Review: Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters

Title: Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters
Author: Meredith Zeitlin
Date Released: March 1st, 2012
Pages: 288
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Description:
Kelsey Finkelstein is fourteen and FRUSTRATED. Every time she tries to live up to her awesome potential, her plans are foiled – by her impossible parents, her annoying little sister, and life in general. But with her first day of high school coming up, Kelsey is positive that things are going to change. Enlisting the help of her three best friends — sweet and quiet Em, theatrical Cass, and wild JoJo — Kelsey gets ready to rebrand herself and make the kind of mark she knows is her destiny.

Things start out great - her arch-nemesis has moved across the country, giving Kelsey the perfect opportunity to stand out on the soccer team and finally catch the eye of her long-time crush. But soon enough, an evil junior’s thirst for revenge, a mysterious photographer, and a series of other catastrophes make it clear that just because KELSEY has a plan for greatness… it doesn’t mean the rest of the world is in on it.

Kelsey’s hilarious commentary throughout her disastrous freshman year will have you laughing out loud—while being thankful that you’re not in her shoes, of course…

Review:

Kelsey Finkelstein has had one heck of a year.  In Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters, Kelsey goes through Freshman year with some shining moments…  And some not so shining moments.  It was kind of like a coming of age story, I guess, if you put it that way.  Kelsey is trying to find herself and start off fresh in her first year of high school. 

Kelsey was such a fun and quirky character.  I loved how she handled every situation and added so much personality to the book.  Her friends were awesome and were equally as funny as Kelsey.  Sometimes they added a bit of drama into Kelsey’s life, but overall I really liked them.    

Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters was definitely a very funny book.  Kelsey had her fair share of embarrassing moments throughout the year.  She’s had pictures on the front page of the school newspaper… But seriously embarrassing ones.  She made the school play… But as the fat butcher.  You can probably see where this is going, and I will assure you that there are plenty more hilarious moments. 

I definitely hope that there will be a sequel of some sort to Freshman Year!  I really liked reading about Kelsey’s Freshman year, and I’m sure that her Sophomore year will be even funnier.  There were also some relationships and surprises left hanging in the end that I’m dying to find out more about.  Overall, I really liked Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters.  If Meredith Zeitlin could have written my Freshman year, it probably would have been the best year of my life.  

Cover Review:
I think that this is a really cute and fun cover that really matches the what the book is about.  It's really cool how they tied in the rain to go with the "unnatural disasters" part of the title.  I also really love the colors that they chose.  They just kind of scream "teenager" and make it seem really modern and contemporary.  All together, it's a great cover!


Cleo :)


*Description and cover from goodreads.com
**Review copy received for review.