Review: Confessions of an Angry Girl by Louise Rozett

Title: Confessions of an Angry Girl
Author: Louise Rozett
Publisher: HarlequinTeen
Release date: August 28th 2012
Pages: 304
Genre: Contemporary YA
Source: NetGalley
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Freshman Rose Zarelli has rage issues.
First of all, her father lost his job, took work as a contractor in Iraq...and never came home.
Second, she likes the wrong guy and his super-intense, scary cheerleader girlfriend is now her nemesis.
Third, her fashionista best friend, Tracy, is suddenly infinitely cooler than she is—and talking about losing her virginity. (What?!)
Rose is ahead when it comes to studying for the PSAT, but she’s so far behind socially that she might as well be moving backward. She needs Tracy’s help choosing the right clothes, she likes all the wrong extracurricular activities, and she can’t even make a decision about which photo of her father to put on the memorial website she’s making (and hiding from her adolescent-shrink mother).
With her brother away at college and her mother always locked in her office with her messed-up teen patients, Rose struggles to get through each day without inflicting bodily harm on anyone.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars


I usually go for older YA, and I was a little worried I wouldn't like Confessions of an Angry Girl because the MC is fourteen. I generally can't relate to fourteen-year-old girls because, well, fourteen-year-old-girls are the most annoying species on earth. So my expectations for Confessions of Angry Girl were pretty low. I wasn't even sure I wanted to read it, but I'm so glad I gave it a try because, guess what? I loved it!


Like I said, fourteen-year-old girls aren't my favorite type of people, but I'm making an exception for Rose. Rose is AWESOME - there's no other way to put it. Sure, there are a few times where I wanted to roll my eyes at her naiveté, but those times were far outweighed by the times I wanted to highfive her and ask her to be fourteen-year-old me's best friend. Rose is snarky, cynic, sarcastic, hilarious, sassy, and attitude-y (why is there no adjective for attitude!? this is ruining my sentence!) - everything I love about an MC. Even though she's fourteen, she... she gets it. But not in a way that would make her unrealistically wise for her age, or anything like that - you can definitely tell she's fourteen. Just in a way that made me love her so much.


The humor is what's best about this book. Really, I love any book that can make me laugh, and I had to laugh out loud all the time reading Confessions of an Angry Girl. Louise Rozett's writing style and Rose's snarky humor work so well together, and Rose gets herself in the most ridiculous, hilarious situations. But again, not in a way that'd be unrealistic - the messed up situations she gets herself into are so real! Really, all of those situations are ones fourteen-year-old me could have gotten herself into. Only, I wouldn't have known to say those awesome, snarky things Rose says about them.


But Confessions of an Angry Girl isn't just fun and games - there is definitely some serious stuff thrown in there, too. One of the scenes about Rose's grief even made me tear up - and what's better than a book that can make you laugh and cry!? The balance between the humor and the more serious issues is perfect - it never gets too heavy, but it doesn't get crazy or unrealistically ridiculous either.


I don't know what else to say; I just loved this book so much. It makes me so happy when a book can completely take me by surprise, like Confessions of an Angry Girl did. I definitely recommend it if you're looking for a light, fun read that also has a little substance. I'd recommend it even if you prefer older YA, since I loved Rose despite her age. I can't wait to get back to Rose's hilarious voice in the next book in the series!