Dreaming of Larry by Jean Ure

A tongue-in-cheek article in a school paper about "unfeminine" girls, and 15-year-old Judith's witty response, accusing the boys of being weedy and weak, leads to her meeting Larry, a much-travelled and sophisticated older boy. She is instantly attracted and the two develop a relationship.

I have read Jean Ure books before or *cough* tried to anyway – and in all honesty I really didn’t like them. Shallow heroines and paper thin character don’t really do it for me. And I don’t know why I magically expected this to be any different – it could have something to do with the utterly misleading book cover – just maybe.

Sex seemed to be a common topic in this book. Personally I don’t remember thinking or talking about sex half as much when I was 15 as these kids do. And when it does come up it is almost crude at some points but then since they are kids I suppose that could be expected.

So, an irritating heroine, shallow chauvinistic ‘hero’ who makes a last ditched attempt in the last 50 pages to have some kind of depth - this may be ok for young readers but it left me wanting to chuck the book across the room.