THE HEALING TIME OF HICKEYS

The teen-angst–filled diaries of Adrian Mole, Mia Thermopolis, and Georgia Nicholson have all preceded 16-year-old Haley Andromeda’s, so what’s left for an insecure worry wart to write about after such hilariously detailed stream-of-consciousness rants on zits, lust, insecurities, crazy cats, thongs, and full-frontal snogging? More of the same, she charmingly acknowledges while mimicking Bridget Jones down to her obsessive diary entry categories, lists, “notes to self,” and even those sodding British-isms. At least hypochondriac Haley has her own set of issues: she’s smitten with the oblivious J.P., has a missing mom, a hippie dad dealing pot from their basement, an obsession with a ghost boy she meets through a Ouija board, and regrets making out with that cute-ish stranger at the beach party. With four hickeys as souvenirs—and the sobering realization that the hickey-giver is none other than J.P.’s cousin—Haley’s life starts blistering like the mosquito bites and chicken pox (and worse) that follows. An amusing but ultimately inconsequential time-filler for humorous fictional journal fans who don’t mind that they’ve been there, done that. (Fiction. YA)