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Worst. Holiday. Ever.

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Stan is going on holiday to Italy with his (fifth) best friend Felix and a load of strangers.

Stan is absolutely terrified.

Luckily, his mum's given him an emergency list that includes how to survive a shark attack, and what to do if he gets kidnapped.

Stan thinks that a better list would include how to cope with odd food, and what to do if he accidentally calls Felix's mum 'mum' in front of everybody.

And it soon turns out Italy is full of dangers and things that can go wrong.

One thing's for certain, Stan's not going to come back the same boy he left. He just hope he comes back at all...

Worst. Holiday. Ever is a story about facing fears, dealing with worries, and how it's OK to be anxious, scared, and sometimes a little bit brave.

346 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 29, 2021

38 people are currently reading
130 people want to read

About the author

Charlie Higson

84 books1,508 followers
Higson was educated at Sevenoaks School and at the University of East Anglia (where his brother has taught since 1986 and is now a professor of film studies) where he met Paul Whitehouse, David Cummings and Terry Edwards. Higson, Cummings and Edwards formed the band The Higsons of which Higson was the lead singer from 1980 to 1986. They released two singles on the Specials' 2-Tone label. Higson then became a plasterer before he turned to writing for Harry Enfield with Paul Whitehouse and performing comedy. He came to public attention as one of the main writers and performers of the BBC Two sketch show The Fast Show (1994-2000). He worked with Whitehouse on the radio comedy Down the Line and is to work with him again on a television project, designed to be a spoof of celebrity travel programmes.[1:]

He worked as producer, writer, director and occasional guest star on Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) from 2000 to 2001. Subsequent television work has included writing and starring in BBC Three's Fast Show spin-off sitcom Swiss Toni. He is currently starring in Tittybangbang series 3 on BBC Three and has appeared as a panellist on QI.

He published four novels through the early to mid 1990s which take a slightly dystopian look at everyday life and have a considerably more adult tone than his other work, with characters on the margins of society finding themselves spiraling out of control, leading him to be described by Time Out as 'The missing link between Dick Emery and Brett Easton Ellis' [2:]

In 2004, it was announced that Higson would pen a series of James Bond novels, aimed at younger readers and concentrating on the character's school-days at Eton. Higson was himself educated at Sevenoaks School where he was a contemporary of Jonathan Evans, current Director General of MI5. The first novel, SilverFin, was released on 3 March 2005 in the UK and on 27 April 2005 in the U.S. A second novel, Blood Fever, was released on 5 January 2006 in the UK and 1 June in the U.S. The third novel, Double or Die, was published on 4 January 2007 having had its title announced the day before. The next, Hurricane Gold, came out in hardcover in the UK in September 2007.[3:]In this year he also made a debut performance on the panel show QI. His final Young Bond novel, By Royal Command, was released in hardcover in the UK on the 3 September 2008.[4:]

Charlie has signed a deal to pen a new series of children's books for Puffin. According to the author, "They are going to be action adventures, but with a horror angle

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5 stars
109 (44%)
4 stars
82 (33%)
3 stars
38 (15%)
2 stars
10 (4%)
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4 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
Profile Image for Laura.
1,520 reviews253 followers
September 22, 2021

Gah! CHARLIE HIGSON.

The man, the legend, the author of The Enemy Series! Higson is one of my favorite authors. I see his name and press BUY without even reading the blurb. :)

Twelve year old, Stan is a shy, sheltered kid with lists and lists of things he never wants to do. Like dancing, kissing, or anything to do with a parachute. No, no, and definitely no. But Stan’s quiet, safe ways and days are about to be shattered! He’s off on vacation with his 5th best friend, Felix, and a bunch of strangers (also known as Felix’s family) to Italy for two weeks. Anything can and will happen on holiday. New foods, spontaneous conversations, unplanned bathroom schedules, and more. Can Stan let loose and have fun? Or will it be his worst holiday ever?

I struggled with the holiday pace of this book. It’s a slow, appears-to-be-nothing-going-on style. Like life most days. If we actually stop and look around though, there’s a lot going on. From breakfast decisions to the way we sleep or don’t sleep. Life is all about the details and what we choose to do or not do. For Stan, vacation is an eye opening experience.

“Never say no to an adventure. Well, unless you don’t want to. In the end just do what you want and don’t think too much about it.”

Higson is a master at creating authentic, young voices. His characters feel so real to me. I still miss some of the kids from The Enemy. And he does it again here! Stan is heartbreakingly sweet and frustrating. Remember those first couple of sleepovers as a kid? The fear and newness of being away from your family in a strange house with different rules and habits? It’s all in here! That energy and awkwardness of being totally out of your element. Stan will make you smile, shake your head, and root for him to get out there and take some risks. Come see if Stan survives his vacation full of sun, sand, jellyfish, and laughs!

Profile Image for Aiza Idris (biblio_mom).
622 reviews211 followers
October 6, 2021
Have you ever had a list of what could go wrong before going on a holiday trip especially with your friends? I still remember mine. I have some mental lists and notes and one of them is stay away from the beach, natural catastrophes and kidnappers. I was 12! 🤣 reading the main character, Stan's list, humours me. It follows Stan, who went on to summer vacation with his not-so-friend named Felix, to his relatives country, Italy. So the whole story is about Stan overcoming his fear and anxiety while being so far away from his parents and trying to survive the days.

💭 The story started off in slow and steady pace. But I love Stan's character development. So, its a good middle grade book for the targetted age groups.

📝 This book was published a few days ago and you can get it in most retail bookstores (slide left). TQ Putri @times.reads for this copy ❤️ #charliehigson
Profile Image for Helen.
1,439 reviews38 followers
July 5, 2021
I was really looking forward to reading this.
It was ok until the swear words started appearing.
I lost interest after that,.
Profile Image for Emily.
1 review
November 6, 2021
It was really good, but I was quite surprised by a few swear words in it. I'm 8. I liked the fact that the main character Stan had an amazing holiday in the end. I've always wanted to go to Italy since I started reading the book.
Profile Image for tracy snook.
70 reviews
October 8, 2021
I read this with my daughter starting at the beginning of the year and just reading a few pages anight. It certainly isn't aimed at my daughters age of 10. I was mortified when certain words were used in it. And wasnt comftable reading about kissing and boys bits with her. Had she been secondary school age this would have been a different review. I guess I should have read the write up first before buying and setting as our night time read. In saying all that my daughter did enjoy the phone call conversations which we acted out as mother and child.
9,000 reviews130 followers
April 12, 2020
This was probably great for the target audience, but I couldn't get into this at all. I was expecting something that would be wonderful for anybody to read, adults and children alike, as the best of books are, but no. This is pitched young, and nothing else. To the target reader, then, this is a semi-relatable tale, told by a semi-relatable kid, who's nervous of absolutely everything and in absolutely every situation, semi-forced to go to Italy for a villa holiday with a 'friend' from school. To the adult this is a weakly-plotted splurge of observational stand-up ("aren't airport shops bad? Why can't I be an adult and allowed to swear?" etc ad infinitum), featuring the world's least likeable child.

So by the time we do finally see what the book is actually about – and it's not a child's-eye view of adults on holiday, or even how our hero finally gets to talk to girls and not come out of it with egg on his face – we've had too many chances to ditch this, and no foreshadowing that there is a different aspect to it all. It's about letting go and letting life pull you along, and how you have a choice in how firmly you doing any steering. And how adults (and boy the adults here need a slap just as much as the sad sack kid does) don't know it all. That could have come across marvellously – and I dare say if my balls were still dropping it might have done to my taste – but at this remove, it wasn't much fun at all. The kid's narration was so full of verbal diarrhoea, and lists to pretend it wasn't just a stand-up routine, I ended up skimming this in record time. One and a half stars from me, a potential four stars from my younger, alternative-universe self.
Profile Image for Dawn Woods.
155 reviews
April 5, 2020
I loved this book. Stan’s family are very conservative. Mum is protective, they are not well off, and as a consequence Stan’s life experience is very limited. This changes when he goes on holiday to Italy with his friend’s family.
Stan writes endless lists of things not to do, to be aware of, to stay away from, listing all the food he won’t touch, all the activities he wouldn’t consider, thinking this helps his anxiety. It certainly helps the reader to see the extent of his obsessions. However, much on these lists has to be crossed off when he finds himself in circumstances he never would have chosen, but finds it impossible to escape from. But ‘the fear of it was worse than the actual cold water’ and Stan discovers that without trying new experiences he can’t know if he will enjoy them or not.
He manages to overcome many fears and helps others in the process. He realises what adults know that – ‘Adults aren’t really any more sorted out than us kids’, although children never think this whilst young.
This book is about family life. There is no such thing as a perfect family. Each unit blunders through in their own way and Stan discovers this is normal. It’s a book about being brave and taking charge of your own life, and the humour mixed with the empathy is a perfect mix.
147 reviews
January 15, 2022
My Oxfordshire Book Awards Shortlist read, number two. I loved it. It was sweet and funny, and actually pretty profound. Twelve-year-old Stan is going on holiday to Italy with his fifth best friend Felix. He doesn’t want to go, he doesn’t know what made him say yes, and he frankly wishes he hadn’t. Stan is a committed introvert, and when he arrives in Italy he finds himself surrounded by Felix’s family and facing the terrifying challenges of wearing shorts, having to eat strange food, getting lost while on a bike ride, playing family games, and falling out with Felix. He misses him Mum and finds out his Dad is seriously ill in hospital. But gradually something changes. Stan realises that he can step outside his comfort zone and still have fun, he can survive challenges he once believed insurmountable – perhaps he can even find a girlfriend. His Mum doesn’t recognise him when he comes home. The book made me laugh out loud plenty of times, and is a touching portrayal of a young life on the cusp between childhood and all that is to come. I would recommend it to ages 10-13, and reluctant readers would find plenty to make them laugh.
Profile Image for Vincent.
294 reviews2 followers
January 14, 2024
3.75 stars
🌕🌕🌕🌖

I've never though a kid's book can be so deep.

"Because, let's face it, part of being a child is protecting your parents from the harsh realities of life." - Stan

The book started very promising and funny. I laughed out loud at some points while reading. The middle part was a bit too slow for me sometimes, and maybe too "kid-like" as well. However, the last part of the book was amazing. As an adult, I learned a lot from it too.

Some minor drawbacks I could think of are as follows. Stan seemed to have multiple personalities for me sometimes because he acted like his age in some parts but could become too old in some other parts. Because of this, I was not super convinced that Stan was a 12-year-old kid while I was reading. The dark humor can be unsuitable for a kid's book.

I like the book, but I'm not sure if I can recommend this book to the kids around me because of the dark humor. But if I set that aside, this book is definitely educational and worth reading.
Profile Image for Bea Turvey.
Author 4 books9 followers
April 28, 2020
Stan is going on holiday with Felix, who is not his best friend. Stan has never been away from home, away from his family, away from his routine.
The story, told in the first person, slowly reveals an anxious young boy who likes to makes lists, likes order and likes routine, primarily because he does not know how to cope outside of his comfort zone, which is a very small, restricted area. Slowly, we come to realise these restrictions have been partially imposed upon him and the holiday teaches him how to cope without his usual safety nets in place.
I initially thought this is unlike any of Charlie Higson's other books, but in a way it is exactly the same - we have a boy who has to cope with the unknown (unknown to him), who goes on an adventure, is without parental supervision and finds himself in frightening (to him) situations. All delivered with Charlie's dry wit and reluctant spirit.
Profile Image for Charley .
113 reviews7 followers
April 10, 2020
As the saying goes- “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”. This light-hearted, delightful read personifies that notion. We follow the narrative of Stan, a 12-year old young boy that despite himself, revels in being cautionary, reflective and hesitant in all his endeavours, no matter how big or small.

Against his better judgment, he agrees to a holiday with his friend, Felix and his family. Slowly but surely, as Stan is launched into situations in which he thought would provide the worst possible outcomes, he realises that he is braver and nobler than he had given himself credit for. A real uplifting read that makes you want to take ‘that’ risk.

Many thanks to Penguin and Net Galley for this ARC- it was very much enjoyed!
119 reviews1 follower
November 10, 2024
Although I am surely not the target audience for this, I found the story to be very entertaining.
Poor Stan is 12 years old and worries about everything. He finds that he has reluctantly agreed to go on holiday to Italy with his friend Felix and Felix's assorted relatives.
I found Stan very relatable, especially around what food he might be required to eat. Being a fussy eater is not something we do just to annoy other people, and I can remember the panic that you might be given something awful. Stan's narrative voice is very funny as he struggles to deal with unfamiliar situations. Surprisingly he seems to cope much better than some of the adults and learns that generally grown up are just as clueless as kids and really haven't got everything worked out.
Profile Image for Nic.
584 reviews23 followers
May 20, 2022
⭐️⭐️ 2 average stars from me and the 13 year old.

It just plodded along really, there were too many characters in it - if we’d have learned more about them that might have been better. One character had been mentioned very occasionally then became centre stage near the end - but we’d forgot who he even was!

It was repetitive in places or drawn out - two chapters about them playing a game of charades for example.

It was all very unrealistic as far as the adults went - seemingly not watching over the kids at all - or drunk - and one scene with an old farmer that had me deciding I’m never letting my sons go on holiday without me!

Disappointing.
Profile Image for Alex.
124 reviews2 followers
January 14, 2024
4.25⭐

This was a fun and fast-paced kids' book. Despite that, I can see that the author tends to write darker books, and I felt a bit of that reflected also in this one. The story was very engaging and entertaining though, structured in a great way but there were many characters so it was quite hard to keep track.

The main character grows a lot during the holiday trip. He learns how to be less shy and accept the small adventures in life, to appreciate his home and family more and to care less about what others think. He also realises the importance of childhood. All in all, great lessons for both kids and adults.
Profile Image for Beverly.
244 reviews2 followers
April 7, 2022
Stan is 12 years old. I am nearly 60 years older and I identify with him - worrywart, shy, conservative. His mother is a nightmare (adult worrywart) and I identify with her too. His father is all bluster (adult shy), and I identify with him.

I didn't get my holiday chance (worrywarts and shy adults in my life) but eventually I got over it and survived. So does Stan. I wish I could give him a hug, and I really hope he gets another holiday away.
Profile Image for Beata.
300 reviews2 followers
May 23, 2022
It was really fun, though the dads in this, not so much. Charlie Higson nailed the not quite abusive but not great father, who keeps telling his son to "man up". Those kinds of parents are like Umbridge, not the ultimate villain, but one that's very common.
I enjoyed the moral(?) of the story that while being adventurous and getting out of your comfort zone is a good thing, you should still keep it to reasonable level to you.
Profile Image for Manuel Messina.
103 reviews
August 3, 2024
A funny and engaging coming of age novel set in sunny Salento seen through the eyes of 12y.o. shy and anxious Brit guy. Charlie Higson, the author, has a witty and fast writing style that push readers onto the next chapter, and onto the next one and so on. I love all the charachters of the story with their bad habits, pros and cons and the depiction of Italy is both exhilariting and charming. A must read for youngsters and grown ups too! 5 out of 5!
Profile Image for Mrs Walsh.
852 reviews6 followers
May 25, 2021
This came recommended and with a free zoom interview with the author thought it was worth a go. I can honestly say this isn’t worth the time. I didn’t laugh once the whole way through. Then some of the references it makes are way above the age range it states it is appropriate for. Won’t be recommending!
1 review
October 24, 2021
It was really funny and it made me want to keep reading past my bedtime.
I particularly loved the part where he was chased by a killer bear and killer bees. To anyone who is considering reading the book, it starts off a bit rocky but it gets really good and i promise that you’ll like it!
Profile Image for Caroline Lewis.
537 reviews12 followers
April 29, 2023
Mildly humourous but not hilarious. There were a lot of regular activities being described. I was expecting more antics, hijinks and ridiculous situations. Love Higson's The Enemy series so maybe I need to stick to his darker books and go to Barry Jonsberg for my big laughs.
Profile Image for Lex Smi.
34 reviews
April 19, 2024
This book was very funny, and entertaining. I love when they play the games near the pool and when he walks in on Felix’s sister in the bathroom. He is going on holiday with a friend because their best friends were all busy. They have lots of fun and adventure. And he even finds a girlfriend!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Ellie (bookmadbarlow).
1,519 reviews91 followers
May 19, 2024
A story of friendship and being brave. Took this one on holiday with me and it was a fun and quick read. I didnt love it, unfortunately, but I liked the underlying message of the story. The main character came across as super ungrateful, which annoyed me.
Profile Image for Flora.
11 reviews
February 11, 2025
好吧开头其实还是很有趣的,我甚至能产生共鸣(因为感觉Stan也是i人,确实和陌生人去旅行就是很尴尬啊啊啊)
但是看到一半感觉节奏稍微有点平缓了,有点太絮絮叨叨讲一件事情,就跳着看了………
结果到底是为什么要突然有一个跳伞然后和Jess一起被水母蛰然后就开始熟悉起来,结果最后Jess主动说是他女朋友啊!这里如果是纯粹的友谊不是更好吗!!(包括开头Livia非不停问Stan是否有女朋友是否亲过嘴都有点让人观感不适了……)
尤其是最后Stan仅仅是和Jess交换了号码就分开了……
这里的安排真的让人无语……一看作者果然是男性……到底是为什么在轻松愉快的书里面都要给小男孩配一个“主动”的女生啊……
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Andrew Johnston.
622 reviews7 followers
April 22, 2020
Funny, sad and uplifting in places. Years 6-8 will love this book, I though it was decent, albeit something of a departure from Higsons usual work for young people.
Profile Image for Allie.
105 reviews
May 29, 2021
Great story with strong messages running through it. Funny too 🙂
Profile Image for Amanda Manson.
26 reviews
June 10, 2021
Great book

Easy to read book, funny and enjoyable. All about dreading a holiday then actually really liking it, growing up in the process.
Profile Image for Graine Milner.
335 reviews9 followers
September 25, 2021
Very funny - some great laugh-out-louds moments (loved the Ryanair line) but also has heart.
Profile Image for Cooper.
18 reviews
November 10, 2021
I liked this book because it made me laugh and used strong words to describe what happened.

P.S. I think everyone should read this book.😀
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews

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