Review: Zelah Green: Dating Queen by Vanessa Curtis

Title: Zelah Green: Dating Queen

Author: Vanessa Curtis

Published: Egmont Books (5th July 2010)

No. of Pages: 240

Grade Rating: B+/A-

My name is Zelah Green and I'm a Cleanaholic. It's the summer hols and I'm on major Flirt Alert. I've joined mysortaspace.com and ever since I've been getting emails from loads of boys. Boys are Dirt Alert AND Germ Alert. Don't even talk to me about kissing...The rest of my life's a bit rubbish too. That's because: my dad is moping about the house missing his girlfriend; my ex-best friend still isn't speaking to me; my grumpy weirdo Satanist friend has turned up to stay; my cleaning rituals are are taking up way too much time; and, most importantly, the guy I really like, Sol, has disappeared off the face of the earth...

Warm and funny, Zelah Green is back with her next instalment! Zelah Green: Dating Queen was a deep book with a light-hearted approach perfect for younger girls about to branch out into fully-fledged Young Adult.

I read and loved the prequel Zelah Green: Queen of Clean and, therefore, was exceedingly eager to get my hands on the next book in the world of Zelah. In this episode of her life, threatened by her OCD, Zelah gives the world of dating a try to see if she can recover her heart after it was broken by the mysterious Sol who was mentioned in the previous book. Whilst being an extremely quick read (I read it in little under two hours) it was still very enjoyable. Vanessa Curtis has created a charming coming of age series that welcomes new readers who want to broaden their horizons in the world of YA. This is a truly original read that approaches a serious subject matter in a light-hearted way.

Zelah is a fantastic protagonist whilst maybe not being the most obvious choice. Her OCD works its way into her everyday life making things a great deal harder. I have never encountered a character with an OCD before in a Young Adult book. I think Zelah's condition is very rare and unique to someone of her age which makes her all the more interesting and loveable. I expected to tire of her 'little problem' but you really begin to empathise with her and understand that she hates her condition and would do anything to get rid of it. This book is also greeted with the same faces from the prequel but we still manage to delve deeper and deeper into their lives and discover some unexpected things.

Even though this book is quite short, everything is equally paced and nothing ever really seems rushed. The author never makes Zelah's OCD seem unrealistic and her surrounding characters reacted in believable ways. There were some moments where I was laughing out loud! This book really has a little bit of everything in it. There was humour, tension and plenty of bittersweet moments. A book for everyone.