Adorkable

by Sarra Manning

Welcome to the dorkside. It's going to be a bumpy ride...

Jeane Smith's a blogger, a dreamer, a dare-to-dreamer, a jumble sale queen, CEO of her own lifestyle brand and has half a million followers on twitter.

Michael Lee's a star of school, stage and playing field. A golden boy in a Jack Wills hoodie.

They have nothing in common but a pair of cheating exes. So why can't they stop snogging?

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Chick Lit, Fiction, Young Adult Contemporary, Realistic Fiction

387 pages, Paperback

First published May 24, 2012

About the author

Sarra Manning is a teen queen extraordinaire. She spent five years working on the now sadly defunct J17, first as a writer and then as Entertainment Editor. She then joined the launch team of teen fashion bible Ellegirl, which she later went on to edit and has consulted on a wide range of youth titles including Bliss, The Face and More.

Sarra is now editor of What To Wear magazine. She's also been a regular contributor to ELLE, The Guardian, ES Magazine, Seventeen, Details and Heat and wrote the Shop Bitch column for Time Out. Sarra lives in North London with her dog Miss Betsy

Reviews

[Reynje · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book in the same way I love shouty post-hardcore music of the late 80s, wearing jumpsuits of any kind, and the smell (and when I was little, probably the taste too) of Clag. Which is to say: unashamedly, unreservedly and somewhat incongruously with my usual predilections.

I generally like my contemporary YA on the messy, introspective side, with hefty doses of realism and minimal use of “teen speak”. So colour me surprised to find this book sort of adorable, despite the presence of a mildly scoff-worthy set of circumstances and enough repetition of the words “totes” and “blates” to give me an eye-twitch.

In lieu of a review, (and because, you know, ALL THE REFERENCES) I’m just going to list 10 Things I Love About Adorkable:

1 Michael Lee

2 Dialogue that made me laugh out loud (yes, LOL, really).

3 Characters with actual chemistry that made me want to smoosh their heads together and make them kiss.

4 Characters with actual flaws who behave like actual teenagers (aside from the whole media empire thing, which is not exactly typical) and actually develop throughout the story! Huzzah!

5 Sidestepping the Manic Pixie Dream Girl stereotype by making Jeane, well, kind of horrible sometimes and not ridiculously twee despite the ball gown wearing and whatnot.

6 Irrational emotional breakdowns set off by uncooperative inanimate objects.

7 Moments of honesty and sadness tucked away like little Easter eggs. Little, emotional Easter eggs, if you will. Yeah, I choked up I’m not made of stone, ok.

8 Aside from being hilarious, it’s also smart and witty and has Things to Say without being all being all up in your face with “An Important Message For Teens”.

9 Recognition of the fact that being a dork is awesome.

10 Michael Lee. Yes I know he’s on here twice shut up it’s my list.

(Bonus points for the absence of a Breakfast Club style reveal that the ‘weird’ girl is actually (gasp) beautiful! There’s nothing like reinforcement of the idea that you need to look like everyone else in order to be considered attractive to bring on a rage-blackout in this reader..)

So in summary, how I feel about Adorkable:



(Sorry, I've been on a Summer Heights High bender this weekend and I'm only communicating in Ja'mie King gifs for the foreseeable future. Review to come.)

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

So when I first heard about this book I was extremely excited. I mean, first up- that synopsis is golden. Why wouldn’t you want to read about a blogging superstar kissing a hot boy? There is no reason.
Anyway, when I pick up a book by an author I’ve never heard of, I like to do some research. Wait, before I carry on, I just have to say that there is no way this next bit isn’t going to sound creepy and stalkery. Whatever, I’ve committed now.
I like to do some research about what the author is like so I have a sneaky look on their website to see what kind of things they like, their sense of humour, that kind of thing. It’s just so I can get an idea of whether I will get on with their book. In doing so, I found out something so completely brilliant about Ms Manning. Well, actually I found out quite a few brilliant things about her but I focussed on one thing.
She used to work for J17.
My sister is 3 years older than me and when we were younger we both used to pick out a magazine every Friday when we did the big shop. I, being 10 and mostly concerned with whether Abs from 5ive had a girlfriend and what was going to happen in the next episode of Miami 7, used to read Mizz. My sister, cooler than me even then, picked up J17. Then after a mishap on a summer holiday (didn’t bring enough reading material, you guys!) I read my sister’s copy of J17.
I was hooked.
I learnt everything I know about everything from that magazine. You could probably say that Sarra Manning made me into the girl I am today.

Except, um, well that would be cruel to Ms Manning.

And possibly slander.

Anyway, a couple of years ago, someone scanned every copy of Smash Hits 80s era and put them online. My aim is to do that with J17. Or… um… like, pester someone else to do it.

I promise I’m going to talk about this book now, I just needed to get out of the way. Basically, the gist of all that was Sarra Manning is brilliant and there was an 87% that I was going to adore this book.

And guess what? I did.

I said earlier that my review was mostly going to be !!!!!!!! and OMG MICHAEL LEE and I LOVE YOU JEANE.
So let’s go with that.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This book was like a breath of fresh air. I went into this book thinking that I could turn my brain off and I’d laugh and chortle a little bit and I’d swoon because of kissing of the boy and I have to say if I had been hoping for that kind of book, I would have been severely disappointed. Because instead, I got a hilarious, clever, incredibly witty book that reminded me of the Bonfire Toffee you get from Thorntons.

Bonfire toffee from Thorntons? I hear you cry. This book will rip my fillings out?
Well… no. It’s not that much like Bonfire Toffee. What I mean is that this book is sweet, sugary, a bit dark, not-your-average-delicious-treat, you wish it would last forever and it’s the kind of book that you can only read when you’re watching fireworks that doesn’t come around often so it must be savoured.

Yeah, that analogy didn’t work, did it? Fine, I admit it; I just wanted to talk about sweets so Jeane and I can be best friends already. Seriously, it’s destiny.

Now usually, I don’t really like to talk about my own writing on here, but I have to say that this is the kind of book that I want to write. I don’t see why everyone has to write sad books about sad things. I like to think that if you took this book and hacked at it with a blunt instrument until it becomes almost unrecognisable… you’d probably end up with something similar to how I write.

And I’m OK with this.

OMG MICHAEL LEE


OMG Michael Lee, you are the salvation of YA boys. Not many women can convincingly write from the perspective of a teenage boy without sounding too ‘sexboobsgirlssexvideogamesbloodgutsandmoreboobs.didimentionilikeboobs?’, but Ms Manning can. Jeane, who I’ll get to in a bit, is such a larger than life character that I was a bit worried that Michael Lee (I don’t know why I feel like I have to full name him, but I do) was going to fade into the background and be the non-entity love interest I’ve become accustomed to.
Was he?
Was he ‘eck.
I love that he gave as good as he got and called Jeane out when she was being a ridiculous human being. I get so angry when heroines are constantly fawned over and nothing they do can be faulted.. Jeane isn’t always likeable and she can be a bit mean and one of my favourite things about this book was how, even at the end when all the things had happened, he still thought she was a bit funny looking, still thought she was annoying and he still thought she had horrible hair. It’s incredibly refreshing to have a heroine that isn’t loved by all. Because who is?
Even though there were times when they were arguing and sniping at each other that I wanted to yell ‘Huuuug’ a la Mac from Green Wing, their interactions were the absolute best. They just zinged off each other.

Also, Michael Lee is so hilarious, his dry humour and his observations were always spot on. I would inundate you with all my favourite Michael Lee quotes but I don’t know how the publisher would feel if I posted THE ENTIRE BOOK on my blog.

And he has great taste in sweets because parma violets seriously are the most disgusting sweets in existence. Errrrughhh.

And also, he’s bloody gorgeous… if you ignore the hair and if you picture him without the dodgy checked shirt. Which I never did for I am a serious book blogger who takes books seriously and stuff.

I LOVE YOU JEANE

As Maggie said in her excellent review, Jeane Smith stole the show and she stole my heart. No… seriously, I was eating a bag of Haribo and those squishy hearts are my absolute favourite and I save them until last and then she waltzed over and ate them all. Bitch.

I loved Jeane because she’s basically me. We both could snaffle an entire bag of Haribo without feeling guilty. We both have bitchin’ blogs. We both have a name that begins with the letter ‘J’…

I’m kidding… although my blog is bitchin’… I loved how she never backs down when she’s fighting for what she believes in. When Michael Lee is cruel and is a bit of a douche to her, she doesn’t become a simpering victim, even around the middle bits when it gets all angry and sad. She doesn’t want you to feel sorry for her, she doesn’t have time for you to feel sorry for her. If anything, I feel sorry for Michael Lee. He tries so desperately to keep up with her, to get on her level, but… mate, no chance. She’s running circles around you and, Michael Lee, I think you like it.
J’ADORK.

Seriously though, I think a lot of people will have gone through the things that Jeane goes through. Not in the same way of course (we can’t all be Guardian rated bloggers, can we?) but the feelings of sadness and loneliness you get when you’re a bit different and you’re at odds with everyone. And then you just get to the point where you’re like “You know what? Screw everyone! I’m awesome.”
This is what Jeane is like. She is a force of nature and she’s unstoppable and she’s so brilliant that even when I wanted to throttle her for being awful to Michael Lee, I mostly wanted to high-five her and hug her even though she’d probably Tweet about how boring my brown hair is.
Without sounding too much like a dork, I think that’s my favourite thing about this book. It had such a positive message for teenagers but it never crammed it down your throat with some schmaltzy, Hollywood message. None of this ‘ra ra ra LOVE YOURSELF’ kind of thing.

And a bit more !!!!!!!

Ms Manning gets teenagers. She knows what they’re like. She knows that they’re not always kooky and quirky but she also knows that not always depressive and sulky and slamming-doorsy. Sometimes I think that authors believe you can be either or. She is able to poke fun at them without being patronising and cruel, mostly because her observations are completely, utterly and deliciously true. This book read like a celebration of being a teenager, in all its awkward glory. It’s ok to be different, it’s ok to have messy feelings about yourself, it’s ok to have messy feelings about boys/girls, it’s ok to be a blogger (*cough*), it’s ok to be passionate about something that not everyone is passionate about, it’s OK to want to do well at school, it’s OK to go to gigs and stay out all night and drink cocktails and yes, it’s even a-OK to have sex… as long as you use protection and you’re over 16, of course.

You should totes read this book.

Nah, sorry Jeane. I can’t say ‘totes’ seriously, maybe I’m less of a dork than I originally thought. I just can’t do it.

You should totally read this book.
Also, not completely unrelated, Ms Manning has officially won the prize of “The Author Jo Most Wants to Sit and Eat Sweets and Watch Every Series of ANTM With”.
I think you’ll agree that this is a coveted prize.

[Jessie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Buddy read with Komal! :D See her review here.


Actual rating: 2.5 stars (I'm feeling generous!)

This is pretty much your average chick-lit, but instead of being set in the US, this book is set in England. I thought this book was pretty entertaining, but that's it. The characters were pretty awful, the plot was non-existent as I'd expected it to be, and the romance was meh. I still liked the book, though, just not much.

Let's talk about the characters.

Jeane is our main protagonist of Adorkable. She's a really unique character, but in a really bad way. I hereby tell you that I have NOT read about someone who's so cocky ever. I don't quite understand how she can be so self-centered and arrogant and selfish. I bet she's never heard the word "humble". She thinks she's better than everyone else and everyone except herself are dumb and boring. I'm serious. She said so herself, and she said it a lot. I'll give her some credit for her honesty and guts to act different, but mostly I just think her actions and thoughts are naive and childish. You don't think you're better than other people just because you dress differently or uses big words. You just don't. It's good to want to be different, but her reason behind that is pretty much twisted. Even if you're internet famous and have millions of twitter followers, it does NOT mean you're any better than others. Being normal also doesn't make you uncool. I really think this girl needs some serious therapy and just fucking grow up.

Michael, the other main protagonist and our love interest, is better than Jeane but still pretty bad. He thinks Jeane's a ugly weirdo and thinks he's so good-looking he can date whoever he wants. Now, I don't get why the two main characters in the book both have to be so fucking self-centered. I get how the author wants to make this book different than other chick-lits, but there's no point in making both of your MCs douchebags.

By the way, Barney, Jeane's ex, is a bitch. Just saying.


Now, the plot.

Like I said, nothing really happens. It's basically your average OMG we're using each other that turned into a OMG I can't stay away from you and then this huge breakup happens and in the end, they get back together again.

The reason they broke up was pretty ridiculous, though. Michael didn't tell her he's on twitter, so what? I don't get what the big deal is. What is the whole point of the fight?

The romance.

Well, it's pretty hard to like a relationship when both of the people concerned are annoying. Plus, I wouldn't really say there was much of "romance" in the book. I think what the book really is about is growing up and getting to know yourself.

The ending.

I think this might be the only part of the book I actually liked. Though it's predictable, I was all like "THANK GOD!" when both of the MCs finally got more mature. I'm glad Jeane finally became sure of what she really wanted and could finally accept that normal people doesn't equal "uncool". I really liked the message the author was trying to give us. "Be yourself." I think it's really really important to be sure of who you are and what you want. But the fact that most of the book was Jeane being whiny and judgemental makes it really hard for me to actually like the book.

Overall, it's a pretty light read. But be warned, most of the book is going to get on your nerves. You have to be pretty patient if you ever want to like it.

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'adork. I know I was just THIS BOOK GETS ME-ing about Holier Than Thou but... this book gets me! Adorkable gets the online me -- the one who tweets and tumblrs and blogs and pins. If the last sentence makes no sense to you, this book may not be for you because one of the things I love about Adorkable is that it doesn't feel the need to explain all that. You either get it or you don't.

Jeane Smith gets it. She's a 17-year-old student and blogger who runs a mini online empire based on all things adorkable. #4 on The Ad♥rkable Manifesto is:

Suffering doesn't necessarily improve you but it does give you something to blog about.

Jeane is smart and sassy. She's Jessica Darling meets Tavi Gevinson. Tavi, for those unfamiliar, is a fashion blogger who at 13 was sitting front row at fashion shows around the world and featured in magazines, including French Vogue. Now 16, Tavi turned her Style Rookie blog into Rookie Magazine and even got Jon Hamm to contribute to her 'Ask a Grown Man' series.

No big deal. Jeane Smith has a million followers on Twitter and is flown around the world too. Tavi and Jeane also both had gray hair at one point.

Michael Lee, on the other hand, doesn't get it. Who cares about online popularity when you're actually popular, right? He's the Big Man On Campus -- perfect looks, perfect jock, perfect family. He's also half-Asian, which made me very happy. The main thing upsetting his life is his girlfriend, Scarlett, who is suspiciously spending a lot of time with Jeane's boyfriend, Barney. And there's nothing adorkable about Barney -- he is a straight up dork. Michael decides to confront Jeane about her boyfriend, and thus begins a series of encounters, both online and in real life.

I freakin' loved this book. At first, I was hesitant about the dual points of view because the male voice wasn't convincing. Michael says something about Jeane's "fugly face" and immediately an image of Regina George popped into my head. Thankfully, this was short-lived and Manning got Michael's voice. The star, though, was Jeane. She was as infuriating as she was endearing, but she cracked me up. My notes at one point were just a series of LOLs.

There are so many things that I loved, but on the top of the list is that Jeane isn't secret pretty, meaning she sees herself as a dork while the rest of the world sees her as some supermodel. This is such a tired trope. Jeane is short with some wobbly bits, and she's totally fine with that. That doesn't affect her sex life because -- NEWSFLASH -- 17-year-olds have sex lives! Jeane says:

I wound myself around him and in that moment I just wanted to be closer still, even if it meant climbing inside him like he was a sleeping bag, which actually doesn't really work as an analogy and makes me sound like some kind of sick serial killer who likes to wear my victims' skins.

There's also mention of female masturbation, which actually is a newsflash to Michael. Oh boys.

Adorkable gets how we interact now and the disconnected connectedness of those social networks. Manning sums up their appeal with this line:

This was what I loved most about Twitter: riffing on utter nonsense with a complete stranger who turned out to be on the same bizarro wavelength as me.

The tone of the high school characters is also perfect, or totes perfect. Adorkable is a cute, contemporary story that won't give you a toothache (copyright: Cher Horowitz). Now read it so we can tweet each other about it!

Rating: 4/5 stars.

For British Eyes Only
Twat count: 4
This is something we do on our Saturday Night Skins sessions on Wear The Old Coat. You can read how it began here.

This review appears on Young Adult Anonymous -- with the Jon Hamm video. :)

[Komal · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of a 2.5 stars.

Adorkable was 70% dorky boring and 30% adorable. I was really excited about this book and all about badgered Jessie to read it with me and you can check out her review here. I mean, have you read the blurb? 17 year old dorky teenager, blogger extraordinaire, " an innovator and a one-girl zeitgeist and the queen of the outliers" AND a hot guy? Sign me up!
The story revolves around Jeane's break up with her boyfriend, Barney, and her navigation along the lines of dorkiness and loneliness and subsequent acceptance and development.

Character

Jeane Smith
First with the good part.
Jeane is ...fun. She is confident and blunt and doesn't take shit from anyone. A strong, independent protagonist. She is comfortable in her own skin and hell with you if you don't understand me. I don't give a shit. She is awesome that way. She is quirky, witty and brilliant in a way.

Now, the slightly disconcerting part.
Jeane is ...weird. Not dorky weird, just weird. She has half a million followers on Twitter but can't manage to talk/relate to even one person, except Barney, at her own school. It was like, everyone was beneath her and Miss. Dorky Personified couldn't be bothered with the lowlifes she was forced to spend time with.
She was all like:

She was too full of herself. She was ornery, obstreperous, obnoxious and "all other unflattering o letter words. I couldn't identify with her. I don't have a Twitter and like Micheal, I "don't get Twitter".
But that's just me.
I'll bet tons of people will relate to her, because let's face it, our generation do spend more time interacting with netizens that our school mates.
I could totally sympathize with Micheal's view that internet friends are not exactly real friends. It is nice if you are active virtually but you really can't substitute actual people with the internet guys.
Hmph.
I'm guessing, I just sounded like a 10000 year old there, but I like going out with my "real" friends too.

At the end of it all, beneath all the glitter and flashy, mismatched clothes, all the bluster and rambunctiousness, Jeane is just a lonely girl starving for a hug.

Michael Lee
In a word: AMAZING.
Your Mr. Popular and NOT a manwhore. Head of the debating society, captain of the football team blablabla. You get the drift. All in all, Mike was a pampered child. No traumatic childhood, no drunk dad or absent mom.
Normal. Happy.
There was this child-like innocence in him that was glaringly lacking in Jeane. But Micheal was timid too. 18 year old, following a time table to the T posted by his parents. Scared of breaking his curfew. Living within boundaries set by his mom parents.
You might call it spineless or obedient.
Your call.

Writing
Great.
There is something about British writing that makes it adorable. I haven't read many Brit lit, so maybe the unfamiliarity held a certain charm for me. I don't know. Whatever it was, I adored the writing.
The dialogues were witty and Jeane's monologue smartass-y.
All in all, enjoyable and entertaining.
And totes? Is it a British lingo for totally?
And what does blates meaning?

Story
Okay-dokey.
Nice at best and dragging at worst.


High Points
Jeane Smith. Adorkable. Lee. Humor. Christmas Eve. Stuck doors. Candies. Haribo. Gizmos. @winsomedimsum. Adorkable Manifesto. Cheating ex. Raw honesty. Dialogues. Straight forwardness.

The stupidest thing in the entire book
How Jeane and Micheal hooked up. No talking. No communication. No explanation. Just hook up. When the opportunity arises, one of them would jump at the other and snog the heck off each other and then be on their own merry way.
Seriously?
That is the height of WTF.

Conclusion
You will either love it or hate it, depending upon how much you can identify with Jeane's situation. Or how attached you are to your virtual life :)

[♥Rachel♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorkable was witty and sweet romance, between two total social opposites. It’s always such fun reading about opposites clashing, and then falling for each other in spite of their differences.

Jeane Smith and Michael Lee couldn’t be further apart in their social spheres. She’s the queen of dork and bizarre, and he’s the popular king of normal. Jeane’s proud of her dorkdom and looks down on anyone mainstream. She’s a popular blogger with her own “life-brand,” Adorkable, with a huge online following. Both Jeane and Michael look down their nose at each other. Unfortunately, Michael’s girlfriend, Scarlett and Jeane’s boyfriend Barney fancy each other and soon their common problem thrusts their lives together in an unexpected way. There is nothing but animosity between Michael and Jeane, but for whatever reasons opposites attract, they are suddenly stealing passionate kisses whenever and wherever they can.

Michael and Jeane want to keep their “snogging” (Brit speak for kissing) to themselves for fear of outside opinions. Plus, they barely like each other. But after spending time together, they begin to see another side to one another, and they just click. Well, they more than just clicked. They sizzled and burned!

This romance had me laughing and smiling all the way through. Michael was a sweetheart. There were moments when I’d get mad at him for mentally calling Jeane a bitch, but then he’d turn around and do something heartfelt and lovely. The same with Jeane, she would act like a witch, coming off so judgmental sometimes, but then she’d explain herself, and it wasn’t anything like you thought. I couldn’t stay mad at her. Plus, when you see how sad and lonely her life was, the fact she still functioned was a miracle. These two had a passion and intensity with each other they didn’t share with anyone else:

Jeane was the ninth girl I’d kissed but her kisses were nothing like the other eight girls’ kisses. She tasted sweet and salty and she kissed like her life depended on it. She kissed me like I was going off to war or it was the end of the bloody world.

I had loads of fun with this story, and part of that was all the Brit speak: jumpers, snogging, stroppy girls, blathering, and jumble sales. I now have a hankering for Haribo, which I’ve found out from my lovely Goodreads friends is a type of jelly/gummy candy.

Sarra Manning’s writing style was clever and entertaining and I plan on reading more from this author soon.

You can read this review and more at The Readers Den.

[Glire · Rating 1 out of 5]

A este libro le falta:
- Trama.
- Coherencia.
- Personajes que a pesar de sus defectos logren ganarse al lector.

Y le sobran páginas.

Adorkable es la historia de Jeane, una dork que proclama que está bien ser diferente mientras insulta a TODOS a su alrededor porque SON. DIFERENTES. A. ELLA. Los humilla por ser "simples", los ataca por vestirse "normal", los menosprecia porque "no tienen su nivel intelectual".



Esta actitud, que se mantiene inalterable a todo lo largo del libro, es el resumen de todo lo que está mal con el mundo: la cultura de agresión, la convicción de la primacía.

Sé lo que intentó hacer Manning pero el bullying inverso ¡sigue siendo bullying! Ser "diferente" no te hace mejor persona, no te hace más inteligente y, definitivamente, NO TE HACE SUPERIOR.

Terrible libro, con un penoso romance y un aún peor mensaje.

[Cara · Rating 2 out of 5]

So the 2 stars I decided to rate this book are because of two reasons:

1.) I felt compelled to finish the book and I am not a reader who forces themselves to finish the book for the sake of finishing. The writing was gripping enough to see me through to the end.

2.) I enjoyed the last fourth of the book and thought the premise of the story was interesting.

Unfortunately for me this is where most of the good things about this book ends.

Ok premise first. Jeane is a 17 year old internet sensation. She mans a blog called Adorkable and she is sought after by famous magazines, newspapers, and trendy people. She can also boast having about half a million twitter followers. To boot she dresses in crazy fashion and packs a serious attitude that drives her peers away. On the other end we have Michael Lee who above all is popular. Is the star of the football team, stellar student, and is liked by everybody. So Jeane and Michael have nothing in common, but somehow they end up being in each others lives in the form of sucking on each others faces every chance they get. How does this make any sense? Well Jeane and Michael don't know either, but they sure are going to find out by the end of this story.

I picked up this book because I do consider myself to be a dorky person, and I wanted to see how a teenager, in England no less, manages to balance her popular blog and side gigs with her schooling as well. Interesting no? And though the topic of whether the people who you only have contact via internet can count as real human contact is discussed, there was so much lacking here. Mainly characters to like.

I absolutely did not like these characters. They both are so horrible to each other. I imagine if I met these people in real life I would run the other way quick because these two have to be the most self-absorbed characters I have read about in a long time. The relationship starts out to be purely physical and hidden from everyone (which is already a problem if you ask me) but when they do start getting to know each other they don't even start thinking highly of each other. It's common for them to fling insults to each other and it's not witty stuff. No just plain mean in my opinion. Jeane does come from a shaky background, but it's hard to feel that sorry for her when she is constantly spouting how people should be honored to be enlightened by whatever "wisdom" she has to offer. People do criticize her for how she dresses but instead of being tolerant she is a hypocrite and complains about her peers insistently. Then there is Michael who is constantly wondering why he is even with Jeane because she is ugly and dresses horribly. And I am seriously not kidding, he actually thinks about this. At one point there is this pretty intense physical scene between two of them that was treated with so much casualness I almost chucked the book right there and then. These two were extremely frustrating to me to say the least.

But I do have to say I liked some of the latter half of the book. Jeane realizes she needs people who she can count on, but can also have deep connections with people on the internet as well. And for a while Jeane and Michael weren't being disrespectful to each other. Just for that reprieve I had originally given this book 3 stars but I had to admit I spent most of the time reading this not enjoying myself, so 2 stars.

I do want to point out this book is liked and even loved by others, including some of my goodreads friends, so this book just may have not been for me. If the synopsis peaks your interest there is no harm in giving it a shot.

[Ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was such a (lovely) mess!


At first I had a hard time following where the story was headed. But somehow I got to love all the dorkiness, the craziness, the dizziness that the characters made me feel when they changed their mind every half-page. It was cute, it was refreshing, it was somehow original and near the ending it gave a few lessons that are worth knowing – some about ourselves, some about the world we are living in.

“Be yourself, everyone else is taken” – No, this is not a quote from the actual book, but it could have been.. Because this is what this story is about.
It screams to you to be yourself, to be who you wanna be, to act the way you want to and to say what you are thinking without being afraid.. Because you are special, with the good and the bad, and everything in between.

I know how hard it is to “be yourself” when you are a teenager in search for the damn inner self, mostly because you really have no freaking idea of who you really are. But you should have your own opinion, your own style, you should make your own decisions, and no matter how different you are you shouldn’t be ashamed.. because life is too short to live in someone else’s shadow, and you should make the best of it right here, right now.

“Generation Y. Shallow. Narcissistic. Self-involved. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, Gen Y knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.”

There are many things happening in this book, some good, some not so much.
I wanted to kick both Jeane and Michael for arguing so damn much, for misinterpreting everything, for hurting each other’s feelings, for being mean when it wasn’t needed, for not realizing what they felt until it was a bit late, for getting carried away by fear, and embarrassment, and anger, and for not being able to just be themselves and do what they wanted to do without caring about the others.

They were not opposites; they were just simply different and incompatible. I liked that we didn’t have the good girl/ bad boy thing going on. They simply didn’t match until, well, they finally did.. Not that they changed or anything, they just realized that the good things are bigger and more important than the bad ones. It is called compromise, and you will find more about it in your own love life over the time.

THE CHARACTERS:



Jeane
All this talk about being yourself, still Jeane was doing in fact the very opposite, but not in the way you might think – she was doing what others thought was wrong, because she couldn’t agree with the masses.
Sometimes this meant that she had her own personality, sometimes it just meant that she wanted to be different… No matter if she was wrong, if she was mean, if she was hurting people or pushing them away.

Also, she had this obsession for social media. She couldn’t probably go to the bathroom without updating her status, sometimes it was really fun, sometimes she got them in trouble and some other times I wondered when did she have the time to update her website and to post all those updates.

Michael
His struggle was palpable as he tried to figure out his feelings for Jeane.
I think I understood him – it must be hard to like someone because of the personality, but not like the appearance and be ashamed to be seen with that person, even though you enjoy the company. Sounds complicated, right? Well it is.
He was happy with her even though they kept fighting all the time, but also he was embarrassed by her dorkiness. His inner fight made me smile and it was cute to see him change his mind all the time, thinking one thing, doing the another one.

“No one but Jeane Smith could make me feel like I wasn’t that big of a deal. Even if I rescued small children and puppies and kittens from a burning building with no thought for my own safety, Jeane still wouldn’t be impressed.”

As I said before, these two were really different: not in an opposite-can-attract kind of different, but the “we-don’t-have-a-damn-thing-in-common” type.
They weren’t the “bad-boy and good-girl that oh my, can’t be together”, they were just two incompatible people that step by step found out that they can love each other against all odds.
What I liked about them was the fact that up until the ending, they were still different, they didn’t have to really change to make the story go.. They didn’t have a hidden depth attached to them, they were transparent with the good and the bad and they learned how to love each other.

The parents:
I don’t know where are the parents these days, because in YA books they are simply.. NOT.

Other Kids:
What can I say, they are mean!
I don’t know why teenagers tend to be such brats sometimes (and don’t tell me that this is only fiction because kids are mean - not matter how old they are), why they don’t like people being different, why they have to give the others a hard time just for the fun of it..
If I think about it.. You know how I told you to be yourself?
I am full of contradiction tonight because, scratch that.. if being yourself is being mean, than you deserve to live in every shadow you can find, because the world might be a better place if we at least pretend to be nice! Now I’ve said it!

CONCLUSION:
Anyways, I liked the story. It was messy and crazy and it got to my hear slowly, as slowly as the characters fell in love. I like being surprised, and I like spending time with a book that makes me smile. This one did it and I thank it for that.

June 2012: Some dork review to come soon...(what can I say, life keeps getting in the way.. I need more time!)

Happy midnight reading!


** This review can also be found at ReadingAfterMidnight.com
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[Ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nose Graze — Young Adult book reviews

I can't remember the last time I hated a book character so much.

What's sad, is that there are so many reasons I could have loved this book. I'm a dork myself, so I'm all for "pro dork" books. I like high school romances. I like "popular guy falls in love with nerdy girl" books. I love books about blogging, bloggers, and social media. I love all of those things.

What I don't like are massive bitches. And that's exactly what Jeane Smith is. A massive, MASSIVE bitch. I have never read about a character in a book that is this massively mean.

Here's my problem: I'm all for dorks. I'm all for being different. I'm all for going against the norm. That's basically what I am and what I do. What I'm NOT for is insulting and hating on people just because they're not like you, and that's what Jeane is all about. She's the dork version of the queen bee high school bitch. That queen bee hates on everyone who doesn't wear the cool clothes and go to the cool parties and date the cool guys. In contrast, Jeane hates on everyone who DOES do those things, even if they're a perfectly nice person. She just hates their very existence. Her motto is basically: if you don't go against what's cool, then you're my enemy. That is NOT okay with me.

Another thing that bugged me was how two-sided Jeane was. Here's a quote from Michael:

[Jeane was] a girl who was friendlier on the internet than she was in the flesh.

"everyone pretends to be someon eelse on the internet and that Jeane's friendliness was only Wi-Fi-enabled."

It made her look so two-faced. She's quite social and friendly to anyone who approaches her on Twitter. But if you approach her in real life, she will stare you down and yell at you to get the fuck away from her (I swear that's not even much of an exaggeration). Example, starting with a line from Michael:

"Oh, I was just passing and I thought I'd come over and say hi."

"Why the hell would you want to do that?" I asked very coldly. "Did you think that because we had one unpleasant conversation at the jumble sale we're now on hello terms? We're not. We have nothing to talk about so just, like, go away."

Michael was being NICE. He wasn't being sarcastic or mean, he literally just came over to say hi and she completely threw that in his face for no reason. Or, her reason is: because he wears designer clothes and people like him. And she then goes on to make tons and tons of assumptions about him just based on how he dresses and who his friends are:

"That was the deal with the really good-looking boys: they automatically assume you were pining and panting for them and wouldn't be satisfied until you'd had their babies, no matter how ugly their personalities might be."

And another thing I hated was how she treated her boyfriend Barney like a pet or a follower. She knew that they had zero chemistry and she hated kissing him. He's not really her boyfriend, he's like a doll to her. She dresses him up and teaches him to act in certain ways. This really comes out when they kind of break up and she rages about how he betrayed her because she gave him the 'gift' of attention and a social life:

"I'd raised Barney in my own image: he was on my side, on the side of dorks, on the side of all that was good and pure."

"[Barney] leeched my cool like he was trying to jump-start a car battery."

"You were nothing before me," I screamed finally, as Barney cowered where he stood. "And you'll be nothing again, just a spotty geek immersed in World of Warcraft with no social skills."

That last line in particular sounds EXACTLY like something that would come out of an exaggerated queen bee bitch's mouth. Literally. It sounds like Regina George from Mean Girls.

And after she was done with Barney she wrote a massive hate post about him on her blog where she named him. That's a great example of what well known and respected bloggers SHOULDN'T DO. You don't use your popularity as a platform to voice your hate for an individual, and that's exactly what she did.

After about 60 pages of this, I couldn't stand it anymore. I think Jeane might be my most hated character in all of literature. She's exactly like those evil, manipulative queen bee bitches, but instead of lashing out at people for being "unpopular", she lashes out at them for being "popular". That makes her no better. She's mean, bitchy, manipulative, and thinks she's so high and mighty. I couldn't stand this character so much that I physically could not bring myself to finish the rest of the book. Even if she changes at the end, I didn't care. I didn't WANT to sympathize with her or be glad that she changed. I don't want to feel any good or nice feelings about this character ever. She doesn't deserve my forgiveness for being a massive bitch at the beginning.

(Note: I have no idea if she even does change at the end or not, I'm just assuming she does.)

[Nafiza · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my favourite of all the Manning books I have read so far. A YA contemporary rather than chick-lit, Adorkable deals with Jeane and Michael. Their lives collide when Jeane’s boyfriend and Michael’s girlfriend fall in love. (Incidentally, Manning seems to love these kinds of coincidences as this also happens in Nine Uses for an Ex-Boyfriend). What follows is an extremely loud, extremely British, rollercoaster ride.

Jeane isn’t anything that Michael Lee looks for in a girl and Michael isn’t someone that Jeane would ever consider as boyfriend material. I loved that even though it is common in YA novels, contemporary or otherwise, for the popular guy to be the one guy who is universally loved, in Adorkable, Jeane doesn’t even consider him a single whit. She simply does not get melty knees where he is concerned. At least not in the beginning. He is appealing, yes, but not to her. And he thinks she’s ugly. No, he really does. But then, in the end, he loves her anyway.

The strength in this novel comes from the author’s determination to tell a story without romanticizing it. She gives it all to us. The fights, the insane fights, the bickering, their difference in philosophies, the insecurities and the flaws. Oh she does not hold back on the flaws at all. But she also shows the sweet parts. How their romance starts, their gradual procession to being more than kissing buddies. How both of them, in their own twisted ways, make the other’s life a bit more meaningful. I loved the portion where Jeane spends time with Michael’s family because her own is so messed up.

When a book makes you cry and makes you laugh, you know it’s a winner. I spent a lot of time hating Jeane and thinking not so nice thoughts about Michael but when you reach the end, it is with a bang. Jeane learns some life lessons, important ones and finds some truth about herself that she may have not wanted to know. But at the same time, Michael grows as a person, too, sloughing off his superficiality and becoming man enough to accept Jeane for what she is, no, more than that, to make sure she remains the way she is: loud, hostile and colourful.

Do I recommend this to you? Oh definitely. One of the best contemporaries I’ve read in a long time. This one is no Anna and the French Kiss. In fact, I think it might be better. Yes, I said it.

[Keertana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorkable is the type of novel that will most definitely be read in the distant future, but not because of its writing quality or sheer brilliance, but because of how utterly modern it is. I can imagine children reading it in history classes, struggling to understand the concepts of Twitter, Facebook, and Website Blogging all while being caught up in Mike and Jeane's unforgettable story. While I expected a cute and quirky romance from this book, I was given an expose on modern technology, insight into the life of a lonely child, and a crash course on the importance of being different - all qualities that made me love Adorkable far more than I had originally anticipated.

Jeane Smith is that kid in school – the one who speaks out in class, shoves her opinions down your throat, and dresses in a manner that can only be described as strange. Yet, Jeane revels in her uniqueness and is known internationally for her blog, Adorkable. Mike Lee is that guy in school – the one who has a loving family, excellent grades, girls throwing themselves at him every chance they get, and will probably will the superlative for “Most Likely to Succeed.” Mike and Jeane have absolutely nothing in common – that is, until their significant others dump them for each other’s significant others – and all of a sudden, their non-existent acquaintance becomes something they simply can’t – and won’t – avoid.

Adorkable is a book I was squealing over when I finally got my hands on it, but as I continued to read, I felt strangely disappointed with its story. Jeane and Michael’s love story unfolds in a manner that I didn’t find wholly satisfying – first kissing, then some conversations, then sex, and then true friendship and acceptance. Nevertheless, despite that, I also found that I couldn’t connect with Jeane – she was simply too out there, too outlandish, and too different for me to empathize with. Yet, as I kept reading, as I kept discovering more and more about these two people and their complicated lives – especially Jeane’s – I began to sympathize with her. I’ll admit it – a lone tear fell down my cheek during the last fourth of the novel and my eyes seemed to be endlessly watering.

In all honesty, I think I was the most surprised by this reaction. I didn’t think I was invested in the story – but I was. I didn’t think I could understand Jeane, and although I still can’t completely understand some aspects of her life, I can empathize with her. More than a cute love story, Adorkable is a carefully constructed look at what makes people the way they are. Jeane acts, dresses, and comes across as the person she is because of the difficult circumstances that have shaped her life. She is a tough character to like, but Manning’s writing creeps up on you so slowly that you don’t even realize when you’ve begun to like her. Although Adorkable was told from alternating perspectives, what really made this novel stand out to me was that the reader understood Jeane at a different pace than Mike did – and that was okay. It was better in fact.

The friendship between these two also grew slowly and was practically nonexistent until you truly looked for it and realized it was there. That is the true beauty of friendship – a relationship that exists but isn’t acknowledged until you truly try to find and define it. Furthermore, Jeane’s character development and understanding of herself – as well as others – was something I found was integral to the overall themes of the novel. I loved the messages that Manning was able to bring out in her simple story and I believe that they need to be heard by everyone. Although it seems as if Jeane often overshadows Mike in this novel, I thought his presence and perspective was equally as important (although it seemed only to be used to offer the reader with a more common POV as well as a romance angle). Thus, I found that I loved the shifting personalities between these two and enjoyed seeing how their interactions somehow fit despite their differences.

All in all, Adorkable is a cute love story – I never said it wasn’t – but more than that, it is an insightful outlook on what drives people to be different and how important it is to never shy away from who you truly are. In the present world of internet, twitter, and blogging, it can seem as if the friends we make online aren’t true friends, but Manning shows us that they are. I think that, more than anything else in the novel, rang true to me as I am a blogger and have my own tight circle of online friends –some of whom I am closer to than my school friends.

Essentially, Adorkable is packed with imperative themes and messages, but most importantly, it is packed with quirkiness and fun. It is an adorable read that I would recommend to anyone looking for some light reading, but it also satisfies the mind of those looking for thoughtful contemporary novels. In other words, it was a unique breath of fresh air.

You can find this review and more on my blog, Ivy Book Bindings.

[Triss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bože, to bolo úúúžasné, také úžasné. Fantastické a skvelé a ďalších tisíc superlatívov. Idem zistiť mail na Sarru Manning a vyznať jej nehynúcu lásku o pol 2 ráno.

[Namera [The Literary Invertebrate] · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is SUCH a product of 2012 - not the noughties but not into the full swing of the 2010s either. So the characters don't use flip phones and they have a fairly good grasp of social media, but at the same time things aren't hyper-politicised and there's some non-PC language. That's a very specific place for a book to be, and it informs the entire way this book plays out.

Sarra Manning has a real gift for taking the most cutesy Wattpad-esque plots and turning them into something that is DEFINITELY not cutesy and painfully realistic instead. In You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, she used the fake relationship trope. With Unsticky it was sugar daddies. In this, her most mainstream YA, she doesn't really have a trope as such

17-year-old Jeane Smith is fat, ugly, and has a terrible sense of style. An ordinary heroine might be crying into her cereal at this point. But not Jeane: she owns it. She's set up a lifestyle blog known as Adorkable, right as social media is taking off, and it's turned her into an Internet celebrity; she has 500,000 followers on Twitter, gets paid to speak at conferences around the world, and overall has a fabulous life. Or so you'd think. Her boyfriend is emotionally cheating on her with a vapid popular girl, she lives with nobody because her family don't care about her, and 18-year-old popular boy Michael Lee has it in for her.

Ah, Michael. I could write essays on him. I said Manning was hyper-realistic, and even when her plots make you raise an eyebrow, her characters are so real you could reach out and touch them through the page. Take Michael: his POV, though in first-person, feels unabashedly masculine in a way few female authors are able to pull off. He's honest about worrying he won't find Jeane's body attractive, relatable in his bad temper, and entertaining in his snark - while recognising of course than Jeane is the queen of snark. She is in fact a real, raw antiheroine, so different from the milquetoast heroines who populate most YA, and it's left me with SUCH a book hangover.

Manning was definitely ahead of her time. What other 2012 YA book has a bisexual heroine who's had female relationships and talks frankly about masturbation? In fact, I'm astounded the fairly detailed sex scenes didn't turn this into NA, although that didn't exist in 2012 anyway.

The cover and title lead you to believe you're getting a fluffy, feel-good romcom with enemies-to-lovers and maybe some mild drama. What you actually get is a rollercoaster filled with raw, often painful emotions, angst and humour in equal measure, and a relentless focus on characterisation - there are no real villains here. This book ends on more of a note of closure than many of Manning's other books, which is great, but it's certainly not a YA book you can dismiss or easily forget.

[Stephanie (Stepping Out Of The Page) · Rating 3 out of 5]

As soon as I heard that there was going to be a book called Adorkable, I jumped at the chance to read it! I mean really - a title that includes the word 'dork' just has to be good, doesn't it? The premise sounded pretty cool too - the story is about a self-proclaimed dork called Jeane and her ever-changing relationship with the 'cool' guy at school, Michael. I've not read anything else by Sarra Manning, so I wasn't sure what to expect but this one looked like a fun read.

Every review I've read for this book so far have been raving 4 or 5 stars and I do feel bad that I've not managed to rate this one higher, but I think I must've missed something. I'm all for dorkiness and I'd definitely call myself a nerd. Like Jeane, I am not afraid to speak my mind or opinion (something that's gotten me into trouble a couple of times) and I'm not afraid to express myself in the way I want, whether it's through my clothing, music or art. I am also, as you may be able to tell, pretty much addicted to blogging and twitter. So yes, you could say I'm a lot like Jeane Smith, however, I still just couldn't connect with her. At points, I just felt that she was trying so hard to be different or 'out-there' that it started to annoy me and I felt as though she was a little bit hypocritical at times. Jeane often began criticising other people for what they wore, watched or listened to, even though that may have just been what they liked which I found to be a bit unnecessary - she might like being 'different', but she didn't need to force her opinions on others. At times, I felt she was slightly inconsiderate and making a big deal over nothing. Jeane was also meant to be an international online celebrity which had potential to be really great, but due to her slight arrogance, I couldn't get away with it. I don't know though - maybe I do see a bit of myself in her and I don't like it.


I did enjoy reading about the more personal, quiet side to Jeane though, and that seemed to come out more when she interacted with Michael Lee, the boy who seemed to have it all - looks, popularity and good grades. I didn't dislike Michael until he started to become ashamed of being seen with Jeane which just seemed ridiculous. I did find it interesting to see how his opinions changed and it was good to see them both exploring different aspects of how the other one lived. The more 'hidden' and quiet side of Jeane was probably the most intriguing part of the book for me - I mush preferred the second half of the book as we got to learn more about the real feelings of the characters and it seemed a lot more eventful.


I think that the reason I didn't enjoy this book as much as I could have was because it just didn't ring true to me. I may be living in my own little bubble, but at least where I am, I'd like to think you're not completely excluded because of the way you dress - I actually like to think the diversity in dress is something that's becoming more popular. It's true that Jeane also wasn't very popular due to her attitude, but it didn't really seem that way. I did like the use of fun, teenage language and phrases. There were a lot of popular culture references, and that was enjoyable, but I think the book could age easily. The writing itself was fine - I can't complain about that.


With my inability to really love the characters and my quite high expectations, this book didn't really satisfy me as much as it could have. I think that a lot of people will love the outspoken Jeane and the trials and tribulations of her friendship with Michael. I am certainly not put off the author from this book - I have given this book 3 stars and I think that's actually pretty good. It certainly wasn't painful to read and the writing was new, fresh. Unfortunately, I just couldn't bring myself to really care for the characters, which was disappointing.

[Lulufrances · Rating 4 out of 5]

As much as the book focused a lot around the love-hate-relationship in it, I myself also had a love-hate-relationship with this book.
Or at least with the characters.
In the beginning I was very annoyed and honestly also disgusted by the behaviour of Jeane and Michael.
They are both so ridiculously full of themselves and treat each other like crap, I was so put off by that, let me tell you!!!
Also, the whole plot started out differently than what I'd expected after reading the synopsis.
I thought this book would be fun, quirky and light but it wasn't.
(Or maybe it was, but in a deeper, more complex way than I'd thought (so scrap the "light" anyway haha).) <- badass double brackets yay

But something really weird happened during the process of reading.
I put in a break because I was busy and when I continued reading the next day, I felt like I understood the characters, why they behave the way they do.
Suddenly the book went from mhh-might-put-it-down to aww-this-is-so-cool-all-of-a-sudden.
And Michael and especially Jeane kind of grew on me, I wanted to see how their story progressed.
I think that kind of thing is very hard to pull of well as an author; you know, the kind of thing where the protagonist is really vexing but you still end up liking her despite all her issues.
Authors often tend to overdo it and make it too obvious, but Sarra Manning managed perfectly!
It was full of subtle sadness and problems that were overcome nicely (gosh, I sound cheesy) and it's safe to say that this really is a coming-of-age novel (another cringe worthy statement - ah!) which isn't too in-your-face!
I loved the setting and I looohoved the pop culture references, come on - a book about twitter and blogging and dogs on surfboards?! Be mine!
And yeah, I fully understand how people don't like it, as Jeane and Michael do start of as pain in the asses, but heyho, not everyone is Pollyanna.
And it really does get better and - wait for it - it's not only adorkable, it's actually pretty adorable.

Yeah, I really wanted to use that pun in this review baaaadly, forgive me.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeane has always been the weird girl at school. Her hair is often the result of failed dye jobs, she wears second hand clothes, the previous owner of which may or may not have had an incontinence problem. She stands out and is proud of it, but she is shunned by her classmates.

That has never been a problem for her, she is a blogger who has a worldwide following and is in high demand on the conference circuit where she speaks about youth-culture.

Michael is her exact opposite, he is in the cool group at school, wears designer labels and generally tries to fit in.

When Michael's girlfriend hooks up with Jeane's boyfriend they find themselves crashing into each other with increasing frequency. Both refuse to admit their attraction but they just can't keep their hands off each other.

Adorkable is great. It's intelligent, snarky and snappy young adult fiction about two mismatched people who actually fit together very well if they will ever admit it.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I was in a cranky mood when I started this book, judging by my harsh status updates. Channeling my inner Jeane, I suppose. But then Sarra Manning won me over with her unique characters, witty prose and general awesomeness. Such a fun read! Makes me proud to be a dork :)

[Wendy Darling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved! Review to come.

[Anna (Ink of Books) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ich muss mich erstmal erholen.
Ich liebe dieses Buch und empfehle es JEDEM. ABSOLUT JEDEM!
Kleine Anmerkung: Wenn du nach dem Beenden des Buchs zu gute Laune Musik lachend durch die Wohnung tanzt, ist es ein verdammt gutes Buch!

Ganze Review:
Ok, diese Rezension kommt viel viel viel viel vieeeeeeeel zu spät.

Aber jetzt kommt sie doch noch, also lauscht meinen Worten und KAUFT DIESES VERDAMMTE BUCH!

Zuallererst einmal: Ich liebe liebe liebe liebe starke weibliche Charaktere! Also Badass-Frauen, die entweder körperlich oder geistig ihren Gegnern so sehr überlegen sind, dass man sich nur grinsend auf das Folgende freuen kann. Und JEANE ist verdammt noch mal eine davon! Und zwar in jeder verdammten Ebene! Ihr Denken und ihre Intelligenz, ihr Verhalten, ihre Meinungen und ihre Ausdrucksweise sind verdammt cool! (Cooler als Einhörner und Schokomuffins, und das passiert echt nicht oft!)

Sie ist so anders, so erfrischend, so toll und so verdammt sarkastisch, dass ich mich BUCHSTÄBLICH auf dem Boden gerollt habe vor Lachen! Ich liebe Sarkasmus und Ironie, und wenn die beiden Charaktere das beherrschen, dann werde ich auch eine Rakete mit Überlichtgeschwindigkeit bauen und ans Ende des Universums zu fliegen, nur um dieses verdammte Buch zu lesen! Also wo sind meine Entwürfe für den Warp-Antrieb noch mal?

AAAAAAAAAAABER. Ich mochte nicht nur den weiblichen Charakter, was ich normalerweise tue, sondern ich mochte auch noch den MÄNNLICHEN wirklich gerne!

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Ich mochte BEIDE! Ich mochte die BEIDEN Protagonisten! Wie selten kommt das vor, ohne das beide total ins Klischee abrutschen, oder wirklich alles verdammt noch mal schon mal so irgendwo vorkam?! Ich will mehr solcher Paare! Verschiedene! Die sich am Anfang wirklich nicht leiden konnten! Die eine Basis für ihre Beziehung haben! Deren Gedanken und Annäherungen VERDAMMT NOCH EINS nachvollziehbar sind und mich mitfiebern lassen! Und das muss über Bad Boy und Good Girl hinausgehen!

Ja, ich spreche mit dir, Anna Todd! Und alle anderen New Adult Autoren können sich auch angesprochen fühlen! MACHT CHARAKTERE, ÜBER DIE ICH WIRKLICH LESEN WILL! CHARAKTERE, DIE MICH INTERESSIEREN!

dav
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Übrigens: Das hier ist das erste Buch, bei welchem die Beziehung der beiden wirklich mal andersherum war! Sonst ist es immer so: Egal wie Badass und eloquent und sarkastisch und schlagfertig das Mädchen ist, der Junge/Mann steht immer noch eine Stufe über ihr!

Hier sind die Rollen endlich mal umgekehrt! Sie überrumpelt ihn und ER ist geschockt von ihr, beziehungsweise weiß nicht mit ihr umzugehen! ER hat Angst, mit ihr zu reden und ist verunsichert von ihrer Präsenz! Wie toll ist das denn?! ICH WILL MEHR DAVON!

Aber nur, wenn es gut gemacht ist, bitte!

Toll an den beiden ist auch, dass sie ENDLICH (EEEEEEENDLIIIIICH!) auch mal menschlich sind! Wie toll ist das denn?

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Und mit menschlich meine ich nicht, dass sie keine Flügel haben oder Magie beherrschen, sondern dass sie beide Fehler machen!

Sie sind beide in jedem Fall Schuld daran, dass irgendwas in ihrer Beziehung kaputt geht! Sie sind beide wirklich wirklich wirklich fehlerhaft und damit menschlich!

Wie GENIAL IST DAS DENN?!

Ich will niemandem vorwerfen, dass die Beziehungen wirklich manchmal nur von einer Person ruiniert werden, aber in Büchern wird es immer so dargestellt!

Dementsprechend: TOLL, sie sind BEIDE SCHULD! Und das ist wirklich ein guter Punkt!

Außerdem GIBT es in diesem Buch Drama und Streit, aber es ist immer berechtigt!

Es gibt immer einen Anlass für diesen Streit und er wird auch immer auf eine angemessene Art und Weise gelöst! Sowas kommt wirklich selten vor, aber WENN es dann mal vorkommt, würde ich am liebsten einen Buchoskar nur für dieses Buch erfinden und alle Preise an dieses Buch vergeben!

Ein ganz großer Pluspunkt des Buch ist, dass es LUSTIG ist. Ich weiß, ich weiß, das hört sich an, als wäre ich ein kleines Kind, das einen Blog zum Spaß betreibt und deshalb nicht vernünftig Deutsch kann, aber es stimmt!

Es ist total lustig und urkomisch! Der Sarkasmus ist wirklich überbordernd und toll geschrieben! Es war so lustig, dass ich manchmal einfach nur laut loslachen musste! Es hat mir wirklich gute Laune beschert! Und das über Tage hinweg!

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Das kommt wirklich nicht oft vor, aber WOW! Mehr von diesem Humor! Mehr von sich gegenseitig mit Sarkasmus bekriegenden Protagonisten! MEHR, MEHR, MEHR!

Manchmal musste ich sogar vor Überwältigung das Buch weglegen! So sehr hat mich dieses Buch mit purer Freude erfüllt! Ich liebe es!

Aber unterwarteter Weise gibt es hier auch Tiefsinnigkeit und die viel zelebrierte Andersartigkeit, die nicht nur ungefragt übernommen wird, sondern auch dies wird hinterfragt.

Ein anderer Lebensstil wird hier gezeigt und zelebriert, der am Ende auch hinterfragt wird und hinterfragt wird.

Die Botschaft des Buches zum Ende hin ist einfach unschlagbar und unfassbar toll gemacht, ohne zu sehr darauf hinzuweisen.

Ich denke wirklich, dass man aus diesem Buch noch sehr viel lernen (oder auch lesen ;D) kann!

Denn die neue Generation wird auch wieder ausführlich betrachtet und ihm wird eine beeindruckende Rede im Laufe dieses Buches zuteil! Das zieht sich durch das gesamte Buch und auch die verschiedenen Betrachtungsweisen und Herangehensweisen an verschiedene Themen sind gegeben!

Tiefsinnigkeit, wo keine erwartet wurde und andere sich vor ebenjener scheuen.

Chapeau, Frau Manning!

Meine Auslassungen auf Goodreads zu dem Thema:

Seite 100:
„Also bis jetzt denke ich, dass das ein verdammt gutes Buch werden wird! Ich liebe BEIDE Protagonisten…und das kommt verdammt selten vor!“
Seite 181:
„OH GOTT ICH LIEBE ES SO SEHR! *-*“
Review: „Ich muss mich erstmal erholen.
Ich liebe dieses Buch und empfehle es JEDEM. ABSOLUT JEDEM!
Kleine Anmerkung: Wenn du nach dem Beenden des Buchs zu gute Laune Musik lachend durch die Wohnung tanzt, ist es ein verdammt gutes Buch!“
Fazit:

Ein absolut umwerfend Buch, dass ich jedem ans Herz legen möchte, der wissen will, wie unsere Generation so tickt!

Eine eigenartige, schräge, aber absolut urkomische Protagonistin, die man einfach gern haben muss und ein nicht so langweilig perfekter Protagonist, wie sonst immer.

Ein Buch, was realitätsnah ist und ohne unnötiges Drama auskommt und zum Schluss Weisheiten mit auf den Weg gibt, die man sich erst selbst erschließen muss.

Eine Empfehlung an JEDEN, sowohl für die, die sich für eine aufreibende und tiefhumorige Beziehung und Liebesgeschichte interessieren, als auch für die, die etwas Tiefsinnigeres über Leben, Lieben und das Hereinpassen in die Gesellschaft wissen wollen.

5 von 5 Tintenklecksen und eins meiner Jahreshighlights!

[K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, there isn't anything really original about this book -- not the characters, not the plot, not the themes or big ideas: dorky girl with hot jock, hipster hating, card-carrying feminist outcast using hardcore persona to mask vulnerable heart, the impassioned heated, honest-to-goodness desire to save the world (one dork fashion statement at a time).

So we've seen it before but it is refreshing. Adorkable is exactly what you'd expect from a book with such a cover, but Manning adds a bit of extra -- and that bit of extra is what ultimately glues your feelings to these characters, perhaps without even knowing it. I say that because Jeane is, for so much of the time, insufferable. She is loud, hate-y and obnoxious and she is so good at it, we want to give up on her just as much as the rest of the student body seems to have done. But we stay because of the sweet, good breeding of Michael Lee, who sometimes seems to be a little too good to be true -- I mean, I wish the jocks at my high school were just as understanding and all-embracing.

The top notes of Adorkable display quirkiness, cuteness, fun, and actual hilarity. Excerpt!

"...Barney and Scarlett? It made no sense. They defied all laws of God and man. I'd raised Barney in my own image: he was on my side, the side of the dorks, on the side of all that was good and pure. Scarlett was strictly darkside all the way."

The base notes are made up entirely of loneliness.

"I don't have a mum fussing about me, or a dad for that matter, so I always leave some homework on reserve so I don't have a chance to start wallowing."

Jeane talks so much you miss these slivers of raw emotion wedged tightly between drawn out speeches on whatever the blog topic of the week may be. She is hurt and isolated from the world just as much as she is tuned-in and connected through the media. Her cries for help are layered in snark but they are there and the tragedy is not that few people hear them, but that Jeane cannot help herself deflecting the very soul-to-soul connections she craves so much.

Sara Manning's writing is hilarious. Like, actual LOL material. I like that not everything laid out is what they seem. We see through Jeane's eyes and we see through Micheal's eyes and I'm glad to find a difference. It only makes the characters more believable because aren't we all delusional in the way we view things sometimes? Because surprise, the pretty bitch Scarlett of Jeane is really the shy, insecure Scarlett of Micheal. Emotions get in the way and sometimes we are harsh in our judgements. I love that Jeane had petty, jealous thoughts. But for all her faults, Jeane is most definitely not a Mary Sue. That, at the moment, is an achievement.

Adorkable has flaws, quite a few of them. But for this particular book, I'm going to go with a good book is anything that moves you. So screw all the negative ways Adorkable can be dissected and criticized. I liked it, alright?

This review also appears on The Midnight Garden. An advance copy was provided by the publisher.

---

It is all that and a bag of Cheetos.

Review to come.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a cool & funny read.
Made me laugh so damn much!
They were always bickering and arguing-jean and Mkchael. Both whim appear cocky and self-assured and refuse to let the other have the last word in an argument however when you get to know them you realise their lives are not perfect.
Jean has no really friends and half a million twitter followers whim follow and tweet her do not count.
Michael is pressured into becoming someone hid family want him to be, not himself.
I hated michaels family in the beginning but by the end I loved them!
I want to be a dork and a member of adorkable by the end. It's just cool. As jean would say 'dork is the new cool'!!!
Yeah really enjoyed this book! 697 guys should 'deffo' check it out. :)

[Sharon L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorkable by Sarra Manning is one of those books that I have to talk about in two stages.
The first stage would be about the plot in itself- characters, relationship and summer read. The second would be about the whole blog sphere.

So, Jeane and Mike go to the same high school they are both in a relationship only that Jeane's boyfriend and Mike's girlfriend kind of fell in love with each other. That's what the synopsis in the back of the cover is all about. Truthfully, this is just the beginning. You, it doesn't take long for Jeane to come to terms with the fact that she likes her boyfriend like a friend and it is better for her and for him that he'd be with Scarlett. She even encourages Scarlett to break up with Mike and that's one hell of a nasty breakup. That's what leads me to the interesting side of the hypnosis- Mike's and Jeane's snogging. So Mike is this cool boy- the most popular boy in school- that everyone likes, he has tons of friends from the Jocks to the nerds. Jeane is this blogger of a lifestyle brand- adorkable which is all about embracing your inner dork.

She is smart and snarky and cynical, she dresses funny with all sorts of colorful clothing that are interesting and weird and hurt the eyes. She's weird and proud of it. She had half a million followers on twitter, she knows big names, and she's something outside of school. In school she's rarely liked, everybody talk about her and nobody (beside her boyfriend/friend) talks to her. She doesn't like Mike because in her opinion someone who gets along with everybody probably doesn't have much depth and Mike doesn't like her because of how she dresses and acts and because the whole school doesn't. then he starts following her on twitter and there they get along well but not in real life, then an accident occur and their contact with each other increase and before long they start snogging and make out even though they don't like each other that much.

There's a lot happening- we get to see Mike's perfect family and Jeane's broken one. They form some sort of friendship with benefits that they keep a secret and soon Mike realize that maybe Jeane is as big as she says she is, and Jeane starts to see that maybe there's more to Mike then just his pretty face and friendliness (BTW, they are both smart).
From what I just described this is just another summer read. And it is, totally.

Then the question is what is there to like about this book?


The answer is simple. First of all Sarra Manning created two characters that have many faults, they annoyed me more than once I dare say that even after the book ended I didn't find myself liking them too much if at all (I'm still debating) But they sounded like teens, they felt like teens and they talked like teens and it didn't feel forced to me. Manning also described the internet world wonderfully- but I'll get there soon. More importantly there was no slut shaming at all. Not even a tiny bit. Jeane has many admirable sides- I'm not sure if her sexual experience is vast but even so she was open about it, she was confident about herself in bed and she expressed her needs without being even a little embarrassed. The book doesn't dwell on the sexual and relationship part too much, and it doesn't preach but it shows all those things- that in a relationship a friendship and trust are important, that you need to care about the other, that you need to be accepted as yourself and it's important to feel comfortable and express your wants and needs. You may say such things are not important but I still wait for the moment in which the paranormal and dystopian sides of the YA books would also portray such relationships with no abuse and stupid Mary Sues and stalkerish violent boys. On that level the chick lit genre is doing the best in my opinion.

Now as I said I didn't like the MCs too much- both Mike and Jeane are arrogant fools. And I wanted to smack each of them more than once but they were also very rounded and I liked that. Truthfully, Jeane was more rounded on that regard and Mike was okay mostly, his POV was fine though I read better male's POV. There was one thing that got constantly on my nerves- Jeane's feminism, now, wait! I do not go against feminists in any way but one part of Jeane's feminism made her regard the opposite sex in a disrespectful tone that I didn't like one bit. Feminist have worked hard for women to have the same rights as men and be treated with respect at their own right, when I see a (supposed) feminist that treats the opposite sex or some women with less respect because of their gender or their tendencies- like women who decide to be a housewife- I get mad. Jeane isn't that bad, but she does make comments about training Mike and Barni (her ex) and on how weak willed Scarlett is that I saw as distasteful.

Now to the second part of the book- the whole blogger thingie. I'm new to it- when I read the book I was even newer. Manning portrays the whole "life on the net" thing wonderfully so even those who do not understand it can relate and understand and learn something new. While reading this book I actually had this urge to make people I debated with on the subject to read it, so that they'll understand. Also there's the oldest debate on the subject- net life vs. real life. Mike is more real life and Jeane is more net life- or so it seems at first, and Jeane is lonely at times. But on this day and age net life is part of real life- your friend through the net are still your friend a "total stranger on the net" can understand you on some levels better than your friends back home. Those two worlds are important, needed and real. Many times over people feel free to expose some parts of them on the net- they learn to be themselves and they meet a person like them that accepts them for who they are, that is a valuable lesson. And that is Manning's message- be yourself, both worlds are real. And frankly, IMO, I think we need to learn how to live in both because well- the world is growing smaller.

p.s. in the book there's a conference that talks about all kind of things that regard the future. Jeane has a speech in that conference- and her speech is worth reading with tons of remarks about the Y generation.

It's a good book, a really good one. One I'll probably re-read again in the future.

This review can also befound on the blog

[papalbina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

i've been totally uninspired for weeks, so don't be too hard on me if this review is not good at all v.v i will try to put some order in my thoughts:

what i like about adorkable

+ Jeane's personality: she's sassy, bold and speaks her mind no matter what. She accomplished at 17 what most of people won't accomplish ever. She makes of dorkiness a way of living and not only a lifestyle. Her background is very interesting... worth a psychologic paper...
+ Scarlett and Barney: it was funny to read how these two passed so good together xD
+ Jeane isn't pretty: no ugly duck turning to swan, no beautiful face hidden under layers of ugly clothes. no, jeane is average, common, not beautiful, not gorgeous... She's like every other girl out there.
+ Jeanne and Michael's relationship and evolution: even if they spend more time arguing than actually talking, they have a positive effect in each other. He becomes more critical of the world around him, she downgrades herself a bit, comes down to the "normal" world and for once learns something.
+ The sex talk in the book: the scene when they're having their first time together it's so refreshing, because it's sooo real. it made me laugh. Sometimes it's shocking to find sex talk in a YA book, when it should be that way and not the other way around. I'm so used to books with chaste relationships than when i found one with a normal one, i almost get up and dance a happy dance. The best thing in this book is not only that the MC had sex is that they talk about it, about masturbation, boners, orgams and so on... I think it's the first time I read in a YA novel the word "clitoris". At this point in the story, I was giving adorkable 6 stars

what i don't like so much about adorkable
- Jeane is too judgmental for my taste. I don't like people being judge for the way they dress, although i have the impression that even I would judge Jeane for her choices in clothing. One thing it's to choose not to buy brands and mainstream/fashion clothes and another very different to assume that anybody wearing brands or listening to mainstream music is a stupid person. I don't like this kind of message in a book, and although Jeane at the end learns that her opinions are not always the law, for me it didn't sound sincere.
- Michael, i didn't get Michael at all. I don't know why he was in this kind-of-dysfunctional relationship with Jeane. He says repeatedly that she's not pretty, that she's not sexy, that her clothes were hideous and that he couldn't stand her. On top of that he's ashamed of being seen with her *head shake* He cared for her... sometimes... in her cute or exposed moments, but the rest of the time i had the impression that he wanted to kill her... for real not figuratively.
- The second half of the book: after they have sex for the first time and they get to know each other better, everything went downhill. at some point it was obvious were the story was heading, but i refused to believe that i was reading Lola and the boy next door 2. At the end, it was a pretty similar evolution and I was a bit disappointed. The rhythm got lost too and didn't recover, and the end came too quickly.
- The ending: not because how it ends, but because there are a couple of subjects not address and left to the imagination of the reader. Like, is Jeane really not doing her A-levels? Is her sister going to let her go ahead with her plans? Is she really dropping school?I know that the school system is shit and pretty boring for someone like Jeane, but is it necessary to imply that she's doing so well in the internet that she doesn't need the degrees for the future? Call me traditional, coward or plain idiot, but I'd like to have something like a plan B in case the plan A goes wrong. And even if Jeane is very intelligent and "independent", even she must think sometimes even if only for a millisecond that perhaps something could go wrong. Am I too cautious? fO.o

things i couldn't make my mind about it:
+/- i can't say much about the style, but the tone was dry and not light for a so-called "chick-lit" (perhaps the MC is to blame for it) and a bit too adult. I don't know how to explain it. The characters talked like teenagers and so on, but the conclusions they drew were, i don't know, over-thought? for lack of a better word.
+/- the secondary characters were like a blur. I don't know if it was the book or me that wasn't paying them attention... It could be both too.

all in all, i liked the book, it was a good read and i will read it when i've the time. It was only a small disappointment since it started as a 5 stars and was losing stars all the way to the end. but that is probably just my viewpoint. Others find the book great. Me, even having pled dorkiness for most of my life, i couldn't relate to the MC and most of her actions :(

[Rosver · Rating 1 out of 5]

This novel is horrible. Its empty and very hard to read. The biggest fault is in its prose, which is so superfluous and jerky your mind goes all over the place. Added to these are overuse of very faddish icons, ads, songs, lingo, etc. give it a "short lived" feel. Also, the characters are very stereotypical albeit their triteness is hidden by cosmetic complexity. And hidden by its length and false depth, the plot is very basic. This book tells a very simple story but it got lost in all the baggage. Then it ends with a very generic ending.



The Prose, the very messy prose. It is obviously meant to be flashy and interesting but the result is rather distracting and overburdened. Reading through it is very difficult and tiring. Its so overblown. Its written in overuse... almost the only use... of "bitchy" and smart-mouthed... even offensive... language. The whole book seems to be written only in it:


"Not just any girl but Scarlett Thomas, who happened to be Michael Lee’s girlfriend. Not that I held that against her. What I held against her was that she was vapid and had a really annoying voice, which was breathy and babyish and had exactly the same effect on me as someone crunching ice cubes. Scarlett also had long blonde hair, which she spent hours combing, spritzing, primping and tossing so if you stood behind her in the lunch queue there was a good chance you’d get a mouthful of hair."

"‘That’s utter, utter crap and you know it,’ she sneered."

"That wiped the frown off his face. ‘For about the millionth time I didn’t do it on purpose!’ He was managing to talk in complete sentences again."


It would not have been so bad if this is a short story or so where such language is bearable even effective because of the short length, but reading a whole book written this way of people speaking this way is a different matter. Its is way overdone.

The author also seems to like to cram stuff that just bear nothing to the story. It seems things are desperately stuffed into each sentence just to make it longer, you even get 40+ words in a sentence:


"The hipsters and the cool mums and dads with their little offspring called stupid names like Demeter and Minnesota queuing in the freezing cold to get a table for brunch all stared at us as we shouted at each other and I really felt like nothing special then. I was just a stupid girl wearing stupid, mismatched clothes, yelling at a boy who I didn’t match with either."

"Maybe I kissed Jeane because it made her shut the hell up. Or it might have been the easiest way to show her that I wasn’t who she thought I was, that there might actually be some hidden depths to me after all. But I have a really horrible feeling that I kissed her because I wanted to."


These extra baggages are just distracting and makes reading difficult. It also effectively negate the impact of the events, scene, dialogue, description etc. because these extras overtax our attention leaving little of it to use for the important stuff

The book also uses lots of faddish items, lingo, expressions and the like. Not only does it makes understanding such a difficult task, it also mark it as a fad, something that won't last. It would even become undecipherable as this faddish prose might become extinct, and the subtle cultural tones would get lost in future readers.

And even with such length and loaded language the book is written in, the characters are stereotypical almost trite. Jeane is my most hated character. She is vain and self-centred. She might do good things and what not but it is because of her vanity. She wants to appear to be so, because it fits her "adorkable" image, not some altruistic notion. She also is an outsider but then again its because of her vanity. She almost care for nothing but her "dorky" lifestyle. What other think, care or feel she hardly take into account. She often times say things that is sure to hurt people. She also always thin of bad things about people around her. She is the most disagreeable character.

Michael, is a puppet. What he feels and do are dictated by the author. He suddenly liked Jeane even if she is being disagreeable with him. He suddenly like to tweet...her... even if he despised tweeting. He suddenly kissed her when the situation isn't at all inductive to such actions. There are just lots of "suddenly" just for it to be natural. What he do, what he feels, what he thinks the author forced. The author is his puppeteer.

Then the other characters are mainly just props. They are shallow and simple and often times lack any personality. They come and go barely registering into your mind. They are also very easily swayed by the main characters. Jeane especially seems to easily make friends of them or forgiven. They are also puppets.

And the plot, so very simple: boy meets girl, they fall in love, they suddenly fight, then they get back together again. The amazing length the book has gotten into is primarily from lot of unimportant stuff that is crammed into it. The book could easily been trimmed to a quarter of its length.

Then the book ends in a very generic ending. Simple, safe, nothing special. So bland.

And there it is, a very insignificant book that is strenuous to read. It leave me with heavy of disappointment.

[Grendaycita Segovia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lindo y curioso. Una prota exentrica y un chico popular que no aceptan sus emosiones aun cuando dependen del uno y del otro emosionalmente.

Entretiene lo suficiente.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like most people would read this book and think it was the worst, cringiest thing they'd ever read and whilst I very much think that is valid I read this a few months ago when I was moving house/starting a new job/in a flaming pit of anxiety and I LIKED IT A LOT AND I'M NOT ASHAMED. IT WAS GOOD.

[Nemo (The ☾Moonlight☾ Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

See this review and more on The Moonlight Library!

Jeane Smith has half a million followers on Twitter, runs her own lifestyle brand based on being dorky, but lives on her own and has no real-life friends. Michael Lee is handsome, athletic, has good grades, and doesn’t see the point in being internet famous when you’re real-life popular. Two people at the opposite ends of the high school social spectrum are thrown together when their respective boyfriend/girlfriend stumble into a relationship. They hate each other and fight all the time, but can’t stop making out or developing their own rollercoaster relationship.

This book is about pop culture. It’s about slang (totes, whatevs) and memes (dogs on surfboards) and fashion (bright orange tights and iron-grey hair) and finding an actual individual voice among all the special snowflakes who rebel just do be different. Manning’s prose is clean (as in not many errors, not no sex) and her plot, although completely predictable, was enjoyable. The relationship developed really well – the only thing I didn’t like was the sudden flip from enemies to making out. Everything else I loved, including a rare sex scene in YA fiction – and realistic at that! And a girl who knows what she wants, and isn’t just some wilting flower waiting for the man to take charge. It was amazeballs.

Manning’s writing is very good –but what really made this book for me was the AMAZING delivery from the two narrators: Penelope Rawlins as Jeane’s voice and Daniel Coonan as Michael. Oh, they were swoon-worthy. Penelope had Jeane spot on with her very monotone, condescending dialogue and her impressions of other characters (and accents!). Her portrayal of Jeane’s inner monologue was flawless – very snarky and stuck-up but also individualistic with a certain amount of vulnerability behind all her parading LOOK AT ME I’M SO DIFFERENT A SPECIAL. And Coonan as Michael was just incredible. I’m not sure whether I would have liked Michael as much if I’d just read the novel, because Coonan injected Michael with so much warmth, humour and honesty. Michael thinks Jeane is an ugly bitch, and says so several times. But he was just so likeable. And they are both so damned flawed that they’re totes realistic. They embarrass each other! Their relationship dramas come from internal conflict and poor communication, which is of course very realistic.

I hated Jeane and found Michael much more sympathetic, but I still enjoyed reading her story. She was an entitled bitch who thought she knew better than everyone and even convinced her parents to get a divorce! Because Jeane is SO special that she’s cleverer than everyone else, too, and knows what is best for everyone! And oh, but no one at school likes her because she’s a freak, but everyone secretly loves her dorky lifestyle choice and admires her bravery. Blah! Oh but poor Jeane, because she’s an emaciated teen and has no real life friends. But then there’s Michael! But they have to keep the relationship a secret. But Jeane’s a freak because she doesn’t fit in! But then everyone convinces Jeane she’s amazing just because she doesn’t fit in! And everyone thinks she’s so brave for being so different… just blah. I don’t like Jeane. Despite being short and stocky with wobbly bits and a healthy attitude to sex, she needed a very hard punch in the face. She’s way manipulative and thinks everything is about her: her parents’ divorce, her sister’s pregnancy, even all of Michael’s stuff. It’s all about Jeane, because she’s such an individual and so special! But despite my dislike of Jeane, I found both her and Michael to be incredibly three-dimensional, well rounded and realistic characters. The kind you don’t find often in YA.

Overall I enjoyed the book, especially listening to it. I can’t wait to listen to it again, actually. My intense dislike for Jeane doesn’t detract from my enjoyment at all. And Michael? Well, he’s officially a Book Boyfriend. And I don’t hand that title out to just anyone…

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read a book on my Kindle, I tend to highlight bits that I love as well a bits that I don't love quite so much, like a lot of other readers do, I should imagine. Of course, most of the time I don't refer to them ever again because I one of those new-old Kindles - the ones with no keypad, but no touchscreen either, so the idea of trying to make notes about said highlights is not an inviting one, not unless I want to get cramp in my thumb from repeatedly hitting the arrow button. And without notes, I have to remember exactly why I highlighted them in the place. It's a long and not particularly interesting brain undertaking and one that I won't bore you with for much longer.

In short, I highlight stuff if I have strong feeling about the stuff.

But this didn't happen with Adorkable. But not because I didn't have strong feelings about it and its stuff. Because it just wouldn't let me stop to highlight the stuff. It had me within its grasp for an entire Sunday. And this NEVER happens to me any more. I normally read in fifteen minute bursts in the morning or evening and have come to accept that this is my reading lot from now on. It might have helped a bit that this particular Sunday was Mother's Day, so I'd decided I wasn't going to do anything at all apart from pick up my phone to order takeaway. On that day, my Kindle remained firmly wedged between my palms, no highlighting, no stopping to think about how much I loved/loathed a certain quote, just pure, relentless, reading pleasure.

I think this book should be used as an example of how to write a great love interest. I've enjoyed Sarra Manning's books in the past but never before have I completely fallen for one of her leading men quite like this mahoosive boy crush. He's not the sort of guy I would have touched with a barge pole when I was a young pup but I suppose that's the point - not complete arsehole but not 'perfect' by means either. Which, of course means he is PERFECT. Michael Lee, I adore you. The best thing about reading YA as an adult is when you come across something or someone that makes you desperate to relive it all again SO BADLY. And it wasn't even all that great the first time around.

And Jeane - I should have hated her. I should have thought she was a precocious and arrogant. I mean, I'm not supposed to get on board with a person considerably younger than me who earns a heck of a lot more money. But everything about her just worked. When you've got a character that manages to balance her extremes with a convincing vulnerability then you've won me over. I loved that her looks weren't 'perfect' but that she really didn't give two hoots about it. And I loved the sexy times - two confident teenagers with a bit of experience who didn't think they knew it all and still considered sex to be a big deal. Which is completely is.

I was a bit worried at one point that Jeane's rather unique situation was going to be glamorized - what seventeen year old wouldn't want to live home alone, have a massive internet following and be invited to conferences in New York? But we are also reminded that Jeane was still a teenager and that this lifestyle is bound to have consequences...And I did worry about the state of her teeth somewhat. All that Haribo consumption has to have consequences too.

A big thank you to Jo and Maggie for their utterly persuasive reviews of this book.

Now just trying to control the urge to type MICHAEL LEE MICHAEL LEE MICHAEL LEE MICHAEL LEE repeatedly.

And failing miserably.

[Lottie Eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

“We have nothing to declare but our dorkiness.”

Adorkable is a contemporary novel that I found to be undeniably charming. The book is fun, adorable, and has a really good message. Adorkable also had an uncanny ability to make me laugh, which is always a good thing ;) This might not be a contemporary filled with emotion and impact, but it was fun.

I admit that the plot is a little ridiculous and the circumstances in the book can be even more ridiculous. I myself probably wouldn’t have liked this book as much as I had if it wasn’t for one thing: Sarra Manning’s great characters.

First is Jeane Smith, who is now one of my favorite characters. Jeane Smith is the blogger (see? She’s awesome already) behind the famous Adorkable, has half a million followers on Twitter, is the queen of jumble sales, and isn’t at all afraid of being her. She can be really terrible, but even then she is sort of fantastic.

“Never shield your oddness, but wear your oddness like a shield.”

Jeane is one of those people who, upon hearing that you don’t approve of them, will say, “So? I think I’m freaking amazing” and then walk calmly away as if you didn’t exist. I find that absolutely refreshing since there definitely aren’t many characters out there that are like that.

Michael Lee wasn’t as amazing as Jeane, but he was definitely good. I was actually surprised by how believable and honest he was written. Even though he is a genuinely good person, Michael Lee’s thoughts can be pretty unpleasant at times, especially when Jeane is being a little intolerable. But I’ve always valued honest and imperfect more than unbelievable and perfect, so me and Michael Lee got along just fine.

The chemistry and relationship between Jeane and Michael Lee: Perfectly written. Jeane and Michael Lee’s relationship is an undeniably messy one. The way it progresses is not the norm. But that messy relationship was perfectly written, and to be honest, even when Jeane and Michael Lee were verbally battling out, I wished that I was a character in the book so I could ‘accidentally’ push the two together.

Manning’s writing is great, with dialogue and narrative that really made me smile and laugh, making Adorkable a breeze to read. She seemed to know exactly what she wanted to write and understood how she was going to do it.

Adorkable is a very good contemporary and is one of the more refreshing stories out of the genre. I would recommend this book to lovers of fun, adorable stories with great characters. Oh, and also people who want to take a step into the dorkside. Because the dorkside really needs some members.