Jenny Q, Stitched Up! (by Pauline McLynn)

Jenny Q, Stitched Up!
by Pauline McLynn
Release date : June 7th, 2012

Right, here's how things are . . . My mother is pregnant. I shizz you not. My mum will be going around with a bump for all to see that she's still, well, shagging. Oh god I can't bear it - talk about a stitch-up.

THEN there's Stevie Lee Bolton - every time I see him I'm like a stunned goldfish and just stand there with my mouth opening and closing.

So between my untakebackably embarrassing family and a certain Stevie Lee, how will I be ready for Teen Factor X - not even my friends know about my dodgy yodelings and secret obsession with becoming a star . . .

Funny, frank and surprisingly talented with a pair of knitting needles, meet Jenny Q in the hilarious new series from Father Ted and Shameless star Pauline McLynn. (from Puffin Books' website)

MY THOUGHTS : It was a fun read but, unfortunately, I found the book too uneven and disorganized to really enjoy it. For a short book, there are too much information and too many things happening : the TV show, the pregnant mom, the dream boy, the bad boy from school, the best friend's dog, the best friends, the families, the girls' inventions... Everything happens at the same time, and nothing's developed! In the end, I wondered what was really at stake here, and what the main plot was.

If only one of the stories had been underlined (the TV show, for example) and that, on the side, all the other small events had been there just to bring colour to the main plot, THEN I think it would've worked. But alas the treatment results in a real cacophony, which prevented me from getting attached to the characters and their stories.

I also found the writing kind of annoying. I have nothing against books where the story is written "like a 13 year old girl would've written it", but what I really don't like is when you can actually HEAR the adult writing it! The "young talk" is too emphatized to be realistic, and it distracted me from what Jenny was saying (too many "Ennyhoos" and "SO" got on my nerves)! There were times when I could've skipped three pages without missing the course of the story stories. I wasn't able to get to know Jenny because there were too many interferences.

I've definitely read better in the same genre. It's fun, but the construction did not do justice to the story and the characters.