Megan McCafferty (or V. doesn't steer me wrong)

So I spent the weekend inhaling the two Megan McCafferty books about Jessica Darling - Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings.  I haven't done that in awhile.

Some time ago I bought Sloppy Firsts for my YA collection.  I started reading it, put it down, and immediately pegged it for our adult collection.  It's a book about a high school sophomore's experiences, but it's got mongo adult content.  Jessica Darling and her friends are far FAR more obsessed with sex and just plain more sexually experienced than I ever dreamed of being in high school.  Jessica's friend Manda is known as "the Headmaster" for reasons having nothing to do with academia.  During the course of the two books there is much drug use, alcohol abuse, and most of the characters lose their virginity (those that hadn't already).  The language here is blunt, and there's a fair amount of swearing.  It's just not appropriate for my 12-14 year old YA's.

So, anyway, like I said, I put this one down.  Until V. called me up the other day and starting talking all about these books and one Marcus Flutie.  I decided to give McCafferty one more chance and - wow!

As I said, these books are not for the very young.  However, as a 33-year-old woman, I ate them up.  Jessica Darling is funny.  She has a unique voice, even in a genre that has plenty of diary fiction and teen angst.  Jessica is a very sharp, cynical observer, and, in the first book, more than mildly depressed.  Her best friend Hope has moved to Tennessee, leaving her with the "Clueless Crew," a social group she has no respect for.  Her mother and sister are socially perfect and don't understand why she doesn't like that nice Scotty who is going to be Mr. Big Man on Campus in a couple of years and is already in the athletic elite.

Jessica feels alone, alone, alone.  Then she meets Marcus Flutie who shakes her up a bit.  Marcus is a "dreg" known around Pineville High as "Krispy Kreme" (because he's always fried and it's rumored he's had 3 dozen donuts [meaning girls]).  He's the druggie best friend of Hope's brother Heath who unfortunately died of a drug overdose and precipitated Hope's rapid exodus.  Jessica loathes him on principle.  But he does have that certain something.  A mysterious personality articulated in the vernacular know as Smart-Ass-ian.  Marcus sees through her.  He knows she hates her friends.  He knows she could do better.  He challenges her in odd ways, and over time he becomes her friend.

There's a lot going on in this book, and it's not a romance.  IMO, there's not nearly enough of the fascinating Marcus (but enough to get me salivating).  McCafferty has some surprises in store for the reader, and not all the characters are what Jessica thinks they are.

I finished the first book, and absolutely HAD to know what happened next, so I called up Schuler Books and had them pull a copy for me, then ran to the store to buy it.  The weekend is kind of a Jessica blur in my mind.  The in-laws were over, but all I really did was read these two books.  I was up way too late Friday and Saturday trying to get to the end.

And what an end it was.  The romantic gesture to end all gestures.  You.  Yes.  You.

Oh, baby. 

Two thumbs up from Rachel.  Only I NEED more Marcus Flutie!  Tutti Flutie, you can play with my mind any ole time you want.

tags: young adult lit  books  favorite books  marcus flutie  jessica darling  megan mccafferty