Review: A Really Awesome Mess

A Really Awesome Mess by Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin
Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 

A hint of Recovery Road, a sample of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and a cut of Juno. A Really Awesome Mess is a laugh-out-loud, gut-wrenching/heart-warming story of two teenagers struggling to find love and themselves.

Two teenagers. Two very bumpy roads taken that lead to Heartland Academy.
Justin was just having fun, but when his dad walked in on him with a girl in a very compromising position, Justin’s summer took a quick turn for the worse. His parents’ divorce put Justin on rocky mental ground, and after a handful of Tylenol lands him in the hospital, he has really hit rock bottom.

Emmy never felt like part of her family. She was adopted from China. Her parents and sister tower over her and look like they came out of a Ralph Lauren catalog– and Emmy definitely doesn’t. After a scandalous photo of Emmy leads to vicious rumors around school, she threatens the boy who started it all on Facebook.

Justin and Emmy arrive at Heartland Academy, a reform school that will force them to deal with their issues, damaged souls with little patience for authority. But along the way they will find a ragtag group of teens who are just as broken, stubborn, and full of sarcasm as themselves. In the end, they might even call each other friends.
A funny, sad, and remarkable story, A Really Awesome Mess is a journey of friendship and self-discovery that teen readers will surely sign up for.

Hi everyone! My name is Emmy and I’m one of the main characters in this book. I’m intelligent, kind and an all-around good person.

Right now my life suuuuuucks. Everyone is out to get me, I swear. This kid at my school was picking on me so I decided to launch a counterstrike but I took it up a notch (or seven) via barrage hate posts on FB. I got over 250 likes on one of them. Popularity, here I come! Unfortunately, they also got me kicked out of school because apparently they weren’t very nice and that makes me a bully. They wouldn’t let me back in until I apologized but I figured, eff that.

So my American parents, who obviously hate me because I’m adopted and Chinese and very obviously not their biological daughter like my perfect sister Joss, dumped me in a reform school. I even confronted my “mom” about her reasons and she started sobbing and hugging me, telling me that they just wanted me to be healthy again. Puh-lease lady, even an idiot could tell you’re not really sobbing because I just broke you’re frigging heart. You’re sobbing because I caught you in your plan. I’m smart, I know these things.

Oh, and get this, my first day at the reform school, the fatty that’s supposedly my peer counselor took me to the caf after my family left and told me I had to eat everything on my plate because “They’re really strict with us eating disorder girls”. Um…say WHAT? I don’t have an eating disorder. Sure I work out every day and I make myself throw up if I eat a second fat-free, sugar-free yogurt and I treat Diet Coke like it’s an entree but that’s healthy, hello! Gah, that fatty’s just jealous of my size zero beautifulness. Just imagine how green she’ll be when I hit my goal of double zero. 🙂

This whole place is crazy. They’re trying to brainwash me into being an uber-feminist or something. You know what extra classes they have me taking? The Contemporary American Family, Women and the Media and Body Politics. See? Feminazi. Why else would they have me in those electives?

I’ll write more soon, I promise, but I just saw this guy that looked like he had glitter in his eyes and I just have to go talk to him.

Sincerely,
Emmy

Dear Emmy,

Die. In. A. Fire.

<3

A Feminazi