Review: Something Wiki by Suzanne Sutherland

SUMMARY FROM NETGALLEY.COM:

Jo Waller has three brainy friends, two mostly harmless parents, and one deep, dark secret: she edits Wikipedia for fun. But when her 24-year-old brother moves back home with his pregnant girlfriend, Jo is forced to reconcile the idealized version of her absent, cool older brother with the reality of romantic relationships and the truth behind so many embarrassing health class videos.
With the young couple moving back into the family home, there's barely enough room for anyone to move, let alone have any privacy. Throw in some major friendship turbulence, a seriously unrequited crush, and a mortifyingly bad haircut, and it's looking like Jo will be lucky to make it out of the year alive. When you're a pizza-faced dork who uses Wikipedia as a diary and would rather wear ancient hand-me-downs than shop at the mall, what's the upside? Jo is about to find it in the most unlikely way.

MY TAKE:
For some reason, this book gave me some Judy Blume-ish vibes.

In Something Wiki, Jo Waller is dealing with a lot of things at the moment. At first, it was just her really bad acne, and then there was some of her friends acting strangely, and then suddenly, her older brother is back in the house and going to be a father. What's a girl to do?

This book has at least a couple of things that teenagers and tweens will be able to relate to. For one, the friendship/changing-allies thing. At the age Jo is, old friendships sometimes do tend to fall apart, especially when people's interests start to differ. The acne problem Jo have will probably be relateable to other girls too, especially if they have severe acne. I didn't have a lot of acne when I was younger since I have dry skin, but I did smile when Jo tried some of the acne-preventing/removal stuff she did since I did try some of them in my younger days.

The plot with her brother probably didn't bother me as much as it did Jo, since it's not that unusual in my culture for children (especially those who are the only child) to live with their parents even when they have a child of their own.

I do have a question, however. With the amount of edits she makes, assuming she really does use Wikipedia often as a makeshift diary, wouldn't her editing privileges be revoked? I'm not all that sure about Wikipedia's editing policies so it was just one of the things I wondered about.

Overall, though, the things Jo went through were quite believable and I think girls her age would be able to relate.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dundurn for the e-ARC.

THE GOOD:

1. Jo goes through things that girls her age probably would too.
2. There are some interesting characters here.
3. You find yourself caring about Jo.

THE BAD:

1. I'm not sure if this is a series but I hope it is because otherwise, it feels a little incomplete.

READ IT IF:

1. You had severe acne as a teen or pre-teen.
2. You went through some major friendship drama when you were younger.
3. You've ever been disappointed in a family member.

RATING:


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