| Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging | |
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1999 |
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Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging is a book by English author Louise Rennison. It was published in 1999. It is the first book of ten in the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series.
Plot[]
Georgia is trying to survive adolescence while the rest of her family seems to be certifiably insane. In particular, at the start of the novel, she's trying to recover from an embarrassing incident at a fancy dress party, where she went as a stuffed olive. Her friend Jas tries to help her recover from it, and tells her that boys don't like girls for funniness. One of her paranoias in the novel is her fear of having to become a lesbian because no boy will date her. She also hates her brown hair and huge nose. She wants to dye her hair blonde, but her parents keep telling her no. Because of that, she thinks she's too ugly to get a boyfriend.
Georgia and her group of friends; Jas, Rosie Mees, Mabs, Jools and Ellen, form a friendship group known as the “Ace Gang”. They hang around with each other, mess around in school together and constantly annoy the teachers at school – also known as “Stalag 14”. The school forbids them from wearing makeup, and make them wear berets on the way to school, as it is part of their outdoor uniform. In a desperate attempt to look more "normal", she tries to pluck her eyebrows. It becomes too painful for her, so she uses her dad's razor and ends up shaving her eyebrows off by accident.
A couple of minor incidents that occur involve Georgia's cousin, James. On his first night over, he sleeps on the floor in Georgia's room, and while they're talking, he reaches out and holds her leg. On his second visit, he turns off the light in her room and suggests that he and Georgia play tickly bears, a game they used to play when they were little. At some point during the game, Georgia feels something wet near her nose. She turns on the light, and James lets her go, picks up a book, and reads it as if nothing happened. Georgia helps Jas get close to a boy she has a crush on named Tom Jennings who works in a greengrocer's. While she helps Jas with this, she learns that Tom has a brother, Robbie Jennings, whom Georgia falls for immediately and dubs "the Sex God".
Georgia and Jas are invited to a party and Katie Steadman's house, as well as Robbie and Tom. Before the party, she decides to take "kissing lessons" from a boy called Peter Dyer. The lesson goes very well, and Peter tells Georgia that she's a natural. At Katie's party, Peter is there, sees Georgia and takes her outside to kiss her more. However, Georgia loses her balance and pulls Peter down with her as she falls. To make matters worse for her, Georgia falls in front of Robbie and his girlfriend, Lindsay, a girl in sixth form at Georgia's school. Robbie is annoyed and tells them to take it inside. And to make matters even worse, Georgia's skirt rides up when she falls, exposing her knickers to Robbie and Lindsay.
Peter, on the other hand, becomes attracted to Georgia, and asks her out. She accepts, but regrets it when she goes on the date and all Peter wants to do is snog. What makes it worse is that he snogs with too much saliva. Georgia gets Jas to dump Peter for her. When Peter asks why, Jas says it's because Georgia's a lesbian.
Georgia causes more trouble when she convinces Jas to break up with Tom. She tells Jas that she shouldn't go out with someone who works at a greengrocer's because it's not good enough for her. When Robbie gives Georgia a horrible look as she's leaving school, Jas says it's because he knows Georgia convinced Jas to break up with Tom.
At Bonfire Night, Georgia meets a boy who lives up the street from her named Mark. He has a huge mouth and looks like Mick Jagger. During one of her encounters with Mark, he puts her hand on her breast for no reason. Mark asks Georgia out to the Stiff Dylans' gig. Georgia accepts, but at the last minute wants to turn him down, but before she can, he sends her a note saying that she should meet him at the clock tower. At the gig, Mark causes a riot when he and his mates get in a fight with the band. A few days later, Georgia decides to dump Mark, but he dumps her before she has the chance.
Jools calls Georgia the day after the gig and tells her, "Someone said they noticed that Lindsay wears an engagement ring when she's at school."
Georgia's dad is offered a position in New Zealand. He decides to take the job and fly out there by himself and stay there to see how it is before the rest of the family comes over. While Georgia's dad is out, Georgia's mum calls a decorator named Jem over to redo the living room. Jem is quite fit and Georgia's mum always dolls herself up when he comes over. After a while, Georgia becomes suspicious that her mum is having an affair with Jem.
Robbie asks Jas out for coffee. Georgia tells Jas that if they are mates that Jas shouldn't go for coffee with him. Both of them think that Robbie is interested in Jas, and Jas tells Georgia that if something happens between them, she'll be the first to know. This makes Georgia so angry that she kicks Jas and storms out, vowing herself never to speak to Jas again. Rosie promises to ring Georgia if she finds out anything about their coffee date. Jas phones Rosie and tells her that Robbie wanted to talk about Tom, because Tom still likes Jas. The next morning, Jas writes a note to Georgia apologizing, and tells her that Robbie isn't engaged to Lindsay. Georgia tells Jas to go out with Tom again.
Georgia has a way for Jas to make it up to her for her appalling behavior. They're going to spy on Lindsay to see whether Robbie likes her as much as she likes him. They go round to her house and see that she wears a thong. She also doesn't wear her engagement ring when she's out with him and puts pink rubber things down her bra to give her a cleavage. They see her walk to Robbie for her date, and she goes for full-frontal, but he converts it to lip to corner of mouth. Their conclusion is that she's definitely not engaged to him, and that he doesn't really like her because he didn't do full-frontal with her.
Georgia plays in the tennis final at her school. She has to beat Kirsty Walsh to face Lindsay in the finals for the cup. Georgia easily beats Kirsty, but in her victory flings her racket in the air and it hits Hawkeye and knocks her unconscious. Kirsty is made to play Lindsay and Lindsay wins the cup.
At a Stiff Dylans' gig, Georgia and her friends go in a group. They do these funny dance routines that everyone ends up joining in on. During the band's break, Robbie gets Georgia alone and kisses her. He tells Georgia he'll call her. She gives it a while, but he doesn't call her.
Lindsay confronts Georgia at school and tells her that Robbie said she threw herself at him. She warns her to stay away from Robbie. Georgia is so upset with Robbie that she tells her mum she wants to go to New Zealand, which she originally didn't want to do. Eventually, when Robbie does call, he wants to talk to Georgia and straighten everything out.
Robbie says that he didn't tell Lindsay that Georgia threw herself at him, and is surprised to hear that Lindsay wears an engagement ring that she tells people he gave her. He says he's wanted to break up with Lindsay, but doesn't know how. He also says that she's too young for him and he doesn't want to be a cradle snatcher. The next day at school, Lindsay has been dumped.
Georgia realizes that Angus hasn't turned up in a few days and begins putting up signs for a plea for his return. Eventually, Robbie finds Angus, and on the day he brings him back, Georgia uses bleach to dye her hair blonde. When Robbie drops him off, Georgia runs her fingers through her hair, causing the bleached part to snap off. Robbie sort of laughs, says, "God, you're weird," and kisses her. He tells her that they can see each other, but to keep it quiet at first and see how it goes.
Unfortunately, Georgia's mum has booked tickets to New Zealand, and they leave next week.
Film adaptation[]
The book was adapted, along with It's OK, I'm Wearing Really Big Knickers, into a film titled Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging, which was released in 2008.