My Life and other Catastrophes is a a Young Adult Fiction story based on a teenage audience, it is the diary of Erin Costello, whose mother has the maternal instincts of a black widow spider, and her father who is unemployed and does not seem to make any effort to find a job, she guesses thats why their divorced. Her little brother spends most of his time trying to make money, her best friend Rami  is turing into a greenie, and to top all her problems of, her mum is dating her PE teacher.           What makes this book appealing to readers is that it has a lot more realistic approach to it. It deals with the sort of teenage problems that any teenagers face, like Erin's parents being divorced and he and her friend being obssed with looking after the enviroment, which makes the book more interesting. It may seem at first like a teenager complaing about her problems and whinging but towards the end of the book it has a good message at the end of it. I would recommend this book not just to teenagers but anybody.