Title: My Life And Other Catastrophes

Author: Rowena Mohr

Date: 14/08/09

About:

Erin's pretty much your average teenage girl ... except that her mother has all the maternal instincts of a black widow spider, and her dad is out of work and completely clueless. That's probably why they're divorced. Not that anyone except Erin seems to care. Certainly not Erin's sucky little brother Ben, who's too busy making money, or her best friend, Rami, who is turning into a fanatical environmental activist - with the emphasis on mental. And definitely not Creepazoid - Erin's mum's new boyfriend - who may or may not be a drug-dealing pervert disguised as a mild-mannered PE teacher! It's an eventful year for Erin Costello, but is her imagination running wild?

Review:

My Life And Other Catastrophes is the first of the ‘Girlfriend Fiction’ series. It is set as the diary of Erin Costello as required by school. Whilst reading I found that the first 4 or 5 chapters were extremely frustrating and quite easily off-putting. But with almost all books eventually I got to the point where I couldn’t put it down. Erin was constantly jumping to all the wrong conclusions and causing all sorts of trouble. If this wasn’t annoying enough she was constantly self-pitying and failed to see the troubles and sadness her friends were facing, being quite selfish. But eventually, as the months go by, Erin begins to mature and grow and finally begins to make the right decisions, but not after nearly destroying friendships, possible romances and others which I won’t name. Although the book was fairly well written it could have been better. Also the story was extremely predictable. Although I will give Rowena props for managing to fill in all the holes and answer any pending questions before ending the story. Overall I would really only recommend it to a younger age group and if older only to pass time. I’d reward it a simple 2/5 stars.