Book Review: The Taming of the Tights by Louise Rennison

Some of my favorite comedic coming of age stories are the Princess Diaries, but The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson run a very close second. I was sad when her story came to and end (especially because I think she ended up with the wrong guy, but I guess that is how it goes), so I was so excited to find out she had a new series coming out about Georgia's cousin Tallulah Casey from Oirland. The Taming of the Tights is the third installment and it is a perfect read after a stressed out day at work.

The Taming of the Tights by Louise Rennison

Book Description (From Amazon):
In The Taming of the Tights, the third book in the (Mis)Adventures of Tallulah Casey series, Tallulah and her mates are back to finish their winter term at the Dother Hall performing arts program. And Tallulah is determined to finally show the world she's a true star of the stage!
Out of the spotlight, Tallulah's life is filled with just as much drama. She's distracted by bad-boy Cain and trying her best to keep her accidental snog-session with him a secret. And although she is slowly beginning to think that maybe he's not so bad after all, she also continues to wonder about unavailable Charlie and dreamy Alex. Who would make the perfect leading man?

My Thoughts:
Tallulah is back! She’s off to Dither, um Dother Hall constantly in pursuit of the golden slippers of applause, if only her knees would cooperate and not bust out into spontaneous Irish dancing. The same cast of characters is back and they are all bonkers as ever.

Back with her host family, the Dobbinses, she finds them as mad as ever. Dibdobs has taken to making food out of what she forages which includes cake made out of moss and bread made out of snail shells. The lunatic twins are as out of control as ever, although, this time they have pet turtles named Mickey and Dicky they carry with them every.

Here little friend Ruby and Matilda the dog are as incomprehensible as ever. Ruby is 11 going on 20 and wants to be included in all the goings on whether she is old enough or not. Her father, Mr. Baraclough, owner of the Blind Pig still calls Tallulah a long lanky lad and he is now in a band called The Iron Pies. They take music and switch the lyrics about so every song they do references pies, like “Pie in the Sky”.

The Bottomly sisters are still as horrid as ever. Beverly has tried to drown herself in the stream after Cain broke up with her. All the sisters have it out for Tallulah since they think she is the cause of all of Beverly’s troubles with Cain. Mrs. Bottomly is still after Cain and swears she will shoot him if she sees him.

The Hinchcliffs are as cool as ever. They are in a band called The Joneses and think they are all God’s gift to women. They are all dark, handsome and devilish, especially Cain. For some reason, Cain has taken a liking to Tallulah, or so it seems. Last term, he licked a hailstone off her nose and then snogged her on the moors, a fact she is trying to forget and can’t let anyone know about.
The Woolfe boys and Tree Sisters are back with the exception of Honey who left for Hollywood last term. They still meet at their special tree during lunch. Jo and Phil are dating. Vaisey has a thing for Jack that seems to be mutual and Flossie is trying to attract Ben, but she is only trying to use him to get to Seth Hinchcliff. That leaves Tallulah and Charlie.

Tallulah still likes Charlie, and even though he kissed her last term, he told her he had a girlfriend. So, Tallulah has convinced herself they are just mates.

There is madness running rampant at Dother Hall. They got enough money to keep the school open, but not to keep it up, so there heat is on the fritz, the water pipes get clogged, part of the roof caved in, so there is just a tarp over it. They had a class on drumming, but as they only have one drum and it was in use elsewhere, it became a clapping circle. One class was about putting on your clown shoes, a class Tallulah excelled in. The main theme for the term is Taming of the Shrew where they are going to need to perform scenes from the play. Tallulah performs Kate rap style.

On top of all that are Tallulah’s boy troubles.

She doesn’t like Cain, but can’t get him out of her head. She is so ashamed on him snogging her on the moors that she can’t even tell anyone about it. But Cain keeps sniffing about which earns her even more animosity from the Bottomly sisters. Alex the Good, Ruby’s brother, comes home from University and tells Tallulah that he’d want to kiss her if she were older, but Alex also has a girlfriend. Charlie keeps popping up and says things that make her heart flutter, but Tallulah is convinced he just likes her as a friend.

I don’t remember a lot about being 15, but I do remember that there were several boys I liked and who I liked the most changed depending on what day of the week it was. So, Tallulah’s dilemma seems genuine and her confusion very real. She really likes Charlie, but the girlfriend thing gets in the way. Should she go for him anyway and face possible rejection? What about Cain, the Dark Black Crow of Heckmondwhite? If you can’t have the one you want, should you want the one you’re with? Is it better to have someone than no one? Should she get any more involved with him than she already has? And would he actually want a girlfriend or is he too happy just playing the field?

Whatever Tallulah chooses, it is sure to be a laugh.