I (Erin) bought this one as a “blind date” from Malaprops. They wrap books in brown paper and write things like “hilarious” or “pee-your-pants funny” or whatever, and you buy it like that and then open it to see what you bought! It’s so fun! (If you already have it, you can exchange it right away, so it’s a much better deal than your usual blind date ha ha!)

Georgia is 14. She lives in Great Britain and has all kinds of misadventures like dressing up as an olive for a party and wrestling her own rather terrifying house cat. She’s very funny most of the time, but sometimes she’s kind of mean so I didn’t always sympathize with her.

This is the first book in the series–copyright 1999–so it’s a bit dated now. For example, the main character asks a million questions but never Googles anything. Clearly not a modern teenager. (Clearly not a modern anything.)

Still, it’s a light, quick read, structured like a diary which adds to the humor–at 6:00 she might say she’s never speaking to someone again, and then at 6:02 she calls them. I just wish Georgia’s sense of humor was a bit less mean–and I wish her view of the world was a bit more inclusive–but that’s realistic I suppose.

I wished that about most 14-year-olds even when I was 14 myself.