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3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
funny
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Unlikeable, unrelatable, unhinged upper class nonsense, giving consensual choking a bad name.
Particularly hated:
- Dreadful male characters which Ellie seems to excuse.
- The creepy, out of touch teacher/student dynamic. The sex scenes were icky and made me cringe.
- The incest sub plot which isn’t actually really acknowledged as incestuous or really weird, and adds nothing to the main plot.
- The way she tells the stalker she’s gay and defends him instead of telling him to f off.
- Extremely unlikeable, one-dimensional characters. Ellie was so whiney (boo hoo your dad gave you a deposit for your flat).
- How much of a judgemental pick-me Ellie is.
- Dated references to Africa and “ethnic” design.
- Dated references to food and weight.
- The plot was predictable right from the start.
- Poor writing and terrible editing (phoning for an Uber and Deliveroo should have been picked up on).
- The writing felt like a bad YA novel.
If you’re considering reading it, THINK AGAIN.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Incest, Stalking
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
lighthearted
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I never read the series but it was so nostalgic to read a Jacqueline Wilson book again - I loved her books growing up. I found Ellie to be endearing, the story cute and a comfort to read.
I would have dnfed this if it weren’t JW! Whyyyy has Ellie not grown up or matured in any way since the Girls books! I found all the weight stuff so jarring and really awful to read. The only thing that saved this was the queer storyline , that felt really realistic and fitted the character and the plot really nicely!
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A nostalgic book that revisited the characters from my teenage years. The essence of the characters 25 years later continued in this book but unfortunately the plot was reminisent of a young adult book due to its predictability despite being positioned in the adult fiction genre. Unfortunately, the 3 plot inconsistency from the original Girls series caused the most dissapointment:
- Nellie the elephant was binned in the first book by Ellie but now features heavily in this book.
- Ellie, Magda & Nadine knew the name of Mr Windsor when they were picked up in the taxi by Mr W and his girlfriend in 'Girls out Late'
- In 'Think Again' it mentions that Mr Windsor replaces an older art teacher at the school however he was hired as maternity cover for Ellies favourite art teacher at the time.
Although, I loved revisiting the characters in this book and enjoyed re-reading the series prior, I hoped for a stronger plot which featured more of the three friends together.
- Nellie the elephant was binned in the first book by Ellie but now features heavily in this book.
- Ellie, Magda & Nadine knew the name of Mr Windsor when they were picked up in the taxi by Mr W and his girlfriend in 'Girls out Late'
- In 'Think Again' it mentions that Mr Windsor replaces an older art teacher at the school however he was hired as maternity cover for Ellies favourite art teacher at the time.
Although, I loved revisiting the characters in this book and enjoyed re-reading the series prior, I hoped for a stronger plot which featured more of the three friends together.
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
DNF 43%. Didn't care enough about any of the characters to find out what happens to them and it reads really juvenile. None of the dialogue feels believable.
Several glaring issues that could have been avoided with minimal research including going swimming with a week-old tattoo and phoning an uber/deliveroo.
Several glaring issues that could have been avoided with minimal research including going swimming with a week-old tattoo and phoning an uber/deliveroo.
I so wanted to love this but really I feel like it was fine. I found Ellie to be a bit frustrating, as well as all her comments about her weight and looks - while some of it’s probably relatable I found it so sad that a 40year old woman is still so hung up on how she’s perceived and her looks. Her relationship with Gary was also very weird, I just found the whole ex-teacher thing to be strange, especially a lot of how it was phrased.
I did enjoy her relationship with Alice, which was really sweet and I found this way more inspiring that a woman, or anyone really, can accept their sexuality isn’t as black and white as they originally thought.
Overall not terrible but not something I thought was amazing.
I did enjoy her relationship with Alice, which was really sweet and I found this way more inspiring that a woman, or anyone really, can accept their sexuality isn’t as black and white as they originally thought.
Overall not terrible but not something I thought was amazing.