-time novelist Megan McCafferty, Sloppy Firsts is an insightful, true-to-life look at Jessica's predicament as she embarks on another year of teenage torment-from the dark days of Hope's departure through her months as a type-A personality turned insomniac to her completely mixed-up feelings about Marcus Flutie, the intelligent and mysterious Dreg who works his way into her heart. Like a John Hughes for the twenty-first century, Megan McCafferty taps into the inherent humor and drama of the teen experience.
This poignant, hilarious novel is sure to appeal to readers who are still going through it, as well as those who are grateful that they don't have to go back and grow up all over again.
(MSL quote)
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Tonight I've been thinking about the mosaic Hope gave me the night she U-hauled ass out of Pineville. I wasn't supposed to open it until my birthday, but I couldn't wait. I tore off the wrapping paper and finally had an explanation for the mysterious slivers of shredded magazine pages all over her carpet. For months, Hope had been tearing out pictures of school buses and pumpkins to capture the color of her curls. Hershey bars and beer bottles for my bob.
I hung it on the wall next to my bed. I've been staring at it, trying to figure out how she glued all those tiny pieces of paper so they would come together to re-create my favorite photo: Hope and me at four a.m.-wide awake and laughing, waiting to sneak out to watch the sunrise.
I remember that summer sleepover at Hope's house two and a half years ago more vividly than anything I did today.
We watched the video of her Little Miss Superstar dance recital. She was the most coordinated of the dozen or so yellowbikini-clad four-year-olds shuffle-ball-changing to a Beach Boys medley. (Hope's review: Hello, JonBenèt Ramsey!)
We tried to outdo each other in round after round of "What Would You Do?" Eat nothing but fish sticks OR wear head-to-toe *NSYNC paraphernalia for the rest of your life? French kiss your dog, Dali?, OR have sex with the Chaka, the Special Ed. King? Be zit free forever OR fill a D-cup bra?
We flipped through our eighth-grade yearbook and decided that being voted Class Brainiac (me) and Class Artist (her) just about guaranteed geekdom in high school. We thought that Brainiac Who Will Actually Make Something of Her Life and Not End Up Managing a 7-Eleven and Artist Who Will Contribute More to This World Than Misspelled Graffiti sounded so much better. Then we literally rolled on the rug laughing as we stripped other Class Characters of their titles and gave them what they really deserved . . .
Scotty Glazer: from Most Athletic to Most Middle-Aged Yet Totally Immature
Bridget Milhokovich: from Best Looking to Best Bet She'll Peak Too Soon
Manda Powers: from Biggest Flirt to Most Likely to End Up on Jerry Springer
Sara D'Abruzzi: from Class Motormouth to Future Double Agent Who Would Betray Her Country for Liposuction.
Mrs. Weaver made German pancakes with lemon juice and confectioners' sugar for breakfast. Hope's then-sixteen-year-old brother, Heath, snorted the powdery sugar up his nose and imitated some crazy seventies comedian all hopped up on coke. This made me laugh so hard I thought my stomach was going to come out my ears. I felt bad when Hope later explained to me why she and her mom weren't so amused by his antics. And when Heath died of a heroin overdose six months ago, I felt even worse.
My brother would've been in the same grade as Heath. Hope and I always thought that was a really freaky coincidence. I never knew him, though. Matthew Michael Darling died when he was only two weeks old. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. No one in my family talks about him. Ever.
Mr. and Mrs. Weaver made countless excuses for the sudden move back to their tiny hometown (Wellgoode, Tennessee: Population 6,345, uh, make that 6,348). They had to get Hope down there in time to start the third marking period. They had to move in with Hope's grandmother so they could afford to pay for college. But Hope and I saw through the lies. We knew the truth-even if we never said it out loud. The Weavers wanted to get Hope out of Pineville, New Jersey (pop. 32,000, give or take three people), so she wouldn't end up like her brother. Dead at eighteen.
Now I-I mean, we, Hope and me-have to pay for his mistakes. It's not fair. I know this may sound a little selfish, but couldn't they have waited another seventeen days? Couldn't they have waited until after my birthday?
I told my parents not to even dare throwing me a Sweet Sixteen party. The very thought of ice-cream cake and pink crepe paper makes me want to hurl. Not to mention the fact that I can't even imagine who would be on the guest list since I hate all my other friends. I know my parents think I'm being ridiculous. But if the one person I want to be there can't be there, I'd rather just stay home. And mope. Or sleep.
Besides, I have never been sweet. Maybe not never, but definitely not after the age of three. That's when my baby blond hair suddenly darkened-and my attitude went with it. (Which is why my dad's nickname for me is "Notso" as in, Jessica Not-So-Darling.) Whenever anyone tried to talk to me I'd yell BOR-ING and run away. I probably picked it up from my sister, Bethany, who was fourteen at the time and spent hours in front of the mirror rolling her eyes and practicing pissy looks to advertise her so-called angst. Of course, the difference between Bethany and me is that I've never had to practice.
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| View all 12 comments |
A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-13 00:00>
I came across this jem at a local thrift store for only two dollars. I didn't even bother to read the summary because I was in love with the bright colors and the way the ''mouth shaped origami note'' seemed to pop out from the very typical young-adult girl book cover that I loved to indulge myself in, so I bought it. The book sat on my shelf for months until finally deciding to attempt to read it. In the beginning I couldn't seem to get into the book, reading maybe two pages into it before giving up and re-reading something else I already knew that I loved.
However, when I started to read it, I could not stop. This story about a straight "A" brainiac teenage girl was like an obsession. Her "diary" consisted of everything possible, including: a best friend who moves away and leaves her with a group of snobby and fake girls that she's grown up with but just can't stand, the boy who has grown up liking her that she sees as just a friend, her beautiful crush who doesn't know she exists, and the mysterious "krispy kreme" aka Marcus Flutie who keeps getting her into trouble.
The sarcastic comments are utterly hilarious and hit so close to home I for one knew I had thought freakishly similar things in my own daily life.
The angst and originality of the main character, Jessica "Not-So"Darling is one that I feel every girl can connect with and learn to love.
Without a doubt my favorite book in it's category.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-13 00:00>
I totally related to this book and the experiences of Jessica, feeling mostly like a fish out of water myself! This is a hilarious, very easy-to-read book that I recommend to everyone. It deals with peer pressure, loneliness, shopping -- all the crazy experiences and thoughts that go through your mind in high school - and in life! It's also very entertaining. I also recommend two other books: WILL@epicqwest.com by Tom Grimes and The Losers' Club by Richard Perez.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-13 00:00>
I found Megan McCafferty's novel Sloppy Firsts to be enjoyable to read. The way she wrote it in diary format worked well because it really explained the main character, Jessica Darling's problems the way a teenage would really write them in a diary. Usually first person books don't thrill me, but Megan actually wrote the first person text well. It was amazing how she wrote it so it seemed like Jessica was really there. It didn't seem like an author was trying to write a book as a teenager.
In the middle of Jessica's junior year of high school, her best friend, Hope Weaver, moves away from Pineville, New Jersey, leaving Jessica alone. Jessica's so-called friends at school turn out not to be her friends. All her mother obsesses over is her older sister, Bethany's wedding, and the only things Jessica thinks she has in common with her father are her track meets. She feels alone most of the time so she likes to write in her journal. While she's obsessing to herself that she has no one to go to, the biggest "dreg" in the school, Marcus Flutie, starts to find his way into her heart. Jessica starts to do things for him that she wouldn't normally do, like peeing in a cup for his drug test. Marcus gets sent way and when he returns, he has a totally different personality.
A lot of things happen throughout the summer leading up to her senior year. Jessica becomes better friends with her older friend, Bridget. When Bridget goes to California to try to become an actress, Manda spends the whole summer sleeping with Bridget's boyfriend, Burke. Jessica finds out that her friend Hy, a girl that moved to Pineville from the Bronx, is really lying about who she is. She isn't a girl who came to live with her aunt while her parents figured their marriage out. Hy really is a high class caste who does drugs and has sex.
Jessica blew up about the SOS (Summer of Shame as they called Manda's "thing") in the cafeteria one day and created a cat fight between Manda and Bridget. Marcus and Jessica talked in the middle of the night, especially when Jessica broke her ankle and couldn't run anymore that season. She finally realizes her father and her have more things in common than just running. Since Bethany never comes home after her wedding, Jessica's mom finally started spending more time with Jessica. Time would only tell about Marcus and Jessica and Hope and Jessica.
Megan used good imagery because I could see all the scenes and all the characters in my mind like I was really there. The plot of the story was good because it focused on the main things about the story and didn't go into much detail about little silly things that didn't matter. I believe that the moral of Sloppy Firsts is one day every thing can be bad, and the next day it could turn around. You never know what is going to happen. Don't judge someone and think you know everything about them because there is usually another side to that person that you might not think they had.
This was a really good book and should be on anyone's reading list if they enjoy cute, funny novels about teens. Megan McCafferty did an amazing job writing this book, and I can't wait to read another book by her. Sloppy Firsts went into great detail about Jessica's problems. What was most interesting about it was that it didn't end like I thought it was going to end. When I read most books, I can usually predict the ending by thirty pages into it, but this book I thought I knew the ending and I wasn't even close. I can't wait for the sequel!
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-13 00:00>
Sloppy Firsts is a novel that was a lot of firsts for me. As a seventeen year old, I have found in the past that I have had to read books like "The Fountainhead" and "Catcher in the Rye" in order to relate to a character in a book these days-because modern day writers have a tendancy to magnify what is either rare but interesting about teens that make the lead characters seem fake, OR they have teens worrying about things that real teens really don't have to worry about in the first place. But "Sloppy Firsts" is different. In it, the main character Jessica Darling is a human being; she's not perfect, she makes mistakes, and she's not a fake hug-you-every-time-she-sees-you type of girly-girl. She sees the world as it is, taking the good with the bad. It only took me about four hours to finish this novel. I won't call it a page-turner, because that doesn't do it any justice; it was more of a (I know this is going to sound cheesy)"self-discovery" thing for me. I mean, when I read it, (the day before yesterday) all I was looking for was SOMETHING to give me some comfort; I had no idea I would get so attached to the people in this book, and find myself relating to Jessica in almost every way. READ THIS BOOK. There is no way, no matter how young or old you are, that you will be dissappointed.
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