Absolutely loved it. Jessica Darling has earned herself a spot on my list of favourite heroines. She is smart and clever, witty and sarcastic, thinks too much about everything and anything (I can relate to that pretty well) and despite her pessimistic attitude and her quick judgement of others, I couldn’t help but like her. I feel like basically everything has been said about this series already, you either like it or you don’t. Despite having heard not so good things about the later instalments More...

If you haven’t heard of the Jessica Darling Series before then…well, you’ve been living under a rock, that’s what. If, however, you’re like me and have seen the gushing reviews for this all over the place and somehow never picked it up…well, don’t make the same mistake I did of waiting for months before reading this: pick it up now. Seriously, this series is just that good. It’s funny, it’s quirky, and it’s hilarious, but it is also deep, provocative, compelling, and is most certain to stri More...

I've had a hard time writing this review--starting it even--because it's always so difficult for me to put into words why I loved a book. For the entire last half of this book, I had a stupid, goofy, uncontrollable grin on my face. Seriously, I could not stop smiling. I put gifs in my initial review on Goodreads. I bounced around the house like an idiot and then when I calmed down enough I started the sequel even thought it was one in the morning and I probably should have just gone to bed. I tr More...

Well now, this was refreshing!

My namesake Jessica is a very likable protagonist, whom I could easily relate to. She’s witty, sarcastic, smart and I just love her snarky attitude. People tell me that most of the time it seems like I have "piss off" tattooed on my forehead, so when I learned that Jessica’s dad’s nickname for her was "Notso" as in Jessica Not-So-Darling I knew that we would be getting along just fine - because despite her last name, which is Darling, she is anything but sweet and d More...

Update 4/21/2010 After reading the sequel and thinking about Jessica for a while, I don't think I like her that much any more. A little too much negativity and snobbishness. So take this review with a grain of salt.

I have no idea why I haven't read this book before, because I certainly heard about it a lot*. The synopsis just didn't sound that special I suppose, because on the surface, "Sloppy Firsts" is just your regular run-of-the-mill YA story about a smart 16-year old girl (Jessica Darling), More...

oh lord, i really wanted to give this book 5 stars. something is holding me back, maybe because it feels weird to give a new YA lit book that much praise? considering i'm 27? 4 1/2 stars, 4 1/2 dammit! okay, i'm done.

i LOVED this book. LOVED IT. Jessica Darling was such an interesting, complex and yet normal teenage girl that i couldn't help completely relating to her. it's just really refreshing to read a book about a typical teenage girl who has regular problems like a best friend that moves More...

I liked it, but I have to say it was completely different from what I had expected - but not in a bad way, not at all. The titles of this series, combined with the heroine's name and the leg-stressed covers said light, funny and fluffy - but bold on the sex-side - teen-chick-lit. I had expected a cross between - let's say ... Sophie Kinsella, Louise Rennison and Meg Cabot. To be completely honest, apart from being open to surprises because of my Goodreads friends' loving reviews, I did not reall More...

Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty was a quick read and for the most part enjoyable but there are much better books out there in this genre. The story is unfolded through the diary entries of Jessica Darling, a sophomore in high school, whose best friend, Hope, has moved away in the middle of the school year. Despite being a great student, being involved in many extracurricular activities, having tons of friends, and being liked by one of the popular jocks, Jessica feels alone, depressed, and mis More...

This was a really funny, feel-good novel reminiscent of novels like Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging and other such hilariosity. I'd heard comparisons made between the two before but, I admit, I was reluctant to check it out, being sure that it would be unlikely to entertain me as much as Georgia Nicholson's journals. However, I'd say it's pretty fair to make positive comparisons between the two, it's just unfortunate that I keep reading how most people didn't enjoy the rest of the series More...

Jessica Darling is anything but darling–so much so that her father calls her Notso. Jessica Notso Darling. She hates her friends, except for Hope, who just moved from New Jersey to Tennessee. But she’s halfway through her sophomore year of high school without anyone to talk to except the Clueless Crew and maybe the new girl, Hy.

She hates her family–her sister and mother are completely wrapped up in Bethany’s upcoming wedding and expect Jessica to be as well. They don’t understand why she wouldn’ More...

This book is much more than i expected. What I expected was a chick lit, a cheesy story of a teenager and her ramblings about boys.
But this is a coming of age story.
Jess is a stressed teenager whose best friend has just moved away and whose parents try to make her be something she is not. She tries to mold herself into being what everybody expects from her in order to fit in until a junkie guy, Marcus Flutie, makes her realize her priorities in life.
I liked this book for various reasons: first, More...

I knew I would love this book when I saw that the narrator had a name so eerily similar to mine. Then as I read, I realized how much I had in common with Jessica Darling that it kinda creeped me out a little bit.

I loved this book. I loved Jessica's cynicism. I loved the sexual tension with Marcus and I am dying to read the next book to see what happens there. This book was witty and smart and I really, really loved it.

I thought about this book out of the blue today. This was the book I was reading seven years ago when I decided it was time to become a grownup and move out on my own for the very first time. Kinda funny considering that it's a teen-centered story, but maybe it evoked a certain nostalgia for my high school years. This one kept me laughing and reading late into the night, when I was so terrified of being alone in my very first apartment that I couldn't sleep. I didn't know that there are three se More...

First of all, the character of Jessica is what makes this book. Her observations, thoughts, sexual fantasies, philosophies are all identifiable and hilarious, and... deep.
I also felt the same way as Jessica did, a lot. She felt like an outcast, a freak, like no one understood her but her irreplaceable BFF Hope, the awesome, talented friend who moved to Tennessee. She felt like she, herself, chose to be that way because she couldn't make herself feel carefree like everyone else, and her so-called More...

Some men go through their mid-life crisis by buying a nice red sports car, and marrying their 25 year old secretaries. I go through my mid-life crisis by doing Yoga, eating coffee Häagen-Dazs ice cream, watching John Hughes films, and lately...reading YA novels.

SLOPPY FIRSTS is wonderful! It took me back to my youth, and if I could I could jump into this book, yank Marcus Flutie out and call him my own (when he is much older of course so he is age appropriate), I would. Shhhh don't tell my boyfr More...

I wasn't sure about this at first-seemed like the standard too-clever-by-half teen making snarky judgements on everyone around her. I was glad I stayed with it to see that this character has more to her than that, and that this wasn't just the fluffy read I expected it to be. The realizations Jessica reaches don't come easily and there's no triteness to her growth and the promise of more growth in future volumes. The transformations come across very naturally and realistically, from her relation More...

Releyendo!!!

Marcus Flutie <3

3.5/5

Notso Darling indeed.

Jessica Darling made me laugh. Her keen observations and way with words had me holding a pillow over my face to keep from laughing too loudly. And while she might have hated the company she kept, I can’t but help feeling that she’d have fitted in with me and mine way back when... Oh, the sarcasm! Everything in this girl’s head (at least the rude/funny bits) passed through ours at one time or another. Take her making up songs or bestowing not so flattering names on othe More...

Oh boy. So its, uh, been a while since I've written a review. Sorry about that everyone. College and whatnot has kept me busy.

So what is it about Sloppy Firsts that inspired me to write? Well, I loved it, for one. Look at that rating! Five stars, baby! And that's not because its a groundbreaking work of literature, but because its funny, true, and smart.

This is one of these books I've always heard about, but not one I actually ever saw myself reading. First of all its old. Lizzie McGuire was s More...

The last 30 or so pages of this book were good, but not good enough to make a big comeback for me.

I really wanted to like this book because it was so highly recommended by my nestie friends whose opinions are generally really in line with mine, but I just never fell in love with it. The journal and letter style of storytelling Megan McCafferty used was not my favorite. It made Jessica's story feel realistic, and it had that day in the life feeling, but it also made the pacing really drag. It wa More...

Reviewed by Amanda Dissinger for TeensReadToo.com

Ever get the feeling you're trapped in your current life, and won't be able to get out for, oh, all of eternity? Are you bored with your so-called "friends," bored with your so-called good grades, bored with your so-called life? Then you'll identify with SLOPPY FIRSTS, the witty, moving debut novel from author Megan McCafferty.

SLOPPY FIRSTS is the story of 16-year-old Jessica Darling, a girl who feels completely out of sync with everyone around h More...

3.5 stars

I started reading this book a long time ago and the reason I didn't listed it as currently reading is that I was afraid I wouldn't like it. But it was funny and just what I need when I'm feeling down.

It's a story about Jessica Darling who's best friend moved away and she is left alone to deal with parent, school and boy problems on her own. But fear not! She has a new group of friends she isn't really fond of and a certain mysterious bad boy, Marcus, to make it all better worse.

What I More...

I hope I don't kill the love for this series by admitting that I am a middle aged woman who loves it. Although Jessica Darling is less than half my age, I would have loved to be friends with her in high school...or even now. How pathetic is that?

Not very, actually. Jessica is an acerbic, rapier witted narratrix. The picture she paints of a New Jersey high school soon after the millennium change is at turnes hilarious, depressing and ridiculous...just like my memories of high school.

I started th More...

Wow. Honestly, when I was reading this book I had no idea how i'd feel about it when I turned the last page. But now I know. It was completely amazing in the most bizarro-cynical way.

Jessica frustrated me all the time, but I think that's what made her real to me. She made mistakes, and it humanized her. She wasn't just a character in a book. She was Jessica Darling, social-outcast extraordinaire. God, sometimes I hated her. But I loved her so much at the same time.

There are so many things I lov More...

Every time I re-read this series, I love it a little more. Since I am re-reading this for our teen book club at the library, I took a slightly more critical look at the text, and.. well, I still love it, but I did realize how "adult" some of the themes could be. Perhaps I should use "mature" instead of adult - Jessica is sixteen, and she acts just like a normal sixteen year old - with worries about fitting in, if she will be a virgin forever, and more. Everything she is dealing with, the loss of More...

Jessica Darling is facing a crisis of major proportion. Her best friend, Hope, has moved away and left her alone with the rest of their brainless clique. Jessica herself is the top student in her junior class and is known as a goody-goody. Jessica, can’t sleep or stop thinking of Marcus Flutie, the druggie she surprisingly kept from jail. Jessica is a mess, but aren’t most teens at some point?

I don’t read many young adult books even though so many of them look good. For the most part I usually f More...

I admit I read these awhile ago, and just remembered them after several years, That fact alone in and of itself means that this series is special(to me), becaused I remembered it over all the other young adults I've read.

It also is a really old young adult series. I also admit that I read all five in a fit of insanity and now I can't really differentiate between what happens in each.

Here is what I do remember. We are first introduced to Jessica Darling when the high school quarterback asks her More...

Jessica Darling is a girl who lives a complicated, difficult life in her perspective. She finds herself alone and desperate when her best friend, Hope, is moved across the country after her older brotherʻs death. Jessica finds this unfair and cruel, and grudgingly goes along with it despite her feelings. She runs cross-country and track, and is actually very good; she wins every meet. At school however, Jessica finds it harder to continue on with a normal life without her best friend. She is alo More...