Book Review: Rich and Mad - William Nicholson

Let me start by mentioning this: there is talk of sex in this book, and there is sex in this book. I felt I should mention this because I know lots of people feel that young adult books shouldn’t include any sex scenes. I personally don't like sex scenes and vulgar language such as displayed in this book, but that doesn’t negate the 334 pages of the book that are enjoyable before this.

That being said, I found the book easy to relate to in that the characters both have very relatable characteristics, and I enjoyed the real life problems such as parental relationship problems, abusive relationships and horribly deceitful friends.

One thing I must say I didn’t enjoy is the predictability of this book. You could sense what the characters were going to say the page before they said it, and it was really obvious from the first couple of chapters who was going to end up with whom.

As it says on William Nicholson's website, “this is a book written for girls and guys to show them what girls and guys think about love and sex.' Having read my fair share of Young Adult novels discuss similar content, Rich and Mad ranked pretty high in that regard as it’s sincere, authentic and at times outright ruthless!

I enjoyed this book though on the whole, I found it humorous at parts, and dramatic at others, and found it a relaxing and light read. On the back it reads “Warning: some explicit content.” This is true, as is what the front cover. This book is about first love, first sex, and everything in between.