Fourth Comings: A Jessica Darling Novel

Jessica Darling is out of college and believably barely working. She nannies for her sister (who pays her an obscene but believable amount of money), and she lives with Hope (Hope!) and another familiar Pineville face. As Jessica is celebrating her independence and adulthood, Marcus is starting college, as a first-year-student, at Princeton. Cue relationship drama: once again, Marcus and Jessica are not at the same place in their lives. I love the opening scene of this book. Our beloved Jessica has discovered some of her own bad-assness! As perhaps the only fan of these books who doesn't really care about Marcus (I don't necessarily dislike him, and there are times I'm rooting for them, but mostly, I'm a pure Jessica fan: I want her to succeed and make me laugh along the way), I loved this book. The timing is quite different from the first three: it all takes place in about a week. Jessica breaks up with Marcus; he proposes. She spends the week (and the book) contemplating their relationship, but this timeline gives her pining for Marcus and general indecision an adultness. This book is a departure from Jessica's teen angst, but she's still Jessica. I also loved having Hope be a main character. It was delightful to finally get to know her as an individual. I confess, too, that there's a certain comfort in seeing a smart, funny character you admire struggle with the normal post-college problems. After a less enjoyable (but still great) third book, it was wonderful to return to one I enjoyed immensely. For fans of the series, there are many familiar faces in surprising places; it's delightful to meet old friends and foes and see what they're up to as well.

I don't think this measly review is going to succeed in summing up my immense love for this series. I adore Jessica Darling. These books have been some of the most memorable I've read in quite a while and possibly the only ones in recent reading history that don't allow me to put them down. Literally. I was babysitting this past Thursday and Friday and could hardly stand to part from Marcus and Jessica's story long enough to make mac `n cheese and take the push-bike to the park. I'm surprised that I was so involved in this book out of all of them because it's drastically different than the first three. The previous books are Jessica's private journals - commentaries on the day-to-day events in her life. Fourth Comings was changed because this journal isn't private, and less significantly but still importantly, Jess isn't in school. This one is a journal kept by Jess during the week after Marcus proposes to her in his dorm room at Princeton, until giving him her response seven days later. She's all grown up and on her own in NYC. She's got a much more realistic and depressing view of the world because she's finally faced with providing for herself and living independently. In Fourth Comings actually get to meet Hope, which I loved. In the previous three books she was alluded to and addressed indirectly through Jess's letters and ramblings. Now there are conversations and conflicts and direct emotions. I liked it better this way. That's the way stories about best friends should be. I also enjoyed reading about Jess's thoughts on personalities, relationships, and life in general. Even though I'm only around how old Jess was in Sloppy Firsts I feel like I've related to her more and more as the books went on. Maybe because she's gotten better at putting words to her thoughts - something that I think I'm very bad at. And maybe because I only wish that I could experience what she's going through. It's a phantom world to me. I'll get there soon enough though. If there's one thing I've learned from reading these books, it's to relish these years where I'm provided for and looked after. Once again, McCafferty has succeeded in authoring a masterpiece of a novel. I don't know how she's hit these homeruns almost every time. The Jessica Darling series is on its way to becoming one of my all-time favorites. It'll take a lot to remove them from that spot of honor. Because they really are phenomenal novels. I can only hope that Perfect Fifths, the conclusion to the series, doesn't disappoint. Another A+, of course. *According to Microsoft Word, snark is not a word. I wish I could come up with a snarky comment about that.

We first met Jessica Darling in _Sloppy Firsts_ when she was a fifteen-year-old New Jersey sophomore, smart, angst-ridden, and very confused about what life was supposed to be. She thought too much and over-analyzed everything. The second book took her through high school graduation and the third through Columbia (where she worked hard to graduate a semester early in order to save $15,000 on her student loan). Now Jes is twenty-two and living for a year in a Park Slope sublet, sleeping in the lower bunk bed while Hope, her artistic BFF, takes the upper. She's dependent on her married-well older sister for a ridiculous salary babysitting her niece while struggling as a freelance semi-journalist, she blows the one good job interview that comes along, and most of her old friends are safe in grad school. Things have changed a lot in the past half-dozen years, but the one thing that hasn't changed is her connection/separation relationship with the predictably unpredictable Marcus Flutie, now a twenty-three-year-old freshman at Princeton. When she went to break up with him for her own peace of mind, he sabotaged her attempt by proposing marriage. She insisted on a week to think about it and this is the story of that week, made up partly of her hilariously searing observations about contemporary events and partly of reflections on just how she arrived at this point in her life. McCafferty is truly a master of the language and the book is a delightful read just to watch her play with the language -- but it's much more than that. Her grasp of character and psyche is extremely apt and her view of New York intellectual weirdness in the first decade of the century is spot-on. Will there be a fifth volume? Who knows? What Ever.

Fourth Comings, the latest addition to an already wonderful series, is an excellent book that, unfortunately, has not recieved the amount of praise it deserves. The novel starts off as snarkily as ever, with Jessica's scathing observations of her surroundings. And it only gets better from there: I can't count the number of times I've laughed out loud while reading this book. Some complain that Fourth Comings lacks "substance," but you can't deny that it is hilarious. I feel that the characters have really grown and matured (if you can call it that) throughout the course of this series. I really enjoyed reading this book, as you can really see, sympathise with, and understand Jessica's dilemmas and the thought process behind her actions. I'm also very proud of her for her ultimate decision at the end. Which, by the way, I loved. One of the unique things about this book is that it only covers the time span of a week, as opposed to the usual length of a year or more. It took some time to get used to, but I don't feel that it detracted from the book in any way. The plot didn't seem too forced or dragged out at all. It's a testimony to Megan McCafferty's skill as a writer that she can adapt her books to any period of time without ruining the quality of said book. There are just so many little things that I loved about this novel that I can't possibly begin to list them all. Characters, plot, snarky statements...It was all perfect. I just have to say that buying this book has been worth every single penny. Since I got it a week or two ago, I'm currently rereading it for the fourth time. And I can tell that I'll definitely be reading and rereading the Jessica Darling series for a long time. <3

I'm a really big fan of Megan McCafferty's Jessica Darling Series. I read the first two Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings back-to-back a couple of years ago. A few weeks ago, I finally got a hold of Charmed Thirds and dug right into it, it's like Jessica had never left. I, finished Charmed Thirds, and couldn't wait. So, I rushed out and bought Fourth Comings. I was NOT disappointed. I know, a lot of reviewers were disappointed in Charmed Thirds, but I personally wasn't. Jessica is like any other young woman trying to find herself. In Fourth Comings, Jessica is still continuing to grow. As is Megan's writing. In this fourth installment, Jessica's journal is written to Marcus in a span of one week. Rather than previous where she just wrote to herself in her journals, in months/years. Fourth Comings does have many flashbacks to months earlier. You won't be disappointed. There is also a nice little story line involving Sara and Scotty. Along with new developments with Jessica's parents, Hope, Bridget, and More. LOTS of interesting things, in Fourth Comings! I'll be waiting for the fifth book on pins and needles. (The Final Book.)