Title: Away Laughing on a Fast Camel

Author: Louise Rennison

# of pages: 276

Plot Summary:

Georgia is a heartbroken British teenager with her boyfriend, Robbie, recently living in New Zealand. She lives in despair without his company, while her friends (the “Ace Gang”) are often occupied with their own boyfriends.

Fortunately, they still try to comfort her, with all her troubles, and continue to guide her after she has met a charming half-Italian boy named Masimo. Although many other girls are also setting their eyes on him, including the loathed Lindsay, Georgia is determined to gain his respect one day.

Opinion:

Aside from the nonsense spellings and words included in Louise Rennison’s fifth novel, Away Laughing on a Fast Camel is quite enjoyable. On my first attempt at reading it, I regarded this odd style of writing rubbish, but after some experience, the words become more understandable, such as referring to parents as “Mutti” and “Vati”. Georgia Nicolson, the lead character, along with her friends, also shows some humour and realistic experiences admirable by teenage girls in modern society.

The good sense of humour found in many scenes in this novel makes it amiable to readers, as well as some of the interesting situations (e.g. fake eyelashes stuck together, making Georgia blind at that time).

However, I found it annoying that the author doesn’t end the book with a climax, but rather continues the plot to the next novel in the series, Then He Ate my Boy Entrancers, where the climax is found. Cliffhangers such as this are very disturbing at times, as though these two books were actually volumes of one. Otherwise, Away Laughing on a Fast Camel was somewhat satisfying. Perhaps these two novels should be combined into one, to avoid this problem, or add some interesting and exciting events to Away Laughing on a Fast Camel’s conclusion, so that both novels have their own thrills.

I personally recommend this book to all teenage girls who like having some fun and a laugh with friends, and also romance, since this trait is precisely identical to Georgia’s. After all, strange words and consistent mentioning of snogging aren’t “mature” topics, according to most adults.

Overall, Away Laughing on a Fast Camel is a satisfactory book, but I have many suggestions for improvements within the novel. I cannot specifically relate it to novels other than Louise Rennison’s, but I’m sure that many other adult novels have similar romance. Only the fantastic humour makes her novels such a great success.

Main themes and subjects:

• Romance
• Humour (including some mild toilet humour)
• Dealing with crazy family members
  

Target audience: Teenage girls

Genre: Chick lit

Book review by Fiona T.
* 45 hours so far
Can be published in the Teen Newsletter