Very LeFreak Review

 
Title: Very LeFreak 
Author: Rachel Cohn 
Pages: 320 
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers 
Publication Date: January 12, 2010 
My Edition: Hardback 
Reading Level: YA, Ages 14+
(sex, drugs, language, alcohol) 
Borrowed From: the Library

Summary from Goodreads: 

Very LeFreak has a problem: she’s a crazed technology addict. Very can’t get enough of her iPhone, laptop, IMs, text messages, whatever. If there’s any chance the incoming message, call, text, or photo might be from her supersecret online crush, she’s going to answer, no matter what. Nothing is too important: sleep, friends in mid-conversation, class, a meeting with the dean about academic probation. Soon enough, though, this obsession costs Very everything and everyone. Can she learn to block out the noise so she can finally hear her heart?

Rachel Cohn makes her Knopf solo debut with this funny, touching, and surely recognizable story about a girl and the technology habit that threatens everything. As time goes on, Josh goes against his parents and his own better instincts to keep Maddie from completely capsizing. Along the way, he begins to question his own rigid understanding of God and whether, as his mother says, a girl like Maddie is beyond redemption. Maddie leads Josh further astray than any girl ever has . . . but is there a way to reconcile his love for her and his love for his life in the church?

Review:
Very LeFreak was a very strange but funny and unique novel about a pretty messed up girl. Very (real name Veronica) has grown up with a single mother who is basically a hippie. They moved around from place to place on a whim. Her mother was very carefree until she died while Very was still in high school. She goes to live with her aunt who she barely knows and isolates herself in the attic away from her aunt. Very is a very smart girl and goes to Columbia University. She starts to have lots of problems with school and her friends because of technology addition through iPods, iPhones, and laptops by IMing, texting, memeing, emailing, ect, ect. Her friends finally intervene to help her which means being sent to ESCAPE, and the rehab causes many changes in her life.

The characters were all very different and original. Very was the most original character I have read in a while. She is very hard to explain, and I don't really know if I even like her. Her character is just very complex and nothing like myself. The whole story was pretty racy with lots of language use, sex, and drug & alcohol reference. I didn't mind it too much because that is what the main character was like for someone who came from a dysfunctional childhood. I was very shocked by the last 100 pages because so many unexpected things happened. The book was very fast paced and easy to read. I love Rachel Cohn's books, but this one was good but just one of her greatest.

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