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, Away Laughing on a Fast Camel, Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers, and Startled by his Furry Shorts.
Please note that if you haven’t read this book yet and intend to, there are spoilers!
Well friends — I’ve fallen quite behind, sorry! I don’t have a good excuse besides being busy/tired/uninspired creatively lately. And I’ve found I don’t have much more to add to my discussion on these books as they keep going. I still think Georgia is a selfish knob though she still is quite funny. And I’ve thought a lot about how the series would be half as long if Georgia grew up in the time of email and cell phones :p
Here’s a quick recap of book 8, Love is a Many Trousered Thing.
At the end of #7, Masimo (aka Luuurve God), Georgia’s most recent obsession, the Italian new singer of The Stiff Dylans, has changed his mind and told Georgia that sure, he’d be her boyfriend. But right as he has, and Georgia is all swoony, Robbie, (aka original Sex God, original singer of The Stiff Dylans, etc etc) shows up after being in New Zealand for many books. And what does Georgia do? Take off running, naturally. Which was quite hilarious. Book #8 picks up right there, as Georgia’s panting her way home, assuming that she has two boyfriends now. So the book goes through Masimo and Robbie sort of vying for Georgia’s affections with snogs and Georgia being ridiculously confused. It ends with Georgia picking Masimo, which I can see how it’d make sense because she was still feeling hurt by Robbie leaving, and as she picks Masimo, Robbie lets out a single tear and says he’s going to go back to New Zealand.
It’s all very well writing books about how to make any twit fall in love with you, but what do you do when you have got them? That should be book two, What to Do with a Collection of Twits When You Have Accidentally Done What Some Fool in a Book Told You to Do and Now They Are All Hanging Out Without You.
So of course once the Robbie issue is settled, Masimo tells Georgia he’s going to Italy for the summer and wants her to come with him (realistic for teenagers, yes?). So Georgia’s back to confusion, and I don’t blame her. What a ping pong game. But it wasn’t over — on a school camping trip, Dave the Laugh and the boys crash in the middle of the night, which results in Dave and Georgia hanging out solo and Dave telling Georgia that he loves her and then kisses her. Anddddd fini.
And now a recap of book 9, Stop in the Name of Pants!
Like the others, this one picks up right where the last left off. Georgia and Dave are still in the woods — Dave sort of blames Georgia for always toying with him, which makes her cry, and he apologizes and suggests they be friends again.
He said, “We haven’t done this luuurve business before, so we are bound to be crap at it. I do feel bad about Emma, but that is not your fault. That is my fault. We can put away our horns and be matey type mates again. Come on. Cheer up. Be nasty to me again, it’s more normal. I like you and I always have and I always will.”
Which was probably the most mature and swoony thing anyone has said in all 9 books so far.
Georgia still feels quite tied to Masimo, though he’s off in Italy at this point. She questions herself x1000 why she always ends up snogging Dave (and is still clueless). She still doesn’t ever think ‘hey maybe Dave should be my boyfriend’ – it’s all about being with the hottest rock star… which makes me feel bad for Dave at this point. She doesn’t deserve him! Yes he can be a bit of a dolt sometimes too, he’s a teenage boy, but I feel like he’s so clearly put it out there for Georgia so many times and she hasn’t clued in at all besides knowing that she likes to kiss him and that he always makes her laugh and she feels all warm and nice whenever she sees him. *head desk* I know this is the point of the story but my god it’s killing me!
Most of the book is Georgia missing Masimo. She tries to trick her parents into letting her go to Italy (lol). Masimo calls finally, but the number she took down from him was wrong. She tells him she’s coming to Italy because she still thinks she could, so now she’s leading Masimo on. So she waits and waits and waits to hear from him again – I think she gets a postcard and one more phone call. This would never happen now, with people being in constant communication!
A side storyline that’s been building up throughout the books is that Georgia’s parents are having a tough go at things. It seems to be more obvious in this book – they actually separate for a little bit and talk to Georgia about how things aren’t going well – but it doesn’t really seem to affect her much. Another storyline in that Angus has a near-death experience, so Georgia nurses him back to health (with Dave’s help), which was quite touching.
Stop in the Name of Pants! ends with Dave and Masimo having a bit of a face-off for Georgia at a Stiff Dylans gig – Masimo’s picked up on the Dave vibes after he came back from Italy, because who wouldn’t. He gets upset and stomps off, and Georgia isn’t sure if he’s dumped her or not. So who do you think will win in the final book? 😉
I’ll be back on September 27th with the final round-up of Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?! I can’t believe it’s almost over!
