Review: Withering Tights

Title: Withering Tights
Author: Louise Rennison
Published: 2011 by HarperTeen
Obtained: Library

Wow. This is it. This is me growing up. On my own, going to Performing Arts College. This is good-bye, Tallulah, you long, gangly thing, and hellooooo, Lullah, star of stage.

Tallulah Casey is ready to find her inner artist. And some new mates. And maybe a boy or two or three.

The ticket to achieving these lofty goals? Enrolling in a summer performing arts program, of course. She's bound for the wilds of Yorkshire Dales—eerily similar to the windswept moors of Wuthering Heights. Tallulah expects new friends, less parental interference, and lots of drama. Acting? Tights? Moors? Check, check, check.

What she doesn't expect is feeling like a tiny bat's barging around in her mouth when she has her first snog.

First Sentence:"Wow. This is it. This is me growing up."

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I laughed so hard. Louise Rennison sure knows how to create amazing characters and hilarious, yet plausible, situations.

While I have not yet read her other series that so many people love, I decided to read this book because it looked amazing. Trust me, this time, looks were not deceiving!

Tallulah (awesome name) gets the chance to go to a performing arts program for the whole summer. She’s really hoping to be selected to stay on for the school year as well. However, it seems like she can’t get any of the “arts” down. Her singing isn’t that great, she falls while dancing, etc. The only thing she really succeeds at is being unintentionally funny. While she is figuring out her future with the performing arts, she’s having fun hanging with her new friends in the town that she’s staying in. Turns out there’s a boy’s school nearby, and so the girls go on a few dates with these guys. Tallulah really likes Alex, the unattainable slightly older boy who might or might not be taken, and who so far has just seen her at her most crazy. And then there’s Cain who is the town’s “bad boy” and who keeping showing up.

I absolutely loved the situations that Tallulah got herself into. She keeps messing up and feels horrible about it. But sometimes she fails to see the charm she exudes while being caught doing/saying the strangest things. She has a strong spirit and makes herself stay positive even when it looks like she’ll fail. I would love her as my friend!

Also, this book is British! As an American, this is very exciting!

I love the characters, the setting, the references to Wuthering Heights, and the writing. However, I did think that it ended with her relationships with certain people being very unclear. I really need the sequel. :)

Rating:  

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Content Warning: Kissing (which gets pretty descriptive since it’s her first).