Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Withering Tights - Louise Rennison

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Pages: 351

Published: July 8th 2011 by HarperCollins Children's Books

Date Finished: 1st September 2011

Rating: 3 stars ***

Synopsis:

Hilarious new series from Queen of Teen – laugh your tights off at the (VERY) amateur dramatic antics of Talullah and her bonkers mates. Boys, snogging and bad acting guaranteed!
Picture the scene: Dother Hall performing arts college somewhere Up North, surrounded by rolling dales, bearded cheesemaking villagers (male and female) and wildlife of the squirrely-type.
On the whole, it’s not quite the showbiz experience Tallulah was expecting… but once her mates turn up and they start their ‘FAME! I’m gonna liiiiive foreeeeeever, I’m gonna fill my tiiiiights’ summer course things are bound to perk up.
Especially when the boys arrive. (When DO the boys arrive?)
Six weeks of parent-free freedom.
BOY freedom.
Freedom of expression...
cos it’s the THEATRE dahling, theatre!

Review:

When I saw Withering Tights in my department store I was really excited to pick it up. I waited a while and let it sit on my bookshelf, coming around to pick it up again when I needed a break from more intense Y.A books. The premise was perfect in that respect, but the read left a lot to be desired.

I love louise Rennisons previous series [Georiga Nicolason] and have always loved her writing style. It is so easy and fun to read and I’m forever laughing and loving every character minor or major. However through the entire course of Withering Tights I found myself disliking most of the characters, Tallulah at times and was continuously frustrated with the amount of small characters who confused the plot and weren’t necessary.

I am a sucker for cheezy, hilarious adolescent romance and while this book delved a little into that aspect there were to many love interest and boyish friendships going on for me to really root for anyone. Let alone spend the time getting to know them enough.

Many times I had to put down this book because it lagged either through the pacing or lack of interesting progress. I do appreciate that the main character did show some progress throughout the novel, but not to justify 300+ pages. It took me well over 200 pages to sit get into the story and even after the threshold I found the plot disintegrating through the tangle of sub-plots.

Don’t get me wrong. I laughed out loud and post-it noted several passages to write down and even made this note [that I later found stashed in my beside table] which pretty much sums up how I feel overall about Louise’s writing.

“ Louise Rennison really captures the quirky nervousness of adolesce so well. – Blair Mirth”

However I won’t be reading this book again.

If you are looking for a light, fluffy book full of girly nonsense aimed at younger readers [probably from the age of 11-13] then I would certainly recommend it to you. It is perfect for a lazy afternoon read and if you are looking for something with little substance and dashing’s of comedy.

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