Confessions of an Angry Girl by Louise Rozett

“Confessions of an Angry Girl” is an interesting look into the life of Rose Zarelli. Rose is a 15 year old teenager (14 when the story begins) who lost her father to the war in Iraq. Rose, now a freshman at Union HS, is expected to leave behind the fact that her father is dead and get on with her life. It’s a lot to ask of anyone, let alone a teen with emotional issues who is trying to make her way through a new school and put her grief into proper prospective.

Her best friend, 15-year old Tracy Gerren, is talking about having sex with her loser boyfriend before she’s ready against the warnings of Rose. This leads to conflict after conflict when Rose refuses to join in all of the reindeer games Tracy participates in. What’s worse is that Tracy joins the trollettes, better known as the cheerleading squad, led by one Regina Deladalo who is this books mean girl and Rose’s arch nemesis. Regina is one of the most vicious characters you will meet in any genre.

I could fault Rose’s mother for her problems since she’s a child psychologist and should have known better than to leave her kids to their own devices. Yet, I can’t entirely fault her either. She feels emotionally responsible for her husband’s death and in the long run, she shuts down and pushes her own family away. My problem has been with parents who leave their kids to their own devices, like latch key kids, and expect them to be perfect little solders going to school, getting good grades, and keeping out of trouble without any sort of interaction or personal touch in their lives.
 
I didn’t have a problem trying to understand Rose or why she was so angry. Yes, she’s snarky, cynical, and has a huge attitude problem. What girl at the same age doesn’t have problems in real life? My fault with the story was that she was a bit younger than I expected and it took time for her to really be angry to the point of fighting back.

I was truly expecting someone in the age range of 16-18 years of age and then I would have understood why a character could be considered angry and a loose cannon by others. Rose had all sorts of reasons to be angry and to get back at the mean girl. Yet, she stood back and took almost everything that was dished out against her. You could call that brave, or patient.

The ending leaves readers with more questions than answers thanks to the actions of the supreme bitch Regina and her jealously when it came to Jamie. The fact that we have to wait until next year for “Confessions on an Almost Girlfriend” to find out what happens next has me fit to be tied.

Overall, I liked the fact that Rozett put different vocabulary meanings at the start of each chapter. Hell, I learned a thing of two from certain words and I’ve been around the block a time or two. There was a point, however, that I toned the story out when she started talking about sex education, and then explained the how behind what it’s like to have a gynecological examination. I think this part could have been removed, and something else put in its place. Who knows, maybe Rozett was trying to educate the teen crowd that this is clearly aimed for.

I liked the fact that Rozett didn’t try to force feed a newer and better version of Rose to the readers. I’m not sure if I would have laughed and cried as much as I did had Rose changed into a goody too shoed character, or started hanging out with the popular crowds.

This ARC was provided to me by HarlequinTeen via NetGalley.
*Book releases August 28, 2012*

Title - Confessions of an Angry Girl
Author - Louise Rozett
Publisher - Harlequin Teen
Release Date - August 28, 2012