Welcome back to the Georgia Nicolson Readalong!
Quick refresher: in honour of our dearly departed Teen Queen Louise Rennison, I started a readalong so that we could read (or re-read) her classic Georgia Nicolson series. Every three weeks we’ll post about the next book in the series. You’re invited to join in at any time!
You can catch up with posts on Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging, On the Bright Side, I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God, Knocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas, Dancing in My Nuddy Pants and Away Laughing on a Fast Camel.
Please note that if you haven’t read this book yet and intend to, there are spoilers!
Alright, here we are, book 6! We find Georgia on the rack of luuurve pining after the replacement Sex God, the stereotypical Italian heartthrob Masimo, thinking that she can find him when her family goes on a trip to America.
So, a theme across this book seemed to be that Georgia is kind of dumb. She never truly realizes how big America is – her friends make fun of her for not paying attention in ‘geogs’ but she never actually sees a map this whole time. Georgia and her family are going to Memphis, but Masimo is in Manhattan. Georgia thinks she can just take a bus or phone up Masimo while she’s there. Oh, teen love. They’ll stop at nothing!
Georgia actually convinces her parents to let Jas come along on the trip.
“Jas, I am so vair vair full to the brim with excitementosity. Aren’t you?”
“Hmm.”
“Yes, so am I. Let’s sing ‘New York, New York’ to get us in the mood.”
“No.”
“That’s the spirit. You see, that is why coming to Hamburger-a-gogo is sooo good for you – it will broaden what there is of your mind.”
I started to sing, ‘I want to be a part of it, New York, New YORK!!!!!’
I stopped because of intense pensioner glaring when we passed the post office.
Jas was slouching along by my side like a trusty . . . badger.
“Jas, why do they call it that? New York, New York? We don’t say London, London, do we?”
“Hmmm.”
“Perhaps it is because Hamburgese people are a bit on the slow side and don’t get it immediately, so they have to say it twice.”
The girls are actually pretty funny and sweet with each other on the trip, and I loved the commentary on ‘why the heck are Americans so nice to us? What do they want?’ though there was one scene at the end of their trip when the girls decide to do a naked photo shoot with bison horn hats on in their hotel room, which was completely random and weird on a few levels. Yknow, like when Georgia constantly calls Jas a ‘lezzie’ (and does again as soon as they get home) and the fact that they were never shown as comfortable with their bodies like that before, and just, what? I really don’t know.
Once they get home, the hunt for Masimo is back on, because he was pretty much forgotten after a couple days in the US. But Masimo is full of mixed signals – rolling up on his scooter, kissing cheeks, asking for phone numbers, and not just for Georgia. She sees him flirting with ‘Wet Lindsay’ aka the older girl who also went out with Georgia’s first boyfriend Robbie (first), so the competition’s already there, and Georgia gets sad and jealous. At this point, Georgia’s in a state of confusosity – with the Masimo game, the fact that she received a letter from Robbie saying he still thinks about her all the time, and Dave the Laugh admitting he thinks he made a mistake and that they should be together – a girl’s got some pondering to do. But right now, her mind’s all Masimo. He eventually valiantly asks her on a date by showing up to talk to her father, giving off the appearance that he’s a suave nice guy (hm, foreshadowing that he’s a player? I think so.) and Georgia is elated to go out with him.
He put just the tip of his tongue in my mouth; it was really sweet. I felt so full of luuurve for him that I put my tongue in his mouth a little bit. And our tongues touched!!! They were snogging as well!!! When you describe it it doesn’t sound like it would be very nice, but it is. Perhaps that is why Angus and Gordy put the tips of their tongues out, because they know how sexy tongue-touching can be,
No, on second thoughts, I know that they put their tongues out because they are idiot cats.
Y’know, I am quite impressed that Georgia never seems to shy away from getting intimate with a guy. She barely has any shame and she likes to get what she wants. Which is why it was nice to see a bit of depth when she realized she couldn’t handle seeing a guy she likes with someone else any longer, and that she wanted someone who could call her their one and only girlfriend. Thus, some interesting tension between her and Masimo who has to take a week to decide on if he could do that (tip: if a guy says that, I feel like it’d be okay to dump his bum).
While Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers showed us a bit more depth and dimness to Georgia, it was a bit of an uncomfortable read. Part of me is feeling impatient and I just want her and Dave to end up together and be happy, but alas that is not the life of an average teenage girl. I also wish the books were a bit more fast-paced. Let’s see what happens in Startled by His Furry Shorts, which we’ll discuss on July 26!