Fourth Comings: A Jessica Darling Novel PDF
Preview Fourth Comings: A Jessica Darling Novel
Acerbic heroine Jessica Darling is faced with the post-college conundrum—what now?—in McCafferty's fourth (following Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings and Charmed Thirds). Her answer is to finally break it off with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Marcus Flutie, who, after cleaning up his drug habit, studying Buddhism and spending some time in Death Valley, is now at Princeton. But before she can break up with him, he pops the question, and she mulls her response for a week. The bulk of the novel is made up of Jessica's satirical observations on life in New York: the tiny room in a basement sublet she shares with her best friend Hope; her nonjob for a magazine that pays so little she has to mooch off of her older sister; her friends who convince her to go to a club where she is hit on by a seven-foot-tall drag queen named Royalle G. Biv. Though the acid descriptions of city life are as hilarious as in the previous books (her landlord says of her eyebrows: Zey are like two desperate sperm trying to impregnate your eyeballs!), the book lacks cohesion, and the ending is a letdown. Like cotton candy, it's sweet and fluffy but has no substance. (Sept.)
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Jessica Darling, last seen in Charmed Thirds (2006), is finally a college graduate, but other than her brand-new degree, nothing has changed. She still overanalyzes everything, including her relationship with Marcus Flutie, her on-and-off-again love, who has finally settled down and is about to start school at Princeton. Jessica is just about to end their relationship when Marcus shocks her with a marriage proposal. Most of the novel covers Jessica's musings during the week she takes to decide whether or not to say yes. Like any recent graduate, she is struggling to make the rent, find a job that will pay the bills, and, basically, grow up. Charming and fitting as it was in McCafferty's earlier tales, when Jessica was in school, her protagonist's ponderous examination of her life, friendships, and relationship with Marcus is a bit tiresome this time around. Fans of the series will enjoy seeing Jessica and her friends coping with the real world, but here's hoping that if there is a fifth installment, Jessica will have matured. Huntley, Kristine
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