Review: Confessions of an Angry Girl by Louise Rozett

Title: Confessions of an Angry Girl
Author: Louise Rozett
Published: August 28th 2012
Source: Purchased
Genre: Young Adult
Buy: Amazon ~*~ Barnes & Noble
Add to your Goodreads shelf
Caution: May contain spoilers

Freshman Rose Zarelli has rage issues.

First of all, her father lost his job, took work as a contractor in Iraq...and never came home.

Second, she likes the wrong guy and his super-intense, scary cheerleader girlfriend is now her nemesis.

Third, her fashionista best friend, Tracy, is suddenly infinitely cooler than she is—and talking about losing her virginity. (What?!)

Rose is ahead when it comes to studying for the PSAT, but she’s so far behind socially that she might as well be moving backward. She needs Tracy’s help choosing the right clothes, she likes all the wrong extracurricular activities, and she can’t even make a decision about which photo of her father to put on the memorial website she’s making (and hiding from her adolescent-shrink mother).

With her brother away at college and her mother always locked in her office with her messed-up teen patients, Rose struggles to get through each day without inflicting bodily harm on anyone.

~synopsis from Goodreads

My Thoughts:

It’s funny. I claim to loathe drama, yet I am drawn to reading and watching it. When I read the synopsis on the back of this book (not the Goodreads above), I knew I would be drawn into the drama. There was something underneath the surface that was amusing in a way, because people in high school have mixed priorities. But there was a lot, A LOT, more to this book.

Rose may be angry, but it’s relatively justifiable, to a degree. Of course, her reactions are a little over the top. She is fourteen, so I factored that into the equation. And although she had those moments of saying the wrong things, mean things, I still liked her. Why? She was coping with the sudden death of her father, which has been rough on the whole family. And despite the way she sometimes treated them, she was still a good person.

This comes out when she makes a choice that causes many of her classmates to hate her. She did the right thing, but they don’t see it that way. Rose begins getting bullied, and in some pretty harsh ways. Her best friend Tracy is caught in the middle of it all, trying to get on the good side of the cheerleaders. The meanest of mean girls, Regina (yes, giggles ensue due to the fact that the first thing I thought of here was Mean Girls), is behind the misery brought upon Rose. Then there is Jamie, Regina’s boyfriend. He’s suddenly there for Rose, reaching out to her as a friend. And when they kiss, everything is changing. What does it mean?

Confessions Of An Angry Girl was a deep story of youth mired in various losses and mixed emotions. Rose’s story was portrayed in a very true to life way. I could understand her. And those kisses? Very well done. This is only the first book, and it sort of ends in a way that makes you desire answers. Louise Rozett really pulled off a great debut. I can’t wait to see Rose continue to grow in the next book.

My Rating: