The Year My Life Went Down the Loo -- Katie Maxwell

This book was hugely popular for a while -- I'd been looking forward to reading it for over a year.  I even ordered a used copy from Alibris at one point, but it never arrived.  Literally, the only time Alibris has ever failed me -- and I use it a lot.  I decided that Someone was trying to tell me Something, so I didn't seek it out again.  But then a copy was donated to my library for our booksale, so I promptly bought it.

After all that...  By the time I hit about page 30, I had to force myself to continue.  I hated the main character.  Hated her.  She was complete pill and as much as I love slang, NOBODY talks like that.  Nobody.  The Louise Rennison books are slangtastic, but not unrealistically.  She was throwing in words like 'coolio' practically every two words.  It was just too much for me. 

If the book had been in diary format it might have worked better for me -- the email format just made Emily seem even MORE self-absorbed and obnoxious.   (I know that some people find Rennison's Georgia Nicholson self-absorbed and obnoxious -- but she looks like Sara Crewe next to Emily Williams.)

I managed to get over the hump and actually finish the book.  By the end, I was enjoying it much more even though I still wasn't a huge fan.  But.  It's a good pick for the girls that are super into The Princess Diaries, the Angus books, etc.  (It's on the older end, though -- at one point, Emily yells something along the lines of: "I don't WANT to touch your thingie!!" at a boy.  She also gets drunk and throws up on a (different) boy.  Of course, I found both incidents completely amusing, but there are plenty of moms out there that wouldn't, so watch out with the younger girls.)