Disclosure:Penguin Random House Books
gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review
are
my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my
reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.
Do you remember your awkward middle school years? You know perhaps you all of a sudden liked someone you had known since kindergarten or perhaps it was your first date and everyone was involved in planning it. Or maybe you had an encounter with that popular kid that puts everyone down or just said something stupid. I can only imagine how much worse it is now with social media and texting. Rachel Vail's Well That Was Awkward has all of those moments and more. It really hit a chord with me and brought me back to eighth grade with the characters. I wish I had read this book back then.
This story is told by Gracie. She is that awkward eighth grader who is not in the popular (or loud as she refers to it) group, but has friends and is friendly with the other groups. Her best friend is Sienna and then there is Emmett, the boy who lives four floors down from her and they are always together. Gracie one day finds her friend AJ (Emmett's best friend) cute and begins to have a crush on him. AJ is the athletic type and apparently very good looking. Then Riley the loudest and rudest of the loud group texts Gracie to have her find out who AJ likes because Riley has a crush on him. It ends up AJ likes Sienna. Now Gracie has to tell Riley and she is the meanest person when she doesn't get her way and deal with the fact that the guy she likes now likes her best friend. Oh, and Sienna needs Gracie's help communicating with AJ. So Gracie is texting AJ on Sienna's phone and the loud group gets in on the action and helps to set up Sienna and AJ for their first "date" and perhaps first kiss. Then there is Emmett who is actually doing the texting for AJ, but Gracie doesn't realize it and she doesn't notice how much Emmett really likes her.
Throughout this story are the typical struggles many go through in middle school. Those awkward moments when members of the opposite sex mean more than just friends or people to stay away from. It is a time when personal lives are not all that personal and even more confusing than any other time in life. This book has it all and I really wish I could have read it and known it was normal when I was in middle school. I think this is a great book for anyone in middle school, dealing with a middle schooler or just wants a fun read to remember those awkward but often amazing times.
