Rating: 
Summary: Adrian Mole: The Dark Side
Review: Adrian Mole is a misfit, a loser, under-employed when he works at all, fancies himself a great novelist, and is working on a totally inane master-piece which contains no vowels. His family is wildly dysfunctional, his relationships are disastrous, his therapist gives up, his luck is forever running out. And, when it seems that things couldn't possibly get any worse, well, you guessed it.Author Sue Townsend is a brilliant comedic writer, but in this work, the comedy is darkly satirical. The hero (or anti-hero) Mole was first introduced in her earlier work, The Secret Diaries, when he was not quite fourteen. Hilarious it was, then, to see him percieve the inconsistencies of the adult world without ever really understanding what was happening. Now that he is older, the humor is darker, with a biting edge. For this young man is now moving into his mid-twenties, without apparently growing or learning anything of value. So, is there hope for poor Mole? Will he ever grow up? Will he ever get a girlfriend? You will just have to read the book and see. While other reviewers expressed disappointment in the book, I enjoyed it immensely. It is different from the Secret Diaries with a different type of humor. Take it on its own terms and you will laugh yourself silly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding, some prior knowledge of Adrian Mole is helpful
Review: An interesting journey into the angst ridden world of the peter pan like Adrian Mole. Those who have followed Adrian throughout adolecense will enoy this read. It is best to have read the previous companions to this episode to have an understaning of his obsession with Pandora, his strange family and the frienship with Bert Baxter. I found this latest update as addictive as the previous novels and could not put it down (I finishedit in a day). It will be interesting to visit Adrian again in his middle ages.
Rating: 
Summary: Very depressing
Review: First of all english is not my first language, so expect some spelling mistakes. This book is one of the sadest, not in a tragedy kind of way but in a very depressing kind of way. Adrian Mole, who was stupid in the previous books, becomes as stupid as any person can get. He doesn't seem to notice that everyone hates him, and when he does notice it, he deals with it in a stupid way. He fails at everything, love, family matters, work, and every other thing he can fail at. I think this book is very dissapointing. After reading the other books, that are incredibly funny, you become really dissapointed that the guy turns out to be such a pathetic loser. I love all the other Adrian Mole books, but this one is depressing and incredibly boring, no encouragement to continue to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Loved It!
Review: I don't think this bis as good as The Adrian Mole Diaries,but I think it is definately worth reading! I encourage everyone at reading this.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed in Adrian!
Review: I loved the Secret Diaries. I loved and empathized with Adrian and also his friends and families. However, in this book, I feel disappointed in what Adrian has become. He had so much promise and was gaining so much insight and beginning to lift himself out of the self-obsession that is being a teenager at the end of Growing Pains. However, it seems in this book that he has developed into a petulent and lazy adult who seems incapable of consideration for others. Will I read the Cappucino Years? Of course. I still love this kid, even when I don't like him. If you haven't read Secret Diary or Growing Pains, start there.
Rating: 
Summary: Dissapointing
Review: I was dissapointed with this book, because it seemed very monotunos. I liked the original diary much better.
Rating:
Summary: Depressing
Review: In the earlier diaries, it was easy to see Adrian as a "lovable loser." It's hard to find the lovable loser in this book. Adrian apparently forgets everything that happens to him, learns nothing from the books he reads, and has absolutely no human perception. Yes, there is some of this in the previous books, but in "The Lost Years" its all we're exposed to, and its very jarring considering Adrian's age. Heap on top of this Adrian's selfishness and you have a main character who is very hard to latch on to or care for. In fact, there is no growth on Adrian's part. Throughout the book (particularly the last few pages) any development as a person is done to Adrian, not by him. I'll read the next diary because I enjoyed the first few so much, but this one really shook my faith.
Rating:
Summary: Mole hits the twenties
Review: Once again Sue Townsend skewers all of the same targets with the same bittersweet nib she used in the previous Mole diaries, but throws Mole into the nineties to add new complexities to the subtext. Adrian, now a young adult and no longer a teenager, starts to realise the full brunt of his hopelessness. He no longer can dream about becoming an adult and the situation changing- he realises at 24 he's left no mark on the world and that he's rapidly sliding towards 30. This is a hysterical book, but a dark book as well; a cross between the bleakness and doom of H.P. Lovecraft and the comic genius of Tom Sharpe. This book can only be truly appreciated if you start from The Secret Diaries, but the long rollercoaster ride of Mole's life is worth it. I'd love to talk about this book in detail, but revealing the plot points would be too cruel and take away some of the book's sting. Suffice it so say that every time some glimmer of good hope and fortune strikes the book's protagonist, your page turning rate increases to see how far it goes before his world completely crashes again. In what complex way will all the threads tie together to strangle the remaining breath out of Thatcherism? How exactly will she skewer academia, the literary world, the notion of the nuclear family, British culture, etc? Buy this book and find out. Sue Townsend has done it again.
Rating:
Summary: Catching up with an old friend
Review: The only reason that I am giving this book 4 stars instead of 5 is because I feel that only the original Secret Diary, being a cult classic, is worthy of that honor. With that said, I would urge anyone reading this review to read the Lost Years, particularly if they are familiar with the original Secret Diary. I grew up in the United Kingdom at about the same time period as the original diaries were set, and being a teenager myself then, I found the original work inspiring and insightful. Moreover, when read years later, one sees humor revealed that would have been unappreciated when originally read as a teenager. Having moved to the United States and having gone through high school and college, I lost touch with the works of Sue Townsend, and it was only by chance that I happened to spot the Lost Years at a bookstore, and decided to give it a read. The character Adrian Mole, now a single 20-something struggling with his role in society and his own personal failures and quirks, has grown up with me, remaining a reflection on my hopes and dreams as well as that of other "Gen X-ers." In the Lost Years, there is certainly a darker tone than in the Secret Diary or the Growing Pains, but this is more an accurate reflection of the character growing up. Throughout the novel, Adrian Mole struggles with his past, unrealistic expectations of himself, as well as the constantly shifting and evolving relationships he has with characters from his teenage years, such as Pandora, Barry Kent, and his parents. Throughout, Adrian's Peter Pan complex, where he refuses to let go of this past and refuses to grow and change, is the source of virtually all the conflict and tension in the book. The ending was in effect the symbolic death of Adrian's past, and was genuinely moving and hopeful. My only (very minor) complaint is with the ending, since it is Adrian's personality which gives the book its humor as well as its conflict, and it will thus be interesting to see if future Diaries will be able to maintain this humor while allowing Adrian Mole to grow as a person in light of the apparant, final change at the end. Still, a smashing novel.
Rating:
Summary: WITH ADRIAN CHUCKLES ABOUND
Review: The wry youth who sometimes signs his diary "Adrian Albert Mole, Unpublished novelist and pedestrian" is back. Those who laughed with this pubescent British philosopher in the 80s will be delighted; those who are meeting him for the first time will find that chuckles abound. At 16 Adrian is still the miserable victim of unrequited love, at odds with his parents, and celebrating Christmas night with "a desultory game of cards." Four years later, although still living at home, he has found employment in his local library, and companionship with a girl both bovine and boring. After his manuscripts are rejected by every literary agent and publisher on either side of the Thames, Adrian finds shelter at Oxford and a job studying newts and badgers. In his spare time Adrian has penned a novel that he believes should be adapted for the stage. However, no one is waiting in line to bring life to his 700 page epic with 144 characters and six live deer. A new love and a writer's workshop on a Greek island eventually brighten Adrian's life. Reading his eccentrically comic adventures brightened mine. - Gail Cooke
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