Audiobook Review: Second Helpings

Second Helpings

Author: Megan McCafferty 

Narrator: Katie Schorr

Publish Date: July 6, 2021

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Review: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Second Helpings is the second Jessica Darling book and a continuation of the 20th anniversary updated release of this series. Jessica Darling is now in her senior year of high school. Hope is still gone, her other friendships have shifted, and Marcus still seems to be popping up everywhere, despite her best attempts to move on. Jessica continues to try to navigate all of the relationships in her life and is looking forward to finally escaping Pineville (if she can ever decide on a college).

I had the privilege of reading and reviewing an ARC of Sloppy Firsts earlier this year, and was thrilled to find an audiobook of Second Helpings up for review. Second Helpings works incredibly well as an audiobook, and the narrator is a great fit for this book. Jessica Darling still has all of the qualities that I appreciated in Sloppy Firsts: she continues to be brutally honest and full of snark. All of her relationships are still complicated, and throwing a new boyfriend into the mix made this book even more fun to read. The writing style is clever and often just laugh out loud funny (tootie flutie! I can't!). I also liked how the series stayed true to original time period despite the author's edits: calling on landlines because there are no cell phones, dealing with the aftermath of 9/11, to name a few examples. Though parts of the book feel like a not so far off time capsule, many of the themes are still as relevant today as they were then. It's rare that I like a sequel more than the original book, but Second Helpings may just be that book for me. I continue to recommend this series, and look forward to reading what is next for Jessica Darling.

Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this ARC; this is my honest and voluntary review.