Santa Monica Sucks
Laura Cherry
language
(, May 18, 2017)
Jennifer Green's resentment towards her parents is palpable. They selfishly uprooted her from her humble home in Norfolk, England, so her father could further his already flourishing career as a plastic surgeon. Jenny wants to hate everything about the place, and we follow her through the ups and downs of her relationship with Santa Monica.Having to start from scratch is difficult for anyone, but having to start a new school and make friends as a teenage girl is Jenny’s first challenge. Fat, plain, and boring – that’s how she sees herself. Like a lot of teenage girls she is overly self-critical, and thinks it must be a joke when she somehow starts to become friends with the most popular group of girls in her year at school.There are some moments of hilarity, some moments of recoil, and some heart-warming examples of friendship as Jenny finds her place in the group. Even making friends doesn’t come without some self-loathing, with Jenny finding it difficult to maintain her close relationship with her best friend from Norfolk. Missed calls, unnecessarily harsh emails, and weeks at a time without any contact leave Jenny doubtful that she and Violet can make their long distance friendship work. Yet, she feels the need to cling on to some semblance of her British identity. Just when everything seems to be falling into place, and Jenny is starting to think that Santa Monica might not be so bad after all, something dreadful and unexpected happens - an awful event that plunges the friend group into turmoil, and changes each of the girls in some way.