The Year of Living Awkwardly (Chloe Snow's Diary, #2)

by Emma Chastain

[Sam@WLABB]

If I was asked to describe The Year of Living Awkwardly in three words, I would say: delightful, amusing, and honest.

When I started this book, I was immediately captured by Chloe's voice. Chloe clearly came across as a 15-year-old teen, and I found her musings, observations, frustrations, and fears very believable. I fell in love with her. I was happy, when she was happy, and sad, when she was sad. I raged with her, hurt with her, and even swooned with her. There were so many times I wanted to reach into the book and give her a hug, because this was a tough year for Chloe.

She experienced a lot of disappointments during her sophomore year. There was her parents' divorce, growing apart from her best friend, losing some other valuable friendships, and additional smaller, but no less disheartening, let downs. However, all these were valuable life lessons for Chloe, and only made her stronger and wiser.

Confession: I read this book, and then went back and read the first book. From my personal experience, I can tell you that the book stands on its own. Chastain fills in all the pertinent details, and you will not be lost in the story. Now, I had thought Chloe grew tremendously over the course of this story, but after reading the first book, I was really impressed with how much she changed since her freshman year. It's one of the things I love about this type of series. Getting to watch the character pass so many milestones, make mistakes, and learn from them. I think Chloe's worldview changed a lot from book 1 to book 2, and you see it in her increased self-awareness.

There were many times I was really proud of Chloe in this book. She made some decisions, which could have been social suicide, nipped some toxic relationships in the bud, faced some big fears, and acknowledged some of her own shortcomings. This was such a huge difference from High School Disaster Chloe.

The diary format is one I really enjoy. I feel like the character can just share their thoughts without any filter, since this is being written just for them. It's confessional in nature and usually quite revealing. Chloe's shares were very sincere, and often hilarious. I laughed so much while reading this book, but I also thought some of Chloe's entries were insightful, and I enjoyed getting to know her so well.

Overall: What a wonderful and fun year I got to spend with Chloe! Chloe will join Ruby Oliver and Georgia Nicholson on my list of confessional protagonists, whom I love. I look forward to spending Junior and Senior year with Chloe!

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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