Review: The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg

 

Love is all you need…or is it?

Penny is sick of boys and sick of dating, so she vows: No more. She’s had one too many bad dates, and has been hurt by one too many bad boys. It’s a personal choice…and soon everybody wants to know about it. It seems that Penny’s not the only girl who’s tired of the way girls change themselves (most of the time for the worse) in order to get their guys…or the way their guys don’t really care about them.

Girls are soon thronging to The Lonely Hearts Club (named after Sgt. Pepper’s band), and Penny finds herself near legendary for her non-dating ways – which is too bad, since the leader of The Lonely Hearts Club has found a certain boy she can’t help but like…

What I liked

• You know how the term ‘feel-good’ is applied to certain movies? I don’t know how often it’s used to describe books, but if any book were to fit the definition, it would be The Lonely Hearts Club. This is totally a feel-good book. I had a smile on my face almost the entire time I was reading it, laughed out loud in a few places and may have even punched the air once or twice. Mostly because of the… 
• Female empowerment and solidarity! Woo-hoo! It was so great to read a book that promotes and celebrates female friendship. It perfectly captures why girls standing up together, girls sticking up for each other, girls encouraging each other and girls just hanging out and having fun together is one of the best things in the world. This book should be handed to every female who dismisses girlfriends and claims to prefer the company of men. Because they know not what they are missing.

• Did I mention how funny this book is? Eulberg writes witty girls - gives Penny and Tracey some great lines.

• Penny’s a fab heroine and I especially liked her when she was telling arseholes off.

• Penny’s dad, to borrow a phrase from Eulberg herself, was ‘adorbs’.

• All that and Beatles songs, too!

What I didn’t like

• I’m not trying to single out Eulberg for this, it’s just a disappointing thing about mainstream YA in general, that in so many stories everybody is white, middle-class and heterosexual. I understand that is the experience of life for some people and that's fine, but it would just be nice to see all different types of people get included. I thought it would have fit in here if one girl in the Club had come to the conclusion that dating boys actually wasn’t for her at all and would probably never be.  

Overall 

•  Really enjoyable and a great message, too.