Review: The Sweet, Terrible, Glorious Year I Truly, Completely Lost It

The Sweet, Terrible, Glorious Year I Truly, Completely Lost It
Lisa Shanahan

Official Summary:
IN MY FAMILY, when anyone rides the wave of their emotions, we say they're chucking a birkett. When the emotion drives out all common sense, we say they're chucking a big one. The telltale signs are: flaming cheeks, shortness of breath, bulging eyes, and a prolonged illogical outburst.

Gemma Stone is convinced that it's always unseemly to chuck a birkett and that it's actually insane to chuck one in front of a complete stranger. But that was before she fell for a boy who barely knows she exists, before she auditioned for the school play, before she met the family of freaks her sister Debbie is marrying into, before the unpredictable Raven De Head took an interest in her, and before she realized that at the right time and for the right reason, a birkett could be a beautiful thing.

What the Pros Say:
SLJ: "Shanahan's quirky characters are a riot, but the depth of Gemma's growth and heartbreak is genuinely profound."
Kirkus: "Writing with impressive attention to details, Shanahan uncovers life's small everyday details to encourage readers to look again and appreciate."

What I Say:
Gemma's story took me by surprise. Looking at the front cover of this book, with the girl happily blowing her bubble, I was expecting a story as "bubbly" as the cover. Instead, Lisa Shanahan presents a delightfully ridiculous story with a surprising amount of depth.

The love triangle set up between Gemma, "perfect" Nick, and messed up Raven de Head is somewhat predictable, but it's touching regardless of its predictability. Nick, while perfect on the outside, becomes less and less admirable as Gemma gets to know him, while Raven, for all his faults, is undeniably earnest. I appreciated that Gemma was able to get to know these two boys, and herself, through her participation in a school production of The Tempest, which provided an interesting backdrop for the rest of the story.

Mainly, I was impressed by the author's ability to relate a story with serious undercurrents with an enjoyable amount of humor and hilarity. Overall, this is definitely not the basic light read that I was expecting: it has all the humor and fun of one of these novels, with an added dose of food for thought.