Title: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 Author: Sue Townsend Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: Harper Teen, August 14th, 2003. Original, October 7th, 1982.
Number of Pages: 272
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Adrian Mole's first love, Pandora, has left him; a neighbor, Mr. Lucas, appears to be seducing his mother (and what does that mean for his father?); the BBC refuses to publish his poetry; and his dog swallowed the tree off the Christmas cake. "Why" indeed.
Do you see that little statement above the title on the book cover? The one that says "Almost definitely 5 million copies sold"? Well, that has to, has to be incorrect. I don't mean to be rude here, but I really don't know who would want to read this type of book. I mean come on: crude humor, confusing British terms and a protagonist that doesn't have his head screwed on the right way isn't what I would consider the best literature I've seen in ages.
I hope (like many other people) to one day write professionally. I've researched author sites and checked out books from the library to figure out what aspects are key in a good novel. Among other points, one of the most important ideas I've come to the conclusion you need to have in a good book is a well thought out plot. Quite honestly, I don't think there was any plot in The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. It was basically an ordinary kids life and how he made a fool of himself. I was snoring by page 2.
Even though this book was very dull, I persisted on reading it. I was almost exactly half-way done this book - dragging myself through it - when I decided it. I read to learn new things and also for a good laugh or two. However, while this book was occasionally funny, the only thing it taught me was not to pick up any more books from this series. So I stopped reading it.
In the end, I don't think I would recommend this book. If you especially like crude humor then this novel would be right up your alley, but other then that, I don't know. Looking at the reviews from Amazon, it seems very few people didn't like this book, so maybe you'd like it. I don't know. D.
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3 comments:
Maybe it's a British thing... no one gets their humour. (Joke.) Sucks you didn't like it, though.
Thanks for the review. I think I would avoid this book just based on the gross cover alone, but now that I know it's not well written I'll definitely avoid it.
And good luck with your future writing goals.
I would only pick up this because it says 'almost definitely 5 million copies sold' since I probably would have laughed if I saw it somewhere.
Although even just by reading the back I wouldn't really want to read it. I also wouldn't want to read from the perspective of a thirteen year old, no matter how close he is to fourteen.
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