Title: Virgin
Author: Radhika Sanghani
Publisher: Mills & Boon
Release Date: September 12th 2014
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary
Rating: 4.5 stars
“Ellie Kolstakis is a twenty-one-year old virgin. She’s not religious. She’s not waiting for marriage. She’s not even holding on for The One. Ellie’s just unlucky.
But, with her final year if university coming to an end, she’s determined to shed her V-plates,once and for all.
And she’s ready to try anything – from submitting to her domineering Greek mother’s matchmaking skills to embracing the world of nether waking trends (no one wants a ‘Hitler’) and even YouTube tutorials on how to give a ‘blow gift’ (it should never be a job).
After all, she’s got nothing to lose. Well, maybe one thing…”
Again, me and the wonderful Erica from Tangled in the Willows did a book swap and, again, she did not fail on giving me one hell of a read. That girl knows me well. In return I gave her my precious copy of Caitlin Moran’s ‘How To Build A Girl’ (which was an absolute scream) and the more serious ‘A Certain Age’ by Rebecca Ray.
The obvious thing to love about ‘Virgin’ is how damn hilarious it was. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that’s given me stiches before but Sanghani has absolutely nailed it. A chapter didn’t go by without there being some blunt statement, a shocking anecdote or awkward situation to make you smirk, chuckle or do a full on belly laugh. I don’t know if this is just me but I always find written humor hard to get into. I’m sure why because because when it comes to TV and film, I’m absolutely fine, but as soon as a book cracks a joke it never seems to have the same effect. But the author has conquered the near impossible and for this very reason, I implore you to snag a copy of this one.
Also, this will probably sound a bit weird, but a lot of the information in there was actually quite useful. As a teenager who has yet to explore every inch of the world, the stuff that Sanghani included in her novel was insightful She raised various questions that I’m sure we’ve all found ourselves asking before letting her characters explore the answer for us. It feels like Sanghani was trying to not only gift us with her impeccable humor but also gift us with the knowledge that doesn’t get openly discussed that she herself has had to discover.
That brings me to my next point -SEX IS OPENLY DISCUSSED. ‘Virgin’ doesn’t treat the very natural and reoccurring act of sex as some sort of ‘taboo’. In my opinion (and a lot of other people’s) we really do need to start having more open discussions about sex and all those other, supposedly ‘taboo’, subjects, like periods for example. Otherwise we’re facing a life like the Victorians – we all end up repressed and unable to differentiate what’s healthy and what’s not. So we all need to take a page (or all of them) from Sanghani’s book because this girl is owning it.
Focusing more ‘Virgin’s literary bones, I am in love with its characters. They became so visual and relatable and they had anything you could possibly desire from a fictional character. They were just built in such a way that made it so easy to imagine and get into their heads that it was so easy to tuck yourself up in the ‘Virgin’s warm, funny, little bed.
The only reason that this book was not perfect was because I don’t think the dialogue was written as well as it could have been. I think there were some points in the book that got too bogged down in what the characters were saying – so much so that I sort of forgot where I was picturing them and what they were doing with themselves as they spoke. I mean they weren’t just sat there straight-faced discussing the altercations of pubic hair length were they? ‘Virgin’ perhaps need to include more of the ‘para-linguistic’ features just to push it even further.
‘Virgin’ in three words? Hilarious, candid and noteworthy. Read it.
The Argle Bargle 