Messy

You may remember, a few weeks ago I reviewed Spoiled by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan on the blog. I used the term "review" fairly loosely, because it was all quite rambling and I'm fairly sure none of my English teachers or lecturers would have accepted it. I guess that's one of the (many) good things about not being at school or university anymore, right? ANYWAY. I enjoyed Spoiled so I was pretty eager to get stuck into Messy when it arrived in my letterbox. 

Being the sort of person I am, I took off the dust jacket to put it in a safe place when I started reading the book, and I was pretty thrilled to find the hot pink book underneath. I absolutely love it when people make decisions like that and take care with the entire presentation of their product - the little things really do make difference. And really, let's be honest, we're not reading Proust here so the hot pink is quite appropriate.

Spoiled followed the story of Molly and her new life with her movie star father Brick Berlin and her half-sister Brooke. Messy, which is described not as a sequel, but as a "companion novel", focusses on Brooke and her attempts to break into Hollywood by becoming a successful "blogographer." (And yes, I will be using that term to describe myself and Georgia from now on). Rather than writing the blog herself Brooke employs Molly's friend Max to ghost write it for her, who with her green hair, non-designer clothing and a mother who happens to be the school principal is most definitely not part of Brooke's usual crowd. The book follows the same format the authors used in Spoiled with chapters alternating between between the point of view of Brooke and Max.

I'm fairly sure you can fill in the blanks from here. What makes these books entertaining and readable is not the originality of the themes and story lines, but the humour and tone with which they are written. I would place money on the authors having adolescent family members - either that, or they spent some serious time stalking teenagers at shopping centres and hanging around high schools. 

Another element of Messy that I particularly enjoyed, was the obvious knowledge that the authors have about how films and television shows are made. Both Cocks and Morgan have worked as TV producers and writers and the attention to detail here really shows - and it also makes you wonder how many of the characters are based on real people. When Brooke scores a movie role in a remake of Nancy Drew, everything escalates and the reader is treated to some of the funniest scenes in the book.

I'm not sure what my next book review will be for you guys - although there are plenty of unread books next to my bed to choose from...we'll just have to wait and see!