Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

This is the first book in the Georgia Nicholson series. I’ve had the book for about ten years now and have reread it multiple times. It is a favourite of mine. I am now embarking on a reread of the whole series as a buddy read with Charmaine Elaine over at From the Shadows I Review.

Author: Louise Rennison is a British author. She uses a lot a fabulous British slang in her books. Apparently her research consisted of hanging out with teenage girls so she could represent their language correctly. Cool research!

Presentation: The book is presented as a diary. It is broken down into months – this book in particular spans over just under a year – and the months are broken down into days and times. Sometimes there will be entries that are set only minutes apart. My copy was 201 pages long, but it is an old version and I believe the new editions are longer.

Story: Georgia’s summer is coming to an end. She’s preparing to go back to Stalag 14 (school) and she and her friends are determined to make the most of the year. As she is 14 and on the brink of womanhood (she wears a bra!), she’s also fishing for a boy. The world of boys is confusing, though. There are whelks, big gobs and sex gods abound. It doesn’t help that her nose is too big and whenever she smiles it spreads all over her face. Georgia and her friends, the Ace Gang, go through many short, but hilarious, adventures. They all have a natural talent for making fools of themselves, which leads to many laughs.

Thoughts and impressions: It took me a little while to get back into the book this time around. I first read it when I was 13, and that was the perfect age for it. Georgia is 14 so I could relate to all her thoughts and actions, which is a bit harder now that I’m 23. I didn’t laugh quite so much as I did when I was younger, but I still found myself gigglesnorting a dime a dozen. There was even the odd occasion when I had to stop reading to wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes!

That’s not really that much else that I can say about it. I love Georgia, even though she’s pretty narcissistic, occasionally treats her friends (especially bestie Jas) like dirt, and has a hard time seeing past the end of her nose. My favourite character is definitely Angus, the half Scottish wildcat cat. He’s always there to traumatise the neighbours and their poodles.

A film version of this and the second book does exist, but I didn't really like it. Lots of things were wrong (the actor who played Robbie, Dave the Laugh's lack of screen time, the cat that plays Angus looks like an expensive indoor breed and not a Scottish wildcat, as well as various changes to the storyline, not to mention the title.) I recommend the book(s) over the film.

Style: Extremely colloquial, but considering the format this is to be expected. I love the random foreign words that get inserted from time to time.

Final verdict: I love the humour in this book! Very British! It is certainly aimed at a female teenage market. My book even claims it to be rated ‘T for Teens’. I certainly recommend the whole series for young girls! 4 stars