Reading Robyn

Withering Tights took a while to win me over, but I'm happy to report that it rallied in the second half and kept me reading. Tallulah Casey is a very interesting young girl and that's what this all comes down to. As the story progressed I found myself more and more endeared to her character. She kept the story alive and pushed it forward in ways I would have never expected. Speaking of expectations. I don't know exactly what I was expecting from this book when I started it. This is the first thing I've read by Louise Rennison and although I've heard a lot of praise for her Georgia Nicolson series, I didn't know much about her storytelling or writing style before this. Accents, quirky phrases, and Britishness galore! I was surprised how intensely these things came across. A lot of my reading experience was all about finding a way to interpret the writing in a manner that I could connect with and understand. This meant that although I found Tallulah to be quirky and cute, I kept getting thrown from the story as I missed out on conversations that I just could not figure out. Although I loved how British this is (and I hate to say this because I don't want to be that person) it was too British. There. I said it. I was lost, and confused, and although I could try and use common sense to figure out the finer details, in order to get through the story I had to start glossing over the moments when I was left in the dark. Just humming along with the melody till we came around again to the chores and I could sing along with the group. My understanding of these accents, pronunciations, phrases, and words is just not up to the level that was necessary for me to fully enjoy this experience. Although I hate telling authors to make concessions for readers in other countries, I could have really used some context. Like "college", clearly not the same thing in North America then in the UK. And that's great! I've learned something new! Now if only someone could fill me in on what exactly this means in the UK, I'll be set.Or maybe we could get even more basic, "Yorkshire" is a place, I think. I'm not totally sure if this is the place where Tallulah was or the type of accent that the people of the area have, but I would love to have some context. I've never been to England, I don't exactly know my way around. In the same way that people who have never been to Canada, don't know what type of accent people have in Manitoba. Do you see where I'm coming from? Am I just terribly uncultured? I know we share a Queen, but that doesn't always mean we share an understanding. However, I can say that once I got into a rhythm of navigating my confusion, Withering Tights had a steady upswing in the late second half. I started to get really invested in the story. With each humorous misstep and moment of genuine emotion I started to love Tallulah despite our langue barrier. This entire story was adorable and with all the funny quips (coupled with some boy-tastic flirting) I ended up have a lot of fun. Not as much fun as I was maybe hoping for, but still lots of fun. I don't wish to discourage readers with my complaints, but I would recommend that readers less well versed in British may want to pay extra attention to the Glossary at the back of the book. I didn't know this was there while I was reading, but by the looks of it, it has a few explanations of the more obvious quirky sayings and phrases which might be of use.Overall: I liked the story. I loved, loved, LOVED Tallulah! And I am actually pretty excited to read the next book.