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Messy by Heather Cocks

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Second young adult title by the Fug Girls, and a near exact repeat of the first – teenaged girl in a socially and financially outsider position gets dragged into the inner circle of movie star kids, and finds more and less than she expected. This is bubbly and charming and full of fashion and kindness, so I enjoyed it. And I – hmm. How to say this?

There is a particular magic for me in seeing writers do something well that most do so poorly. Like reaching into the piles of dreck and coming up with a romance novel with heart and life and true beauty, the one in a thousand. Young adult about girls and fashion generally gets the romance novel dismissals: it's frivolous, it's silly, it will rot your brain. Reading a book that does frivolity well, with consciousness and control and a glorious sense of fun, I love that because according to the people who dismiss these genres, that shouldn't be possible. I mean, if you're writing YA about girls and fashion but it's actually good, clearly you're writing something different, something Publisher's Weekly can call 'coming of age' or whatever. Something more dignified. …Right? (I assume I don't have to point out what romance and YA about fashion have in common. Hint: look to the audience.)

Except the FugGirls don't care; they're writing about girls and fashion, and they're doing it well, and frivolously, and fuck all y'all who can't respect.

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