The Year of Living Awkwardly by Emma Chastain -- Review

Title: The Year of Living Awkwardly
Author: Emma Chastain
Pages: 384
Publishing: July 10th 2018 by Simon Pulse

Synopsis:

High school student Chloe Snow chronicles another year in her life while she navigates the highs and lows of family, friendship, school, and love in her diary.

It’s Chloe Snow’s sophomore year of high school, and life has only grown more complicated.

Last year, Chloe was the star of the musical. This year, after an audition so disastrous she runs off the stage in tears, she’s cast as a lowly member of the ensemble. Will she be able to make it through the show knowing everyone’s either pitying her or reveling in her downfall?

Chloe’s best friend, Hannah, is no help: she’s been sucked into the orbit of Lex, the velvet-gloved, iron-fisted ruler of the sophomore class. Chloe’s dad is busy falling in love with Miss Murphy, and Chloe is no longer speaking to her mother, who is sending her increasingly desperate and unhinged emails from Mexico. As her parents’ divorce negotiations unravel, a custody battle looms.

If only Chloe could talk to Grady about it: his parents are divorced, and he’s easy to talk to. Or he was, until he declared his love for Chloe, and she turned him down because despite all her rational brain cells she can’t seem to get over Mac, and then Grady promptly started going out with Lex.

As the performance of the show approaches, Chloe must find a way to navigate all the messy elements of her life and make it through to the end of the year.

Review: 

The Year of Living Awkwardly was a cute high school drama, filled with ups, downs, and plenty of angst to keep you turning page after page. I wish I would have picked it up over the summer because it would have been a great beach read. It was a little more juvenile than I was expecting, but it was still a really cute and fun read. It definitely brought back memories of my high school days! The characters were fun and pretty believable, but I felt like there were just a ton of cliches and not a whole lot that was truly original. The mean popular girl who steals the best friend and the crush, the family drama, etc. 

I think this would be a fun read for young high schoolers, and it would definitely be an enjoyable summer read. I would highly recommend this novel if you were a fan of To All the Boys I've Loved Before or similar novels. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon Pulse for sending this novel in exchange for and honest review. 

Rating 3/5