Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin

"So, let’s say you’re fourteen years old and you live in New York City.
(Well, technically you live in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which is very close to and almost just like Manhattan… except not.) You’d think your life would be like a glamorous TV show, right? And yet...
You don’t have a checking account, much less a personal Black American Express Card. No fake ID, either – not that you’d pass for 21 in a million years even if you did. The only couture in your closet is a Halloween costume your mom made out of an old laundry bag when you were eleven. You've never been to a club, or had a drink served in a martini glass or, frankly, done anything really NYC-ish at all.
You definitely don’t have any secret powers, or friends who are vampires, or magical weapons stored in your parents’ basement. You’re about as normal and totally boring as a human being living in the most exciting city on the planet could possibly be.
In other words? You’re me: Kelsey Finkelstein.
But don’t despair, people—I’m starting high school in less than a week! This is going to be the year that I live up to all of my untapped potential—finally.
I have to say… I’m feeling almost optimistic."

Soo, this one was a little like the last one. I really didn't mind reading it, but I only started getting into it by the end. When it came to the characters, I really liked them. Kelsey is really real, to be redundant. She's kinda insecure but simultaneously doesn't have any filters, she tends to suck at talking to guys, and she's not exactly sure how starting high school will go. So, I liked her character, and her friends and even enemies. They were interesting, funny, and fleshed-out. What I wasn't so crazy about, though, was the plot. I'm sure NYC has some pretty different attitudes, but as an Alaska girl reading about these fourteen-year-old girls casually drinking and going to parties and considering sex and all that, was a little off-putting. I mean, seriously, you're a freshman girl and you're getting drunk and having drunk escapades? Well anyway, on another topic: the reason I didn't really get into it 'till the end was partly due to the embarrassing chain of events that was the book. I know that's mostly the premise, but it just ended up playing out that I was cringing for Kelsey (not in a good way at all) every time. A train of somewhat unfortunate events dramatized by the main character didn't really make for good reading for me. One last event at the end finally took the book into enjoyable semi-hilarity for me, and from then on I enjoyed it pretty thoroughly as things began to turn around a bit. So, meh. I really don't know what to think of this one. If you're bored and want to try it, give it a read. If you're not into drama, don't. It's at Kettleson.