As in I am traveling back to both the time of my early teendom and the book series that I loved at that age; Louise Rennison’s Confessions of Georgia Nicholson series. You’ll find my first block of re-reads back here, if you are so inclined.
A fun thing happened while digging back into the misadventures of Georgia and her mates: I was struck by the sudden discovery that I had not, in fact, actually read the entire series! I realized that I was in unfamiliar waters about 30 pages into Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers. How did this happen? How had I finished the rest of the series without realizing that I had skipped an installment? An installment featuring a trip to America at that!
Not only did I skip this whole book, but within the book the overall personality of one of my all-time favorite teen lit characters (Dave the Laugh, that old chestnut) changed into something truly icky and reminiscent of an early-aughts Pick Up Artist. I suppose I’ll have to jump back into the next book to see if that really is his personality for the remainder of the series. I don’t recall him being super creepy, but I was also a teenager with terrible TERRIBLE taste in romantic partners.
The problems of the previous books in the series are still present; luckily there was A LOT less gay panic in Boy Entrancers. Unfortunately the gay panic was replaced with more casual suicide statements. Yeesh. The outrageously jealous girl-on-girl hate is still in full swing as well, with Georgia once again battling with Lindsey for the attention of the same boy.
Georgia’s parents have always been a comedic highlight, but now I am approaching them from a place of empathy. In every silly argument Gee picks with her parents, I find myself agreeing with Mutti and Vati! While they were written to be embarrassing, I also really like how both her parents are people- people with hopes, dreams, loves, wishes, and bizarre taste in both cars and clothing. Her mother has a teen and a toddler at home, but she does not hide the fact that she is an attractive woman with a lot desires. Her father drives a Robin Reliant and throws typical dad-tantrums over telephone use, but he’s a unique individual who makes a point to declare his love of her mother to the world- no matter how embarrassing he may be. Long live the silly but sensible parents!
