2008 Woodie Awards
'Mortified' offers teen angst, no happy end
Nadelberg's new sequel more awkward, dreary than inspiring
Tas Anjarwalla
Issue date: 2/14/08 Section: The Mix
I've always been one to judge a book by its cover, and David Nadelberg's "Mortified: Love is a Battlefield" certainly looked promising. A cringe-worthy photo of a kid of indeterminate sex is on the front, and for some reason I decided the book would be hilarious. And, while it did have its funny moments, it wasn't nearly as clever as I was hoping it would be.
An anthology of real teenage diary entries spanning all the way back from the 1960s, Mortified offers a wide variety of glimpses into the lives of the most awkward, embarrassing and eccentric people you knew back in high school. The book's stories range from storyboard drawings to bad poems, love letters to pretentious lyrics. I never really was the daily diary-keeping type of girl. Actually, scratch that, I was totally that type of girl; I was just too lazy to keep one up. The contributors of Nadelburg's latest creation don't just keep diaries, they've shared them to the world in what is supposed to be a bittersweet collection of "real, teenage angst."
Now, don't get me wrong, the book is filled with "real, teenage angst," but instead of being bittersweet, it's just … awkward.
The book starts off on a bad note with poetry from a goth girl. I was expecting the poems to be laughably awful, you know, like something you wrote in high school that you thought was amazing but really just sucked. Unfortunately, hilarity failed to ensue. In fact, the overall theme of wanting to be murdered made the poems genuinely creepy. But, thankfully, the rest of the poems in the book turned out to be exactly what I expected. There are many journal entries by teenagers from the '80s - but like '80s teen movies they are awkward and all about sex. Unlike '80s movies, they do not end happily. You realize when you start the book that you are reading tormented stories about unrequited love and embarrassing relationships, but for some reason you keep waiting for that cute ending. The actual heartbreaking proof that characters like Josie Grossy from "Never Been Kissed," or Allison Reynolds (the freak) from "The Breakfast Club" actually exist is more sad than anything else, and when Josie doesn't get her longed for kiss, or Allison never nabs the jock, you just feel bad.
An anthology of real teenage diary entries spanning all the way back from the 1960s, Mortified offers a wide variety of glimpses into the lives of the most awkward, embarrassing and eccentric people you knew back in high school. The book's stories range from storyboard drawings to bad poems, love letters to pretentious lyrics. I never really was the daily diary-keeping type of girl. Actually, scratch that, I was totally that type of girl; I was just too lazy to keep one up. The contributors of Nadelburg's latest creation don't just keep diaries, they've shared them to the world in what is supposed to be a bittersweet collection of "real, teenage angst."
Now, don't get me wrong, the book is filled with "real, teenage angst," but instead of being bittersweet, it's just … awkward.
The book starts off on a bad note with poetry from a goth girl. I was expecting the poems to be laughably awful, you know, like something you wrote in high school that you thought was amazing but really just sucked. Unfortunately, hilarity failed to ensue. In fact, the overall theme of wanting to be murdered made the poems genuinely creepy. But, thankfully, the rest of the poems in the book turned out to be exactly what I expected. There are many journal entries by teenagers from the '80s - but like '80s teen movies they are awkward and all about sex. Unlike '80s movies, they do not end happily. You realize when you start the book that you are reading tormented stories about unrequited love and embarrassing relationships, but for some reason you keep waiting for that cute ending. The actual heartbreaking proof that characters like Josie Grossy from "Never Been Kissed," or Allison Reynolds (the freak) from "The Breakfast Club" actually exist is more sad than anything else, and when Josie doesn't get her longed for kiss, or Allison never nabs the jock, you just feel bad.
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