Friday 15 November 2013

Review! Mad About The Boy By Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones is back!


Great comic writers are as rare as hen's teeth. And Helen is one of a very select band who have created a character of whom the very thought makes you smile. Bridget Jones' Diary, charting the life of a 30-something singleton in London in the 1990s was a huge international bestseller, published in 40 countries and selling over 15 million copies worldwide. Its sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, published soon after was also a major international bestseller. Both were made into films starring RenĂ©e Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth.

Set in the present, the new novel will explore a different phase in Bridget's life with an entirely new scenario. As Helen Fielding has said: "If people laugh as much reading it as I am while writing it then we'll all be very happy."


Review: I was very much looking forward to the release of this book and despite headlines slating it, and reviews being very much mixed, I definitely wasn't disappointed with the newest offering from this fabulous author. I was always going to be slightly biased coming into this review because Bridget Jones Diary is one of my all time favourite novels. The novel that got me into chick lit and the first book to ever make me laugh out loud, so this novel had a lot to live up to. You'll be pleased to know that I laughed out loud several times at this novel, and on a packed flight to Sicily nonetheless! This book had all the wit and charisma of the original, and the same fabulous storyline. 

The structure of this novel is very much the same as its predecessors which I was happy to find out. I loved the little extras telling us her weight at the beginning of each day. Calories consumed and also the number of headlice found. The headlicd thing was a slight issue for me, as I have a massive phobia of them, I can spot them a mile off on a child in my class, but I managed to overcome this because of the compelling storyline. Because the structure was the same diary format as the previous novels, I raced through this book, finding it to be a real page turner! As well as making me laugh, it also made me cry which is definitely the sign of a good novel in my book! 

Bridget is just as loveable as ever. The naivety is still very much there, despite the fact that she is now a mother and a fifty-something. She still has the same kind of romantic problems that she always had and her relationship with twitter is nothing short of genius, of course Bridget could t quite cope its modern technology. There are some brilliant bits in the book where she struggles with the various technological gadgets that are in her house, thankfully her children her her out when it comes to this aspect of life. I was so pleased to find out that Bridget's mum and of course Una were still around to features in this latest instalment, it just wouldn't have been the same without their occasional appearances, and they are just as funny and interfering as usual!  

It's quite hard to write a review of this without any spoilers, so I will just summarise by saying, although there aren't exactly any major events in the novel, I still really loved the storyline and found it to be a real page turner. The characters are full of humour and rediscovering Bridget was like sitting down for a cup of tea with an old friend. I really enjoyed this novel and am would recommend this to any Bridget fan old or new! 

To grab one and see for yourself, just click here

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