Rachel Vail

Here it is.

The worst book I ever read.

Everything happened at once, and nothing happened at all.

I will say this. This book is perfect for you if you like reading about shallow, spoiled, bratty, selfish fourteen-year-olds who don't know a thing about life and think they do, kissing their boyfriends from sixth grade (you read that right) and then leaving the boys hanging while they sneak around their parents' mansions and their friends party in the Hamptons with high school boys. Complaining. The. Entire. Time.

If the main character had actually shaped up by the end of the book that would've been something. But here's what happens. She kissed her boyfriend in sixth grade, didn't see him over a weekend and didn't talk to him after that. Just avoided the boy who supposedly had been more like a best friend than a boyfriend. (You know, 'cause eleven-year-olds have the maturity to really know.) Then again at the end of eighth grade, to the dismay of her friends, she got back with him. Not really. But kind of. They made out while in swimsuits and this eighth grader "noticed how warm his skin was".
Then, go figure, she doesn't talk to him.
At the very end of the book they kiss again. And that's all. It doesn't go on after that, to say she actually treated him right. For all we know, they never spoke again as long as they lived. If that had actually been slightly resolved it could've redeemed a story that was shallow from start to finish. But no one gained any responsibility or maturity by the end. Ooh, she humbled herself enough to accept her friend's gift of the dress they both knew she wanted more than anything. She once complimented a girl she'd been a little mean to before. Not enough to counterbalance that all along her group of "best friends" were talking about each other behind their backs.

None of these brats changed or shaped up by the end of this novel. It took over two hundred pages to say "The brats stayed brats."

But, if that's what you like, this book is for you. Hope you regret reading it less than I did. (Not really.)… (more)

Gracie kind of maybe likes AJ, but Riley also likes AJ, but AJ likes Sienna, who... maybe likes AJ? But doesn't know what to say to him? So Gracie texts AJ using Sienna's phone, because Sienna is Gracie's best friend. But Emmett, Gracie's second-best friend, is also AJ's best friend, so Gracie can kind of use him to get info on AJ, too. But maybe there's someone Emmett likes...

Middle school is generally miserable, and some of these kids are, too, but most of them are actually very likable for all that. I think this got put on my reading list because of the hat-tip to Cyrano de Bergerac (my long-time fave), and it's a cute, lighthearted handling of that angle. There are also some serious bits: Gracie deals with body image issues, as well as some complicated feelings about the older sister who died before Gracie was born, and about feeling like she has to be her parents' little ray of sunshine because of that. It's cute and funny and only a little bit angsty, and I would recommend it to middle-schoolers, and also those who enjoy reading books written for middle-schoolers.… (more)