Life at the Shallow End - Helen Bailey

Life at the shallow end has been on my list of 'to reads' for a while so I finally got round to picking it up. It is a classic young adult fiction and is based around Electra Brown who is a teenager and is sensitive about her looks and desperate for a guy called Jags to notice her. Electra has two best friends: Sorrell and Lucy. Sorrell is a forced vegetarian and spends all her money on buying meat and Lucy has the perfect home and family and is forced to be very tidy. Electra's life goes into meltdown when her dad announces he is leaving: but why? She has to find out!

I found this book a bit tedious at times. I couldn't help but compare Electra to Georgia Nicholson from 'Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging'. In my opinion the plot and characters are too similar to Louise Rennison's books. Even down to the fine details like in Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging there is a snog scale, In Life at the Shallow End there is a snogability scale which is more metaphorical. Also there is the whole 'Dad leaving' scenario which also occurs in both books. I know I probably shouldn't compare the two but they are too similar for my liking. But on the other hand it did have a few laughs in it - and made me smile.  


I found this book funny but I got really bored in some parts I'm afraid. I give it One star.