Fourth Comings (Jessica Darling Series #4) Book

I've been really willing to forgive the first 3 books for being so politically incorrect about literally everything because they were written and set in the early 2000s and were about a teenager. I remember being a teenager in high school during those years and having the same attitudes and snarky ignorance that Jessica did. It truly was a different time. I was not connected with the world, I was young. In that respect, this series has always been such a TRUE portrayal of the late 90s - early 2000s teen.

This fourth book, however, is now set in 2006 and was written in 2007. I graduated college in 2007 and I distinctly remember that by the end of college my attitudes had shifted. I know that I definitely wasn't as aware of things like slurs as I am today, but the terms that Jessica used all throughout this book to describe other women or LGBTQIA+ characters were huge red flags for me.

I don't know. I feel like I remember that around this time there were commercials on TV advocating to stop using the 'r' word, or the word gay as insults. I just looked it up, these seem to have started in 2008 - so maybe Jessica really is an accurate portrayal of someone her age who hasn't had her bubble popped yet, but she lives in one of the most progressive cities in the US, she studied psychology, and she has diverse friends. Why is she still using the 'r' word, calling girls sluts, and mocking sexualities and gender identities? I could chalk this up to being a product of its time, but I feel like its time was already moving past certain slurs and attitudes.

The other thing that didn't work for me in this book was the new format. Previously, Jessica's journals (each book) have spanned months or even years. But this one spans only 1 week. It dragged a lot.

What I did love about this book is that Jessica is now out of college and is job hunting. She and I were both Psychology majors who had a hard time finding employment in our field during the 2007/2008 recession, so this hit home for me so much. I felt like finally someone GOT me, what I had gone through. She makes a lot of comments about post grad life and the new challenges that Millennials face in many facets of life.

The word I would use to sum up this series is: REAL. The flaws may make it uncomfortable to read now, but even they were real parts of our culture at one time. Jessica gets a lot of things wrong, but they can be learning points if the reader is discerning. What she gets right, she gets oh-so right.