Blast from the Past: The Jessica Darling Series
“Sloppy Firsts” and “Second Helpings” by Megan McCafferty
“Sloppy Firsts” Publisher Synopsis: When her best friend, Hope Weaver, moves away from Pineville, New Jersey, hyperobservant sixteen-year-old Jessica Darling is devastated. A fish out of water at school and a stranger at home, Jessica feels more lost than ever now that the only person with whom she could really communicate has gone. How is she supposed to deal with the boy- and shopping-crazy girls at school, her dad's obsession with her track meets, her mother salivating over big sister Bethany's lavish wedding, and her nonexistent love life?
A fresh, funny, utterly compelling novel, Sloppy Firsts is an insightful, true-to-life look at Jessica's predicament as she embarks on another year of teenage torment. From the dark days of Hope's departure through her months as a type-A personality turned insomniac to her completely mixed-up feelings about Marcus Flutie, the intelligent and mysterious "Dreg" who works his way into her heart, this poignant, hilarious novel is sure to appeal to readers who are still going through it, as well as those who are grateful that they don't have to go back and grow up all over again.
“Second Helpings” Publisher Synopsis: This time, the hyperobservant, angst-ridden teenager is going through the social and emotional ordeal of her senior year at Pineville High. Not only does the mysterious and oh-so-compelling Marcus Flutie continue to distract Jessica, but her best friend, Hope, still lives in another state, and she can't seem to escape the clutches of the Clueless Crew, her annoying so-called friends. To top it off, Jessica's parents won't get off her back about choosing a college, and her sister Bethany's pregnancy is causing a big stir in the Darling household.
With intelligence, wit, and ingenious comedic timing, Megan McCafferty has once again recreated the tumultuous world of modern, fast-moving and sophisticated teens. Fans of Sloppy Firsts will be reunited with their favorite characters and introduced to some fresh new faces that have entered Jess's life, including the hot creative writing teacher at her summer college prep program and her feisty, tell-it-like-it-is grandmother Gladdie. But most of all, you'll finally have the answers to all of your burning questions, and then some: Will Jessica crack under the pressure of senioritis? Will her unresolved feelings for Marcus wreak havoc on her love life? Will Hope ever come back to Pineville? Fall in love with saucy, irreverent Jessica all over again in this sequel to a book that critics and readers alike hailed as the best high school novel in years.
Ratings (out of 5): 4.5 (Sloppy Firsts), 4 (Second Helpings)
Trigger Warnings: some political incorrectness (regarding race, mental abilities, weight, among other subjects) that would not be tolerated today
Thoughts: As I mentioned in a blog post last week, I recently read “The Mall” by Megan McCafferty and, while I didn’t love, it was inspired to reread two of my favorite books from high school—”Sloppy Firsts” and “Second Helpings.”
Written as diary entries from the POV of Jessica Darling, a snarky, smart, smart-alecky high schooler, with each month punctuated by letters to her long-distance BFF, the books were published in 2001 and 2003, respectively. I graduated from high school in 2005, so I was solidly in the target demographic for these when they were first published, and rereading these books was like taking a peek inside my own high school brain (which turned out to be more nostalgic than frightening!).
I read and reread the first two in the Jessica Darling series over and over back in the day. While there are three others in the Jessica Darling series, I don’t recall reading “Charmed Thirds” or the subsequent two, but I did purchase them all just so I could finally find out what happened in Jessica Darling’s life.
Reading these books reminded me what it was like to be a teenager—she’s consumed with gripes about her suburban town, and also desperate to get out and move to New York once she realizes Columbia is where she belongs. In retrospect, Jessica’s dreams of escaping her New Jersey town for Columbia definitely contributed to my high school desire to go to NYU—which ultimately did not happen and was probably for the best.
Jessica is consumed by the cliques at her high school and how everyone fits into her worldview. And in “Second Helpings,” she’s VERY focused on losing her virginity (to the extent that it was even sort of distracting, although I suppose she’s a 17-year-old girl and thinks everyone around her has “done it”). There’s a “will they or won’t they” relationship with the town’s bad boy woven throughout both books, and ultimately, the ending is super satisfying.
Her diary observations are witty, smart, very sarcastic, and also realistic—you get the sense that she’s too smart for her town, but also so self-absorbed that she doesn’t notice things (she is a teenager, after all). There’s boy drama, girl drama, and Jessica ultimately finds her voice and figures out who she is along the way—a common theme in many of the books we read.
So, do these books hold up? Despite a lot of early 2000s non-PC terms thrown around (not great), I definitely enjoyed rereading these and reminiscing on my own high school experiences—or at least, the ones this book reminded me of. Like me, Jessica was desperate to escape her suburban town: “I guess I’m waiting for the end of my sophomore year so summer can start, so I can wait for that to end so I can go back to school and do the waiting game for another two years until I graduate and finally escape to college, where I’m hoping to begin my ‘real life.’ Whatever that is.”
Jessica Darling is a sarcastic delight, and this trip down memory lane was a fun one.
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