‘Sloppy Firsts’ reminds reader of high school

Nostalgia, emotional confusion abundant in novel about days of past, emotions

Remember the days of high school past? No doubt we all have lingering memories — feeling misunderstood by our parents, convincing ourselves any place was better than where we were and spending our time wishing, waiting — and dying to get out.

Maybe the juxtaposition between the varying facets of high school, including dealing with the everyday drama of an exhausting and oftentimes ridiculous social scene and dealing with patronizing teachers, is what made me like Megan McCafferty’s "Sloppy Firsts" so much. When I finished reading the book, high school nostalgia hit me hard. Common sense, however, quickly set in and I realized how much better it was to just visit this place in the pages.

Jess Darling is distraught when her best friend and only confidante, Hope Weaver, moves away from their quiet New Jersey town during her sophomore year of high school. Left to face the daunting and tiring world of high school on her own, Jess starts a diary, writing down every thought and feeling she has in an effort to fill the void that Hope left.

Her diary entries are a window into the world of anyone who has lost something — or someone — close to them. Jess tries to deal with Hope’s absence by throwing herself into her running, forcing herself to hang out with girls she can’t stand just to avoid being alone and forming an unlikely attachment to a well-known and mysterious drug user who eventually comes to understand her better than anyone.

Yet, through all this emotional confusion, there is humor. A blurb I saw for this book called it a John Hughes story for the 21st century — it wasn’t kidding. Jess is the quintessential Molly Ringwald character. She has moments where she is forgotten by her parents and befriended by eccentrics around her. She has emotional outbursts and anxiety-ridden days. Somehow, she keeps her sense of humor and sanity through it all.

Most importantly, though, she struggles with the idea of being true to herself, of not letting herself sell out to a high school scene that represents all that she doesn’t want to become. Jess deals with her feelings the only way she knows how — by writing diary entries filled with sharp sarcasm and wit, two defense mechanisms that in turn provide endless entertainment for the reader.

This book was the perfect way to revisit high school. I understood everything Jess was going through, but never actually had to feel those emotions again for myself. All I could do was laugh at the memories and sympathize with her. With that said, as much as I appreciate the trip down memory lane, that is as close as I want to get to high school again for a long time.