Very LeFreak by Rachel Cohn

Title: Very LeFreak
Author: Rachel Cohn
ISBN: 9780375857584
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Summary:
"Meet Very LeFreak:
playlist maker, party planner, heartbreaker, good-time girl who can't get enough of a good time, especially when she's online (all the time). She's the girl everyone wants to know, the girl other girls want to be like, and the girl all the guys want to be with.

But underneath all of that is the real girl: Veronica. The Veronica who misses her mother, who wishes she cared more about school, and who wants to be a good friend.

It's just that, well, Very can't stop checking email, sending text messages, making playlists, updating her Web site, finding new online shopping sites to spend money she doesn't have. Her electronic addictions are getting in the way of everything else: her scholarship at Columbia is at risk, she's facing academic probation, her friends have just about given up on her. So what's a girl to do?

Why, escape, of course. To rehab at ESCAPE, Emergency Services for Computer-Addicted Persons Everywhere, in quiet, leafy Vermont. Where Very will be forbidden to use anything electronic: goodbye iPhone. So long, laptop. But maybe twenty-eight days of being unplugged will be just what the doctor/dean/great-aunt ordered to clear Very's head - and her heart."
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First Lines:

"It wasn't the fact that Starbucks did not - would not - serve Guinness with a raw egg followed by an espresso chaser that was ruining Very's hangover. Nor was Very concerned that she had stumbled into her campus Starbucks on the morning after an overnight "study session" with the beautiful engineering majo from Ghana whose name eluded her, although Very knew there were many hard consonants involved."
Page 3
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Review:

It's kind of funny to be blogging about a book written about a girl who has a technology addiction. I've often wondered if I have a bit of an addiction to tech stuff (which I probably do), but I figure reading itself cancels that out - right?! Right. Anyway, I definitely picked up this book because it sounded like a lot of fun. And I know that Rachel Cohn's books are fairly popular - even though I haven't read any of them before.

So as an intro to Rachel Cohn stuff, I really enjoyed it. I had a hard time trying to relate with the character because she is my very, total opposite - which isn't a bad thing. But it's a little hard to put myself in the shoes of the girl who is such a partier, she can barely think behind the next event she's going to host - or the next boy (or girl) she's going to be with, and all of that. But as the story goes along, you really get to know her and why she's the way she is. Then you begin to feel a lot more in touch with her.

Even though I had trouble relating with the character, there were times that I really felt her pain - or what my pain would be if I were going through what she was going through. If that makes any sense. I guess that's just the mark of a really well written character. I don't get her, but I feel for her. So that's one really awesome thing about this book. It's just really well written. It seemed to take me no time at all - and I constantly wanted to be back in the story.

I would absolutely recommend this book to girls - probably 10th grade and up. It's set in her freshman year of college, and there's a lot of sex, drugs, and language to contend with. It's honestly not trashy like that made it sound - you don't witness any scenes of anything... it's just very present in the story. Also, being set in college makes it better for that older teen who is thinking about college and what that might be like. So, recommended. Definitely a fun book. And it counts for my Chick Lit Challenge! woo hoo!

Here's Rachel Cohn's website - It's got a lot of fun stuff going on, so I'd check it out! :)
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