Della Says: OMG - Keris Stainton

17 year old Della has liked Dan Bailey since forever. At her sister's going away party, he finally takes some notice of her and asks her out. The morning after the best night of her life, Della realises that her diary has gone missing, ruining her good mood.

Whoever took her diary is using it against her, revealing some of her deepest secret thoughts on facebook and through notes. Dan was the only other one in her room that night but surely it can't be him can it? He seems genuine enough but what does he really see in Della? The things that have been revealed about Della's life have been pretty embarrassing so far but will she be able to figure out who's doing it before it gets much, much worse?

What I thought
This is one of the first YA novels that I have read that hasn't been in the fantasy or paranormal genres so I was slightly worried about what I was going to think of it. Thanks to Rhiana Reads... who passed on a copy of this book to me.

I was actually really surprised at how much I enjoyed reading this book. It is told completely in first person through Della's point of view which really made me connect with her quickly and feel for her because of what she was going through. Della is quite the average teenager with many hang ups about herself and she is far from confident and beautiful. Finally, someone has written a normal teenager. I do hate those teenagers in books who are beautiful and popular but still find something to whinge and moan about. In this book, Della has every reason to feel insecure, not because she isn't pretty, but because her mother and sister get so much more attention than her. This was a part of her character that I could relate to as my sister was always prettier than me and everyone always seemed to like her a lot more.

The relationship between Della and Dan was lovely to discover. I was so happy that Della finally got her chance at happiness and having something that she had wanted for such a long time. The way the two acted around each other, going from awkward to slowly getting more comfortable, really brought back some memories for me. Going out with someone for the first time is nerve wracking, no matter what age you are and I can remember feeling very much like Della did. I can only imagine how scared she was about going out with Dan considering how long she had been obsessed with him for.

Everything about the way that the teenagers in this book were written makes them so believable. There is a fair amount of swearing and as much as some people will moan about this, I think it is a common occurrence in teens in the UK and not using this kind of language would only have made the characters seem like they were in a fairytale. I probably wouldn't recommend this book to anyone under the age of 14/15 though due to some of topics regarding sex as they are somewhat explicit. Again though, normal behaviour when I was 17.

There was a fair amount of comedy throughout the story, especially with Della's parents. Both best friend Maddy and Dan totally loved her Dad and so did I. He wasn't your average teenagers Dad which was what made me love him immediately. At least he wasn't one of those Dads in these kinds of books that think his daughter/s are little angels that don't drink, don't fool around with boys and don't swear. Della's Dad was very realistic.

As for the mystery aspect of the story, I thought I had guessed who was using the diary against Della quite early on but I was wrong. There wasn't many people that it could have been and who I thought it could be was never even mentioned but something about them stuck in the back of my head. I love being kept guessing and being proved wrong because normally I am right about these aspects of a story. Some of the things that were used against Della were so embarrassing that I know I wouldn't have been able to handle it as well as she did. I think if that had been me, I would have demanded to move schools or something.

I was a little disappointed at how quickly the book ended after everything had been figured out. I would have liked for it to have been drawn out a little more or something extra added to the end instead of the way that it was done. This is the only slight problem that I had with the book overall.

Della says: OMG is a must read for older teenage girls and I think that a lot of adults will be able to relate to it in someway. There are quite a few important lessons to be learnt from this book, like not caring what other people think of you and learning to respect yourself which is something I wish I had been like at 17. I will certainly be putting Keris Stainton n my list of authors to read from now on.