Haylah Swinton has done it. She is a bona fide comedian, after nailing a set on stage live in front of an audience. The embarrassing finale wasn’t quite what she’d planned but hey, everyone said she was brilliant.

Now Haylah is posting direct to the public through her Youtube channel. She hasn’t got many subscribers, but she enjoys doing it anyway. Who would’ve thought she would have a real life boyfriend too, after all, her nickname at school has been Pig for years. But Haylah has brushed all of that aside (see Pretty Funny for more about that), and embraced her body, her love affair with Kit Kats, feminism, and her quirky sense of style.

The only problem is, her said ‘boyfriend’ seems just that. A boy. A friend. Dylan hasn’t even held her hand, let alone kissed her, and it’s doing her head in. Is he embarrassed about that stuff? About her?

A curveball in the shape of her errant-left-her-mum-five-years-ago dad knocks her for a six, turning up when she least expects it. Now what? When she gets over the shock and finally stops sobbing all over her besties Chloe and Kas, she lets her father have it. Both barrels loaded with five years of hurt.

Now he wants to spend time with her. No way…    maybe…    she’ll think about it…   But how to tell her Mum? Mum has a boyfriend, but though Haylah was only ten when Dad left, and she remembers the fallout and her mum’s misery.

To top things off, Chloe and Kas have some news of their own. With everything else that’s going on, Haylah is a bundle of confusion. She falls back on what always makes her feel better – comedy. Spilling her thoughts onto Youtube. Her subscribers go up, but her popularity at home plummets. Can things get any worse?

Haylah Swinton is definitely one of my favourite book characters ever!

Like the first book in this series (They say I’m Pretty Funny for a Girl), Am I Really Pretty Rude for a Girl? is full of one liners, and great banter between Haylah and her mum. So much is changing for Haylah – friends, relationships inside and outside her home, and her thoughts as she tries to deal with it all are authentic and funny.

I laughed out loud all the way through the book, and the get-Dylan-back scene made me laugh so hard, I was wiping my eyes. Pretty Rude is sweet, funny, realistic, and full of many challenges teens will face in their lives.

Absolutely loved it. I so wish there was another in the series…. 

Author – Rebecca Elliott

Age – 14+

Read a review for the first funny book in this series (Click on the Cover)

(2021, Penguin, Humour, Funny, LOL, Laugh out loud, Sarcasm, Gags, Comedy, Performing, Mum’s new boyfriend, Relationships, Family, Trust, Romance, Identity, Confidence, Self-love, Feminism, Social Media, Anecdotes, Drama, Best Friends, Sequel, Growing Up)