Once upon a time, there was a really angsty, miserable teenager. She was convinced that she was better than her hometown (Spoiler Alert: she totally was) and that she was full of untapped potential. She was a giant bitch all throughout high school, a chip on her shoulder and a grimace on her face all four years.
This girl found solace, as many a teenager before and after her, in books. She would walk to the local library after school and check out as many books as her extra bag would allow - sometimes up to ten. She would often stop at the Dunkin Donuts next to the library, order a coffee, and start reading one of her books before she'd catch the bus home.
Surprise: that girl was me.
I wrote a post when I was still blogging for Weddingbee about
who I was in high school, so I'll let that speak for itself. The books, though, that got me through, have such a special place in my heart - specifically
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (this book affected me so much that I kept a list of quotes and their page numbers in my purse until college. . .when I put them on my wall),
Violet & Claire by Francesca Lia Block,
How to Deal (which is actually two separate novels,
That Summer and
Someone Like You) by Sarah Dessen and
the Jessica Darling series by Megan McCafferty.
I am sure that there are many deep and involved reasons why I decided to re-load the well loved series onto my new tablet after it had sat on a previous reading device, untouched and un-thought of for quite some time; why I had been thinking about Jessica Darling so much as of late that I decided to re-read the books right before Jon and I were heading on a five-day-stay in our hometown for the holidays; why I devoured the books and couldn't wait to write about them. I'm sure that there's a lot to be said about the power of my subconscious regarding this decision - but I'm not the one to say any of it. I'm just happy to have reunited with those who feel like my old friends. I'm happy to have re-connected to them and to the story and I'm happy to have an outlet that allows me to express all of this.
It's hard for me to review the books adequately as individuals as each time I've read them, I've read them in rapid succession, so that it's essentially one long, great story, so I'm reviewing them in their entirety as The Jessica Darling Series.
