June 2010

Author/s: Joanna Nadin
Publisher: Oxford University Press UK
Reviewed by: Mikayla Mateus Age: 14
ISBN 13: 9780192755261

Rachel Riley is your typical bored teenage girl. She has thoughts of how her life should be, or how she wants it to be? She finds her life tragically normal and that nothing ever happens that is worth happening. She goes to a normal school, has a normal crush for a girl of her age. What next? She has decided to change her ways in order to become more interesting. Her ways include clothing extravaganza, Hotty push over, Growing up the way she expects to make herself less normal. But does she realise her life isn’t all that bad? What will she be doing next?

I really enjoyed the book. It gives you a realistic outlook of teenage life. Compared to many books I have read this one is one of the best. I have tried reading books like this one (books written like a diary), but I haven’t managed to get past the first few chapters, sometimes even pages. When I saw this book in the list, I thought that maybe it would be different. I was right; this book was unique and exclusive. You start reading the book and the next thing you know, hours have gone past and you haven’t even noticed nor stopped reading. I will definitely read her books from now on, but I won’t give up my other likes. I usually read adventure and magic books; this book makes me think now.

This book is suitable for my age group, but I do recommend that you put a bigger/ bolder notice on the book to say that it is not suitable for younger readers. It has a great variety of different aspects that many younger readers (-12) will not be able to come up to scratch with what Rachel is saying, and doing.

Hope other girls will enjoy this book as much as I have!
To everybody else, happy reading!!

Link to online catalogue
My so-called life