Fresh
Elliot McHugh is a young woman just starting out in college. This novel is about her freshman year, and the struggles she has, both academically and with her personal relationships. This book is fast paced, often funny, written in colloquial and informal language. Elliot is a bisexual girl, living with a diagnosis of ADHD, and her college life is rather chaotic and eventful.
This novel is aimed at the older teenager, both in content and in its use of profanity and sexual imagery. It does paint quite a realistic picture of how young people often crash through their first year in college, dating a variety of people, going to parties, and making mistakes. Whilst the voice of Elliot is often loud and brash (she’s especially fond of cursing), the reader does sympathise with her errors in judgement and her heartaches.
The style and content of the book does require a level of maturity on behalf of the reader, as some scenes can be quite explicit. The author pulls no punches in describing such scenes but uses an honesty and humour in her writing that makes the book very readable.
