Review: Messy by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (a.k.a. The Fug Girls)

I'm back from my honeymoon island adventure* and although it was super amazing, I'm excited to be home and have the internet again**. Oh, and see my family and friends. That too.

I'm also really excited to get back to normal life. Y'know, with NO WEDDING TO PLAN. Seriously, I'm almost happier about that than actually being married. Almost. My wedding was lovely and perfect and wonderful, but the six months leading up to it? Not so much. It's unbelievable how much time and energy and effort goes into wedding planning - you don't realise until you're in the middle of it, having a meltdown over whether the placecards should be ivory with dusty pink piping or vice versa, and by then it's too late. Of course, I wouldn't change a thing about my wedding, but I sure am glad I never have to do it again. It feels good to have my life back, coz now I can get back to the really IMPORTANT things. Like spending it on the internet. Ha! Seriously, though, in the midst of wedding madness I didn't have a lot of time for reading and blogging, and I really missed it. I'm thrilled to be able to do it, like, proper again. Starting with this post, even though it might not seem very proper because it's supposed to be a review and so far I haven't even mentioned the book. Let's get to it, shall we?

After being disappointed by Spoiled, the Fug Girls' first foray into fiction, I wasn't sure I was going to bother with its sequel, Messy. But when I was searching for a fun and fluffy read to take on my honeymoon, Messy stood out to me as the perfect choice. And it was, with just the right mix of humour and hijinks making for an easy, breezy beach read.

I don't know whether it was my lower expectations, the shift in character focus or the fact that Cocks and Morgan's fiction abilities have developed since their first book (probably all of the above), but I liked Messy a lot more than Spoiled. Instead of focusing on naive and new-to-Hollywood Molly, Messy centres around Max, a spunky, green-haired outsider who loves to mock the superficial world that surrounds her. Snarkiness is what Cocks and Morgan do best, and the wit that makes Go Fug Yourself so brilliant shines through Max. When she takes a job as a ghost-blogger for her friend Molly's spoiled, attention-seeking half-sister Brooke, you know exactly what will happen - and you know it will be hilarious. While Cocks and Morgan don't deliver anything revelatory, they sure know how to entertain.

My husband*** even read it, after he'd burned through the two books he brought along on the honeymoon for himself (one he couldn't get into, another - The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - he couldn't put down), plus another of my supplies (Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey). I asked him what he thought, to which he responded, "It filled in the time." After further prompting, he said, "It was a good, light read. I didn't learn anything from it."

That pretty much sums it up, folks. Messy is fun. Just fun. Which is all it needs to be.

Rating: 3/5****

Eye Candy
As per Spoiled, plus I pictured AnnaSophia Robb as Max and Josh Hutcherson as her love interest, Brady. And OMG, I just realised when I was googling their images that they are the cast of The Bridge to Terabithia and my subconscious is weird.

P.S. Speaking of eye candy, here is Messy in Fiji:

Fine Print
Genre: Young Adult
Published: June 2012, Allen & Unwin
Get It: Fishpond

Footnotes
*If you take adventure to mean doing a whole lot of nothing. It was awesome.
**I now know what people did before Google. They just DIDN'T KNOW things. It was not awesome.

My life for the past two weeks.

***ZOMG, I have a husband. Still getting used to that.
****I also gave Spoiled 3/5, and I liked Messy more, but I think I was just being generous with the first rating, to be honest