Author:  Hannah Friedman

Young Adult/Memoir

ISBN:  9780757307751
255 pages

Book Description:

"When everything sucks,
change everything . . .

And that's exactly what Hannah Friedman set out to do in an ambitious attempt to bust out of a life of obscurity and absurdity and into an alternate world of glamour, wealth, and popularity.

Being dubbed 'That Monkey Girl' by middle school bullies and being pulled out of sixth grade to live on a tour bus with her agoraphobic mother, her smelly little brother, and her father's hippie band mates convinces Hannah that she is destined for a life of freakdom.

But when she enters one of the country's most prestigious boarding schools on scholarship, Hannah transforms herself into everything she is not: cool. By senior year, she has a perfect millionaire boyfriend, a perfect GPA, a perfect designer wardrobe, and is part of the most popular clique in school, but somehow everything begins to suck far worse than when she first started. Her newfound costly drug habit, eating disorder, identity crisis, and Queen-Bee attitude lead to the unraveling of Hannah's very unusual life.

Putting her life back together will take more than a few clicks of her heels, or the perfect fit of a glass slipper, in this not-so-fairy tale of going from rock bottom to head of the class and back again."

My Thoughts:

It took me a couple of chapters to get into this memoir, but after that, the pages just flew by.  I really enjoyed reading about Hannah's experiences.  It's an honest look into the life of Ms. Friedman, where pretty much everything sucks, including family, mean girls, friends, high school, diets, love, sex, education, home, college, drugs, epilogues, and writing!  I was personally touched by the Postscript:  Writing Sucks part at the very end of the book.  As an aspiring author (someday), I found that I really identified with Hannah and her struggles with writing.  It really makes me think that I CAN do this.  Thank you for giving me that sage advice, Hannah.  You have no idea how badly I needed to hear it!

A quick, fun romp through the teenage years.  EVERYTHING SUCKS is a great story that definitely does not suck!