Untitled: A Bad Teen Novel

I will admit that this book is probably not for everyone. It is, however, a riotous, goosebump-inducing flashback for anyone who, as a 13-year-old girl, thought she would one day be a big-shot novelist. Thirteen was different back then. Despite some edgy content, the whole point of the book isn't supposed to be a hard-nosed, poignant social commentary. The entire intent of the book is to laugh at the ludicrously misinformed protagonist and to commiserate with the big shoes in which the writer was trying to walk. I think this is just one of those things one either will 'get' or won't. For those of us who get it, it's a great book to nestle on our bookshelves with a D.A.R.E. bookmark tucked inside.

I wish I were this brave. I could never open my 13 year old self up to the type of ridicule that would come from people having read the angst of my 13 year old soul. I see so many bad reviews, and it makes me wonder if the reviewers understood the premise. This isn't a book about a 13 year old girl. This is a book that was written by a 13 year old girl. WIth all of her ignorance and awkwardness laid bare to the world. Having read pieces of this on her website before she decided to self publish this book, I kind of knew what was coming, but I had no idea it would be so wonderfully, hilariously bad. It's like finding a picture of yourself from 1989 and wondering ho you could have possibly thought the Jennifer Grey (ala Dirty Dancing) shorts and perm were cool looking. If I had to sum it up in 2 words- lovingly cringeworthy.

The main thing to understand is that this isn't a serious book. It was written by this girl in middle school, and now fifteen-some years later, she's publishing it. The story is unrealistic, the characters unbelievable, but it's all kind of a joke. If you ever wrote stories as a kid, if you ever read your friends stories as a kid, you need to get this book. The way life is seen, through the eyes of 13-year-old Tara, is absolutely hysterical. You and your friends will gain hours of enjoyment from this fine peice of middle-school literature.

For anyone who had visions of literary grandeur in their teens and churned out page after page of drama, angst and sexuality, this book is for you. Written by a 13-year-old in the heyday of the 1980s, the book details the soap-opera lives of a group of Canadian teenage girls as they seem to battle with almost all of the Seven Deadly Sins. Greed, envy, lust -- you name it, they were involved in it in one way or another. The charm of the book lies in the fact that the writer had no experience with pretty much any of the topics she wrote about -- as she readily admits. Those who wrote their own Bad Teen Fiction will laugh in embarassed recognition of the writing styles -- from the detailed clothing/hair descriptions to the oft-times unrealistic dialogue and the completely unrealistic sex scenes. The rather abrupt ending leaves the reader craving more, but the epilogue is rife with drama (and unintentional laughs). Maybe the ending will encourage readers to write their own story continuations -- or at least pull out and dust off their own Bad Teen Fiction. After all, if this Bad Teen Novel can be published, why can't yours?

Untitled: A Bad Teen Novel certainly lives up to it's name. Although one could argue that it in fact has a title, one certainly could not mistake this for a good all-grown-up novel. You have kidnappings, shopping, naughty teacher-student relations and bizarre court settlements. In my humble opinion this is the best novel of our time. ...