Adorkable is much more than the story of a successful blogger and the school’s most popular boy hooking up. Jeane is seventeen, lives on her own and is just as popular online as she is unpopular offline. Being a dork is her superpower. When her boyfriend turns out to be in love with another girl, she gets in contact with Michael, that girl’s (ex-)boyfriend. Jeane thinks Michael is nothing but his parent’s muppet and Michael finds Jeane weird and ugly (literally), but soon they can’t keep their hands off each other.I hated Jeane the first hundred pages. She bitched about everything and everyone who didn’t fit into her Adorkable-lifestyle. After those hundred pages I didn’t particularly started to liked her, but I came to understand her. Jeane comes from a screwed up family and only has herself and the online world she's created. Michael is her opposite in every angle and god, if the book wasn’t written from his POV as well, I might not even have made it through those first pages.Though I like the change Jeane goes through and the turning point the story builds towards, I don’t like the ‘be a dork’ peptalk. ‘Dork’ is just another label. It would’ve made sense if the book discussed ‘be yourself’. Because Jeane despises people who aren’t dorks (I don’t see myself buying clothes from a flea market, but does that make me any less than someone who does? No) and that just make her just as horrible as people who make fun of ‘dorks’. Ever since I first fell in love with Dylan and Edie between the pages of J17 I've been a huge fan of Sarra Manning. I still have my frayed little paperbacks of the Diary of the Crush books that I got free with the magazine and I've bought and read pretty much every single thing she's had published since then. When I met her at the Atom blogger event last year and we talked Toddlers and Tiaras I definitely unlocked a life goal achievement. In short, I'm a big fan.I've been waiting for Adorkable to be released ever since it first came on my radar last year, I pre-ordered my copy months ago and dived into the story as soon as it clattered through my letter box. Now, I devoured Adorkable in a matter of hours and found myself laughing out loud one moment, then full on crying the next. Yes, another one to add to the list of books that made me cry and smudge my eyeliner.Jeane is one of the most unique characters I've come across in YA fiction for a long time. She's original and quirky (I abhor the work 'quirky' with every fibre of my being, just so you know) to the point that she probably should be annoying but she was flawed and likeable enough that I couldn't help but warm to her. She admits that she's so desperate to stand out that she shuns anything popular and mainstream and it was her honesty that made me root for her. Also, her snark. There are so many layers to Jeane that she's definitely a realistic character. At first it seems as though she has everything but as we learn more about her family, her past and her present situation, we begin to realise that she's actual a very fragile, very lonely girl who needs somebody to look out for her.Michael and Jeane's relationship was one of the highlights of Adorkable. They fight like enemies but can't keep their hands off of each other. The sexual tension was fantastic and I love that Manning didn't shy away from sex scenes - THANK YOU for the sexytimes. Finally, an actual depiction of sex that doesn't make me want to sling the book across the room because it's so cringe/poorly written/Fifty Shades of Shit. It was great to see Jeane and Michael getting to know each other as Adorkable progressed and I like that their relationship wasn't plain sailing from beginning to end, they have highs and lows just like any other fledgling relationship. I thought Michael's chapters were great, especially when we got to read his thoughts into Jeane's look and Adorkable lifestyle - I thought his reaction was much more realistic than if he'd accepted everything right off the bat and hadn't cared about what his friends thought of Jeane's neon tights and grey rinse. He's a teenage boy, yo.There are so many references to social media, bands and designers that teens are going to eat this one up. I'm not sure that the pop culture references will date Adorkable, either, which is good. I loved the roller derby references big time! Every single one led to me losing a big chunk of my afternoon to watching roller derby compliation videos on Youtube, which, to be honest, is not a bad way to spend two hours.The message in Adorkable is loud and clear: Be yourself, not anybody else. Embrace who you are and keep your integrity. It's a great motto for anybody and I think this will have a particularly positive effect on teens as it isn't preachy but perfectly integrated into Jeane's story. The way Jeane develops throughout the novel is brilliant and I adored the ending - obviously I won't give anything away but I think it was the perfect way to end a fantastic story.
What do You think about Nemožná Holka @ Adorkable (2013)?
Super cute book. It has a great "be yourself" message, and you can't help but love Jeane.
—johnson
Dit is echt een lief boek, zo schattig! Jammer dat het uit is!
—Meagan
