Love and Other Man-Made Disasters

I thought this was quite a sweet book about a girl who worries a bit too much than is good for her and is forced to go on a dangerous skiing holiday with her mum and stepdad.

Firstly, I want to say that I did actually enjoy this book, but unfortunately I think it suffered a little because of my own expectations. When I heard that Juno was a compulsive worrier, I kind of assumed that the story would be an investigation into what life is like living with generalised anxiety disorder, or something similar. Instead, Juno is just a bit vaguely worried about nuclear war/zombie apocalypse/environmental disaster etc. Her worries don't rule her world, she's just a bit, you know, concerned.

Her various worries are looked at at the beginning of the story, but then they're kind of skated over until the end. They certainly don't stop her from sleeping or functioning or having a pretty awesome skiing holiday!  I would have found this book a lot more gripping if it had been a bit tenser, maybe showed how irrational worries can affect people's lives or delved into mental illness a bit.

As it was, this was a fairly lightweight book, but perfectly enjoyable. Juno was pretty cool and had some amusing adventures. Boy was okay (although we never got to hear the origin of his odd name!) but because he and Juno only knew each other for a few days, I never really got a full sense of who he was. The rest of the chalet girls were fine as a background cast and I have to say that I really want to go skiing now. I'd never been keen before, but it sounds great!

I'd say this is worth a read and probably good as a holiday book.

3 stars