The Private Blog of Joe Cowley: Straight Outta Nerdsville

by Ben Davis, Mike Lowery (Illustrator)

Too old for wimpy kid? Meet Joe Cowley! Blog! You have NO IDEA how happy I am right now. I'm smiling so much, I look like The Joker in a wind tunnel. GET A LOAD OF - Harry, Ad, Greeny, and me are living in our own flat, right in the heart of the city. I know, amazing! We're city-slicking, hard-hustling, good-timing, not-even-missing-our-mummies-one-little-bit city boys. - The Sound Experience are about to sign a major recording contract and as their manager Iintend to shake the music industry to its core with my unconventional approach. - AND I'm dating a cool older girl, who is totally into my sophisticated city-boy charm. Big things are happening! The Tammerstone Massive are keeping it real and living it large. Fame, fortune, and fast cars await . . .it definitely won't end in failure, fiasco, or fighting . . . The fourth book about the unstoppable, unfathomable, and unbelievable Joe Cowley, in a series being hailed as Diary of a Wimpy Kid meets The Inbetweeners. Perfect for anyone who lov

320 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 6, 2017

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[16NaisbittJ]

This was a great read about the life of 4 boys and their attempt to get into the music industry and be know.

[Josh Dingle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Revisiting the last book of the series was an interesting experience. Whilst I like it more than the first time around, I still consider it to be the worst of the series. I commend Ben Davis for trying something new, but as some people have put it, the comedy doesn't work as well due to Joe doing things that a younger teenager can't really relate to, like smoking, sneaking into parties etc. I also thought the treatment with Mila, Joe's girlfriend from the previous book, wasn't great as unlike Lisa, she was a charismatic character. Whilst the ending, with Joe and Natalie going off together is sweet, I don't think Natalie should have been Joe's gf again, especially after the third book with her sending him off. I also thought that the time jump between books 3 and 4 was a missed opportunity to show Joe settling in to his new lifestyle. If I was able to give it 2 and a half stars, I would as while there are some good stuff in here like the comedy, it was a book I was pushing myself to get through for completion. I can see why the series stopped here as it does feel like the characters have reached a point where another book would feel redundant.

That's my marathon of Joe Cowley completed. Whilst I prefer the first half of the series over the second half, I did enjoy my time with it mostly. I like to view these as a window into my teen years and while it hasn't aged great, I will keep onto the books for a long time. Whilst I wouldn't want another book, having a short epilogue set years later with Joe would be cool, although since its been nearly ten years, I don't know if that will happen. to end with, thank you Ben Davis for this series and the people who were involved.

[alison mcguire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book

In this book, we get to see how try (and fail) in the music business. Comedy, heartache, betrayal. What more could you want?

[Rachael Eyre · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had quite a few laugh out loud moments, but I think Davis has gone as far as he can with the idea. Though I buy that Joe and co are still fairly immature, there's a mismatch between the intended target audience and the life they would lead as adults. Plus it goes back to square one at the end, leading a reader to wonder whether it served any purpose. We didn't need a 200+ page book to prove the boys weren't cut out for the music industry.