FRESHMAN YEAR AND OTHER UNNATURAL DISASTERS by Meredith Zeitlin Book Review
Publication Date: March 1st 2012 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Rating: – Acceptable |

Book Summary: Kelsey Finkelstein is fourteen and FRUSTRATED. Every time she tries to live up to her awesome potential, her plans are foiled – by her impossible parents, her annoying little sister, and life in general. But with her first day of high school coming up, Kelsey is positive that things are going to change. Enlisting the help of her three best friends — sweet and quiet Em, theatrical Cass, and wild JoJo — Kelsey gets ready to rebrand herself and make the kind of mark she knows is her destiny.

Things start out great – her arch-nemesis has moved across the country, giving Kelsey the perfect opportunity to stand out on the soccer team and finally catch the eye of her long-time crush. But soon enough, an evil junior’s thirst for revenge, a mysterious photographer, and a series of other catastrophes make it clear that just because KELSEY has a plan for greatness… it doesn’t mean the rest of the world is in on it.

Kelsey’s hilarious commentary throughout her disastrous freshman year will have you laughing out loud—while being thankful that you’re not in her shoes, of course…

Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin Book Review Overview:

• I had a difficult time warming up to Kelsey since I found her to be a little immature
• Her friends were hard to tell apart at first but eventually they developed into solid secondary characters
• The romance was adorable; I love banter

FRESHMAN YEAR AND OTHER UNNATURAL DISASTERS by Meredith Zeitlin follows Kelsey Finkelstein’s first year of high school. Kelsey is determined to make this year the best – the one where she finally becomes a star soccer athlete and captures the attention of her long-time crush. Unfortunately for Kelsey, things do not always go as planned as one thing after another goes wrong. FRESHMAN YEAR is a humorous, quick read that is bound to appeal young teen readers.

FRESHMAN YEAR AND OTHER UNNATURAL DISASTERS is set in the course of her entire first year, so the transitions through time are a bit weird. It is not unusual for the novel to jump from a few days or a few weeks in between chapters.

At first, I was not sure that I was going to like FRESHMAN YEAR AND OTHER UNNATURAL DISASTERS by Meredith Zeitlin because of my initial dislike for the main character Kelsey. From the beginning of the novel, she struck me as immature and a bit mean (especially to her mother). I had to keep reminding myself to give Kelsey time to grow and mature in the span of the novel. Furthermore, I thought Kelsey’s voice was a bit much initially, but after a while, I grew accustomed to her sense of humor and I found myself smiling as I read. Kelsey does get a bit overdramatic at times, but I had to give her a break because I know I was probably like her when I was a freshman in high school: overwhelmed and overanalyzing just about everything. Despite my initial qualms about Kelsey, I grew to like her in FRESHMAN YEAR AND OTHER UNNATURAL DISASTERS by Meredith Zeitlin.

After the first fifty pages, I could not tell apart any of Kelsey’s friends. Their personalities were different, but their voices were pretty similar. It was only after some best friend conflict that I was finally able to pick them apart from each other. Eventually, they became really solid secondary characters that are pivotal to Kelsey’s own growth as a character.

Okay, the romance was cute in FRESHMAN YEAR AND OTHER UNNATURAL DISASTERS by Meredith Zeitlin. Like any other teenage girl, Kelsey falls into a few bad decisions, but she finally gets the romance she deserves by the end of the book. I love Lexi despite at first wanting to hate her because she is tall, friendly, and beautiful but she’s got such a great head on her shoulders. She gives the best advice to Kelsey and steers her into the right direction and away from the jerks. When Kelsey finally runs into the cutest guy at school ever, I became such a puddle of mess. This guy was utterly charming and I loved the banter that went on between him and Kelsey.

I would definitely recommend FRESHMAN YEAR AND OTHER UNNATURAL DISASTERS to young teen readers who are just beginning to discover young adult books. I think fans of Colleen Murtagh Paratore and Wendy Mass will enjoy this book.

Other Book Reviews:
The Cheap Reader
Lauren Gets Literal
Words Like Silver

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A weekly meme on the books on the top of my list to read and books recently acquired, borrowed, or bought. Inspired by the Story Siren’s In My Mailbox.

Top of the Shelf / Currently Reading
What’s next on my to-read list for the upcoming week. Oh my god!!! Look at all these Penguin books. Why, it’s a mini-readathon of YA Penguin novels! Yay!

Bought
My pre-order of TFIOS came in the mail! Woot. Unfortunately, I only received a J-scribble. No hanklerfish or Yeti for me.

Won from Giveaways
And not pictured: a swag pack of The International Kissing Club

For Review
I am most excited about The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda. I’m really pumped to read it and I can’t wait! I’ve already read Much Ado About Rogues and the review should be live on the blog in late March.

The Vlog

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Hey, what’s this? A new feature? Yep. This is just some of the highlights I’ve encountered while digging through my Google reader feed, YouTube, Goodreads, and Twitter.

Reviews Worth Reading

Convincing, entertaining, well-written or all of the above, these reviews are worth your time.

Die for Me by Amy Plum – I had this one sitting on my shelf for a while, but after reading this review, I wanted to bump it up the TBR pile.

White Cat by Holly Black – I’ve already read this one, but I found Misty’s review to be so entertaining. Misty was able to deliver her review of White Cat in 90 seconds! Impressive.

The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe – How did this book escape my radar? Harmony made it sound so interesting that I definitely kept my eye out for other reviews of this one!

Read All About It: Articles & Discussion

Helpful tips and tricks & interesting bookish debates, articles, and discussion on the blogosphere.

Rex Robot Reviews tells bloggers how to register for BEA for free! Yep, it’s possible. Check it out!

Added on GoodReads

What caught my eye on GoodReads and was added to the pile.

Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin

Kelsey Finkelstein is fourteen and FRUSTRATED. Every time she tries to live up to her awesome potential, her plans are foiled – by her impossible parents, her annoying little sister, and life in general. But with her first day of high school coming up, Kelsey is positive that things are going to change. Enlisting the help of her three best friends — sweet and quiet Em, theatrical Cass, and wild JoJo — Kelsey gets ready to rebrand herself and make the kind of mark she knows is her destiny.

Things start out great – her arch-nemesis has moved across the country, giving Kelsey the perfect opportunity to stand out on the soccer team and finally catch the eye of her long-time crush. But soon enough, an evil junior’s thirst for revenge, a mysterious photographer, and a series of other catastrophes make it clear that just because KELSEY has a plan for greatness… it doesn’t mean the rest of the world is in on it.

Kelsey’s hilarious commentary throughout her disastrous freshman year will have you laughing out loud—while being thankful that you’re not in her shoes, of course…

Terrific Trailers

This trailer convinced me to add the book to my TBR pile!

This doesn’t sound like my typical contemporary read, but the trailer is so cute. Catchy song, cute boy, how much more convincing can a book trailer get?

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