My Mad Fat Teenage Diary: A Review

 "It's 1989 and Rae is a fat, boy-mad 17-year-old girl, living in Stamford, Lincolnshire with her mum and their deaf white cat in a council house with a mint off-green bath suite and a larder Rae can't keep away from. This is the hilarious and touching real-life diary she kept during that fateful year - with characters like her evil friend Bethany, Bethany's besotted boyfriend, and the boys from the grammar school up the road (who have code names like Haddock and Battered Sausage).
My Fat, Mad Teenage Diary evokes a vanished time when Charles and Di are still together, the Berlin wall is up, Kylie is expected to disappear from the charts at any moment and it's ?1 for a Snakebite and Black in the Vaults pub. My Fat, Mad Teenage Diary will appeal to anyone who's lived through the 1980s. But it will also strike a chord with anyone who's ever been a confused, lonely teenager who clashes with their mother, takes themselves VERY seriously and has no idea how hilarious they are."

I can't believe I am about to say this, but I have to be honest, I preferred the television series.  Don't worry I'm already hanging my head in shame.  

In case you didn't know, this  book was made into a series last year on E4 and was damn good.  I loved every minute of every episode and it ticked all boxes for me, funny, engaging and at times brought me almost to tears.  If you know me, you will know that this is almost near on impossible, but there was something about Rae's character and the circumstances building up to the finale that just struck a cord and made me sit there like a shameful blubbering wreck.

Anywho, I would like to write this review purely on the books own merit but unfortunately I can't help but let the t.v. series skew my perception some what.  That being said I will try to do my best.

This is one of those books that you can skip through pretty quickly, it's a good little easy read which sometimes is all you want.  The book is set out diary style with daily entries from the author Rae Earl, a teenager in the first year of her A levels following a brief stint at a mental hospital; oh and most importantly, she's overweight; I had to mention this because really, that's what this book is really about.

This book for me never really seemed to take off, just pottered on and never came to anything.  I at least, given that this was based on her true diaries, expected somewhat of a finale or any after word as a bit of a follow up of Rae's life given that you had read through her thoughts and feeling as a teenager, but no, the book just came to a disappointing end, and I was left wondering what ever happened to Rae.

I also wasn't exactly gripped by this book and didn't really feel the same attachment to Rae as I did in the series.  I sympathised with her situation to a certain degree but just couldn't quite get to grips with her character and at times just felt like I could have just told her to  to 'man up and sort herself out', which is really not how you should feel given her predicament.

I suppose, given that this was a diary, I can't really comment on the writing style or quality, because quite frankly I'd be massively underwhelmed, but as I said, I guess I can't comment. I can however say that I was definitely disappointed by this book given how much I loved the series and wouldn't really recommend this as a good read.

Still fancy a read? You can buy the book here. 

I give this book a measly

p.s. I edit all my pics with PicMonkey.
Ciao,