Title: Lou Out of Luck (Girl Out of Water #2)
Author: Nat Luurtsema
Publisher: Walker Books
Genre: Young adult/teen, Humour
Book format: Paperback
Sweet Strawberries: 
Description: Lou Brown’s Worry Diary:
Mum and Dad both out of work. Money tight and packed lunches getting v. bland.
Have lost BFF to Prom Comittee. Cue endless bunting chat.
Boryfriend has joined Debating Club – lots of super-clever girls drinking coffee and arguing.
Sister in modelling competition. Yay! But seems miserable.
New second best friend has dragged me into criminally uncool hobby. TELL NO ONE OF THIS.
Caught Dad dancing alone in shed. No brain space left to worry about this. Just let him dance.
Anyway, bad luck can’t last for ever…CAN it?
*Free copy provided by publisher for review…
Review: This is such a brilliant book and the perfect antidote to the sad mood I was in before reading this. ‘Lou Out of Luck’ is the second book in the ‘Girl Out of Water’ series but you don’t have to have read the first book to read this one. It works great as a stand alone, which I can confirm as I’d forgotten most of the original story when I started reading this.
In the previous story Lou Brown, was training to be an Olympic swimmer, but she didn’t make the right times and couldn’t continue. Instead she found herself training a bunch of boys to do synchronised swimming. This book takes place about a year after those events and Lou now has a boyfriend, Gabe, and is struggling to deal with issues of her friends and school. Her parents are jobless and they have so little money that her family might have to move and are rationing the heating and food. Lou’s boyfriend and best friend, who’s now on the prom committee, don’t get along and to top it all off she now has to catch a lift (to save on petrol) with a strange boy from school.
Like the first book this one is just so filled with silliness and such humour that I was laughing the whole time I was reading it. It was refreshing to read about a teenager with a family who are struggling financially (something I remember from my own teen years) and it was good to read about this issue in a funny way rather than taking it too seriously. The story is told by Lou and her own brand of humour is just brilliant. The book does tackle some tough issues like bullying but with the way that Lou tells the story, it ultimately puts a smile on your face, making you feel better, and despite everything the ending is a good one and everything works out.
Each chapter of the book has some fun images around the chapter numbers, it’s in the style of the illustrations on the front cover and adds a fun feel to the whole story. Reading through the tale I just couldn’t help but laugh aloud several times. The whole story is funny but there’s some brilliant moments, like when text messages with auto-correct are being sent from Lou’s dad, that just had me in fits of giggles. As I said this book works well as a stand alone and does have some heart-warming moments too, such as the new friendship with Dermot and what ultimately happens with Gabe, Lou and his debate club.
I really enjoyed reading this and would recommend it to anyone who wants to smile and have a laugh. It lifted the sad mood I was in and is the perfect book to give to anyone to cheer them up. It’s perfectly written and just makes you laugh out loud, a LOT! It’s made me want to go back and read the first book in the series, and I can’t wait to read more from this author.
-Read review – Girl Out of Water by Nat Luurtsema
Have you read this or the first book in the series? What other humorous books did you enjoy, or do you not enjoy books with humour? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
The Strawberry Post 