Jessica Darling
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Sloppy Firsts • Second Helpings • Charmed Thirds • Fourth Comings • Perfect Fifths
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| Author | Megan McCafferty |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young adult fiction |
| Publisher |
Three Rivers Press Crown |
| Published | 2001-present |
| Media type | Print (paperback and hardcover) |
The Jessica Darling books are a The New York Times bestselling series of five young adult novels by Megan McCafferty, published between 2001 and 2009. Told from the diary-style perspective of character Jessica Darling, the series chronicles her misadventures through high school, college, and beyond. McCafferty also published a Jessica Darling short story called "Fifteen Going On ..." in a 2004 anthology she edited called Sixteen: Stories About That Sweet and Bitter Birthday.
In 2006, Harvard student Kaavya Viswanathan was accused of plagiarizing the first two Jessica Darling novels, as well as the works of other writers, in her highly publicized debut novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life.
The first two novels in the series, Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings, were first published in paperback by Three Rivers Press. The subsequent three novels were first published in hardcover by Crown, with later paperback editions by Three Rivers Press.
A series of Jessica Darling 'prequels' has launched, with "Jessica Darling’s IT List: The (Totally Not) Guaranteed Guide to Popularity, Prettiness and Perfection"
McCafferty published a Jessica Darling short story called "Fifteen Going On ..." in a 2004 anthology called Sixteen: Stories About That Sweet and Bitter Birthday, which she also edited.
On April 23, 2006, The Harvard Crimson reported that several portions of Kaavya Viswanathan's highly publicized debut novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life appeared to have been plagiarized from Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings, noting over a dozen similar passages. At the time, Viswanathan's novel had reached 32nd on The New York Times's hardcover fiction bestseller list. McCafferty's third Jessica Darling novel, Charmed Thirds, had just been released a week after Opal Mehta, and was No. 19 on the same list. McCafferty had been made aware of the allegations on April 11, 2006, the same day Charmed Thirds was released and nearly two weeks before the story went public. She later said that reading Viswanathan's book was like "recognizing your own child's face. My own words were just leaping out at me page after page after page."
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Wikipedia