In the end, you will fail to save that which matters most.

My daughter is a Percy Jackson fangirl. (How big of a fangirl? She was practically inconsolable when the series ended, she won a trivia contest [and collector's edition of the first book] at our local Borders during their movie kick-off event, she began studying Greek mythology, she was thrilled to get a copy of The Odyssey for Easter, and she was PISSED about the movie version BEFORE IT EVEN CAME OUT. Et cetera. I mean, I could go on.) So after we listened to all of the Harry Potter books, I promised her we would listen to the Percy Jackson books. As always, we started with book one: The Lightning Thief as read by Jesse Bernstein.

What I Liked

- I think the book is a lot of fun. The characters are great, especially the main trio (Percy, Annabeth, and Grover). Percy and his imperfections make the perfect kind of protagonist for reluctant readers, and the fact that he is a reluctant reader himself would probably endear him even more to that particular demographic. Annabeth is smart, snarky, and fearless. And then there’s sweet sidekick Grover.

The best thing about the trio is that they all have their own reasons for going on the quest, and they all have something to prove. Unlike in the Harry Potter books where Ron and Hermione are mostly helping out because Harry is their friend (and for the good of wizard-kind), every member of this trio has his or her own separate, personal, and mostly selfish reasons for joining the quest.

- The reliance on Greek mythology is awesome. As I stated above, it definitely fueled my daughter’s interest in Greek mythology (as well as other mythologies). There’s lots of fun background info given to the readers, and it’s all easily woven into the narrative instead of an obvious attempt to school us about Greek mythology.

- I also love the way Riordan modernizes Olympus and ties the United States and its geography to the gods and goddesses. That the record company is the entrance to the underworld? Awesome. DOA Recording Studios? BRILLIANT. The depiction of the gods and goddesses is also cool. Ares as a motorcycle head, Poseidon as a retired beach dude, and Zeus as a CEO? Nicely done.

What I Didn’t Like

- This is a very male heavy narrative. Annabeth is smart, snarky, fearless, insecure, and has something to prove. Percy’s mom (who is in an abusive relationship) is interesting and nuanced. However, Percy’s mom is absent for most of the narrative and the other female characters that are present (besides Annabeth) are villains and bullies. I hope that changes in the rest of the books.

- As for the audiobookiness of it all, the narrator is really annoying. Percy sounds like a whiny sixteen-year-old rather than a smart alecky twelve-year-old. And Jesse Bernstein narrates THE WHOLE SERIES. Shoot me now. Also, I should point out that my daughter hates the narration as well. It’s a very, very, VERY good thing the story is so compelling because there is nothing remotely appealing about Bernstein’s narration.

Except Ares. I’ll give him Ares. His Ares is very good.

In conclusion: I recommend the book, but not the audiobook version–unless you like your smart alecky twelve-year-old boys to sound like whiny sixteen-year-olds. The story is superfun, and I can see how and why Percy’s story has become so popular.

See larger image The Lightning Thief: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Book 1 (Audio CD) By (author) Rick Riordan List Price: $19.99 USD New From: $10.84 In Stock Used from: $10.79 In Stock Release date June 14, 2005.

I couldn’t help lifting my hand to finger the spot on my own scalp where, more than three months earlier, surgeons at the Stark Institute for Neurology and Neurosurgery had cut open my head, slipped out Nikki’s brain, and inserted my own.

Runaway by Meg Cabot is the conclusion of her Airhead trilogy. Emerson (Em) Watts is still in Nikki’s body in this one, and Stark’s master plan is explained.

What I Liked

- It’s Meg Cabot fare. You know. A good light read with fun characters and the requisite levels of ridiculousness. No one except the villain (Stark) is really bad.

- Lulu. Lulu continues to be awesome.

- The Stark plot is even more sinister than I thought.

- I think the first book was more effective in its commentary on judging a book by its cover and the notion of understanding someone because you think you know something about her. This book, though,  is really about the price of beauty as well as the value of youth and beauty in our society. Overall, I think this trilogy does some interesting things with regards to those questions.

What I Didn’t Like

- That said, there are some very conflicting messages about beauty. On the one hand, it’s skin deep. On the other hand, a decent makeover seems to erase a character’s deep personality flaws. So much so that she can win the affection of the boy she likes even when her personality still sucks. Um yeah. I don’t like that at all. It would be one thing if he were shown to have been drawn to her/intrigued by her before the makeover. Or even if they had GOTTEN ALONG. But no. Just because she’s pretty (now), she’s suddenly desirable as a girlfriend. Yeah, I didn’t like that at all. Obviously.

Thankfully, it’s only a small part of the plot. A very, very small part. Still, the impact is clearly felt (by me).

- Em is very generic in this book. By the end, I felt that she could have been substituted with just about any other Meg Cabot heroine.

And Christopher could have been any dude. They both felt kind of flat.

Luckily, everyone else is awesome. Especially Lulu. Did I mention I kind of love her? I might have to make her one of my literary girlfriends.

In conclusion: If you like Meg Cabot, you’ll like this book. It’s exactly what I expected (and needed) it to be. I think the first book of the trilogy is the strongest, but I like how everything (almost–let’s not count that one stupid pairing) is resolved here, especially the Stark drama.

YA Reading Challenge: 24/75

The topic of the current diversity roll call is paradigm shifts, more specifically:

Have you ever read a book and the character’s perspective opened you to ideas, beliefs or realities that you had never considered? Tell us a about a work or an author whose body of work changed how you looked at the world, others or yourself. Have you ever read a book and had a paradigm shift because of it?

It took me some time to come up with my answer to this question.  I have read a lot of books.  A LOT.  My main love, though, is series fiction.  The Baby-Sitters Club was my gateway drug into the world of series fiction, and then I moved on to Sweet Valley High before stumbling upon Katherine Applegate’s Ocean City and then Boyfriends/Girlfriends (now Making Out) series.  And I liked Applegate a lot because she always featured a minority character, which was a welcome change from SVH and its focus on the blonde twins and their ultra-white friends.

I recently reread book one in the Girl Friends series, a ten-book series most people have never heard of.  It was extremely popular with me, of course, but one person does not a successful series make, and author Nicole Grey’s contract wasn’t extended, so the series ends on a wicked cliffhanger.  I had stumbled upon Girl Friends in 1993, voracious bookstore goer that I was.  And at first, I thought it was my pick for the paradigm shift because of what I said at the end of my review there.  Namely:

Empowerment through female friendships.  I’d be lying if I said that this series hasn’t inspired my dissertation topic focusing on female friendship.  If I didn’t love these books with all of my heart, I doubt very seriously that I would even think about or consider friendships between girls as much as I do.

But that’s not even it.  Because Applegate had strong female friendships, and the BSC is founded by best friends.  No, it’s more than that.

In his memoir Bad Boy, Walter Dean Myers talks about his experiences reading.  And he says that he read a wealth of writers, mostly white and male.  But it wasn’t until he read James Baldwin and Langston Hughes that his world changed because they talked about Harlem, and he so strongly identified with their writing about it because that’s where he lived.  He saw himself and his family and friends in their writing.  What he said, and I’ll never forget, is that reading Baldwin and Hughes gave him permission to write the stories he wanted to write about the people and places he knew.

And that’s what Girl Friends did for me.  I always wanted to write a book series because that’s what I liked to read, but I didn’t live in a world like BSC and SVH.  I lived in a world with lots of people of color.  A world where there would only be one white main character, if there was one at all.  (Janis, the only featured white character, is introduced last.  LAST.  Most of the series fiction I’ve read centers around a blond white female.  And if not blond, then still white.  The first character introduced in GF is Stephanie–who is Chinese-American.) It wasn’t until I read Grey’s series that I felt like anyone would read or write a series populated with girls of color or a series that talked about the things I saw going on with the people I knew.  It was the first series I read where it felt like a world I lived in, and that blew my mind.

So, not only did it impress upon me the importance of female connection (note:  none of these girls were ever in competition with each other over a boy), nor did it just open my eyes to true contemporary realism in series fiction, but it also showed me there was a place for me and the people and situations I knew in series fiction.  And that gave me permission to dream, for real, about writing my own series one day.

Which I may get around to doing one day.

I am reading two very serious books (serious in different ways–one is an autobiography, another is just kind of hard to read), so to give myself a break on Christmas Eve, I broke out my copy of The Magic Christmas because I knew it would be easy, and it’s always fun.  The twins get dolls that come alive!  They go to a magical world!  There are riddles to solve!  And magic!

Anyway, there’s not much to say about it except I totally laughed at Elizabeth being self-centered and twelve because her grandmother was all, “Samantha and Amanda stopped speaking because Samantha (I think) framed the love of her sister’s life and got him sent to prison and they regretted it their whole lives” and Liz is basically like, “Yeah, okay, whatever, but Jessica hated my lame Christmas gift so she totally deserves my ire.”  HAHAHAHA.  Oh, Liz.

The book is great because even if you don’t know the twins, it’s easy to follow their drama.  Also, you could cut out all of the details that make it specific to Liz and Jessica and turn it into a story about some other twins.  Plus also, it is kind of creepy cool that each girl basically develops a crush on her sister’s personality doppelganger.  I don’t know how to feel about that except…creepy cool.

Fun way to end the year.  Now I have to finish the other two books.

“I can’t do anything but try to stay out of trouble.”

“Then how will you stay out of trouble, Ruby?” she asked me. “There must be something you can articulate.”

I thought for a moment.  “I can keep away from boys,” I answered.

The Treasure Map of Boys is the third book in the Ruby Oliver series by E. Lockhart.  In this book, Ruby is still in therapy and still trying to navigate her interpersonal relationships in the Tate universe.

What I Liked
-    I love Ruby Oliver.  She is totally one of my favorite characters ever.  I cannot say that I personally relate to her, but she would be a friend of mine in real life.  I don’t know what that says about me.  Or my friends.  But there you go.

-    Another complex look at female friendships and relationships.

-    The book is funny and fun.

-    I really like the way that Lockhart uses the books to examine issues related to feminism (more on this later).

-    I loved the ending a lot.

What I Didn’t Like
I cannot think of anything!

Women Unbound?
I know that The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is Lockhart’s specifically feminist novel, and while it obviously is with its emphasis on power structures, the old boys club, and the glass ceiling, I really enjoy Ruby Oliver’s brand of feminism more—probably because as a teen, I’d be more able to relate to it.  Ruby likes boys and is constantly negotiating her world because liking boys and being liked by boys creates so much confusion for her with the other girls.  I mean, she is a famous slut and hasn’t done anything, really.  And it’s all reputation, which is very important, especially for teenaged girls of her socio-economic status.

There are also moments in the novel, like when Ruby is organizing the bake sale, where the characters specifically address gender roles and responsibilities.

And why was it that I had to lie to my friend in order to do the right thing by her? In order to be a good person, I had to pretend I didn’t feel the way I felt.

Ruby encapsulates the double bind.  She is also selfish and self-centered in her way, which makes her authentically a teenager.

In conclusion:  Great read if you’re looking for something fun.

I’m not much of a badass demon slayer.  Superheroes always have a cool origin story, but not me.  I’m not on a quest for vengeance or atonement.  I’m not the chosen one.  I’m just a girl who can see things that most people can’t.

Highway to Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore is the third book in the Maggie Quinn series about, as the quote says, a girl who vanquishes evil because she has the gift of Sight.  In this book, Maggie and Lisa run across demonic hi-jinks in their quest to achieve that college ritual known as spring break.

What I Liked
-    D&D Lisa owns my soul.  She is a fantastically complicated character.

-    Female friendship.  This series takes a great look at female friendship.  Lisa and Maggie’s relationship is so complex and has so many layers.  I love that they can call each other on any manner of b.s. but at the same time, we see Maggie’s hesitation to address certain things with Lisa because she knows her so well.  While their relationship isn’t tentative, it is still in a pretty fragile state because of the events of the first book and the fact that they’re in different places in their lives (literally—they go to different colleges in different states), so it’s clear that they’re still trying to understand all of the shifts in their relationship and how to relate to each other.

-    Road trip!

-    As always, the action is based on a ritual, but this time, they don’t get to take part in said ritual (like with the prom and the sorority), so it’s not the same story of the ritual being an excellent site for evil, so much as how/why they can’t be “normal.”

-    I learned a new term:  cryptozoology.  Also?  Giant squid.

-    The romance is truly secondary to the friendship and the action/quest.  Also, it’s just another way to explore their interpersonal relationships and how those relationships define them as characters.  And it’s not really about the relationships so much as how they function in the relationships.

-    Badass female characters.

-    The setting is pretty fully realized.

-    The male characters are pretty ace as well.  And my favorite thing about them is that they’re not there to save the girls or point out how they’re wrong, but just to help because…

-    …everyone has his/her own area of expertise, so no one character knows everything.

-    I love that Clement-Moore doesn’t divorce religion from demon fighting.  At all.

What I Didn’t Like
I always like reading the books, but I usually feel like they’re just okay until I think about them more.  I don’t know why that is because they are so well-written, and I always enjoy the characters.  Maybe because the humor isn’t over the top?  Maybe because I don’t strongly identify with the fantasy/paranormal aspect?  I don’t know!  It’s a weird response is all.

Women Unbound?
Oh yeah.  This is all about the power of women, how they harness that power, how they use their power, and how sometimes women don’t quite understand the power and strength that they have.  Or sometimes that they do, but don’t want to quite unleash it or share it or let it go for whatever reasons.  Love this series.

In  conclusion: I really should own this series.  I like it that much.

And if a girl from District Twelve of all places can defy the Capitol and walk away unharmed, what is to stop them from doing the same?…What is to prevent, say, an uprising?

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins in the second of the Hunger Games trilogy.  It’s possible that you may have heard of it since it’s kind of a big deal.  In this book, Katniss adjusts–or attempts to adjust–to life after the murderous Hunger Games.

What I Liked

- Collins never lets you get comfortable, at all.  Things are constantly changing, the danger for Katniss is palpable and real, and the stakes are so high, it’s amazing there are roofs on the houses in District 12.  The book is tense, and that tension jumps right off the page.

- Peeta.  I am crazy in love with Peeta.

- The first person POV worked for me a lot more in this book than the previous one.  It was nice to be inside of Katniss’s head and truly blind to what was going on.  The twist (um, the second to last one) was as much a shock to me as it was to Katniss, and my reaction was pretty much the same as hers.  That’s a good thing.

- Everything is so messy and complicated.  In a good way, though!  Because Collins truly invites the reader to think and consider all possibilities.

- There is a lot of great character stuff in here, especially about Haymitch.

- I hate to even call it a love triangle, but I like the way, overall, that Katniss’s relationships with Peeta and Gale are handled.  Everything is so messed up, and there are no easy answers, nor is there a right way to handle any of it.  That much is clear.  All three of them have so much pride and in such different ways.  It just works really well.

What I Didn’t Like

- The beginning of the story, while heavy on the characterization, is very heavy on the tell instead of show.  There’s information put in for the sake of the sequel, and it’s obvious that’s why it’s there, because it’s not given the kind of attention it deserves.  I wanted Collins to slow down and let me experience some of the things that were happening (trying to keep this spoiler free) instead of “and then this and this and this and s/he told me this and this and this.”  There were opportunites for great dialogue that were just missed.  And it got to the point where I didn’t/couldn’t remember details/characters that came up later.  There were at least two points when I was asking, “Who is that?  Should I know that name?”  That’s not good.

The plus is that the second half of the book relies a lot more on showing instead of telling and so the narrative picks up considerably.

- Even though the book is from Katniss’s point of view, everything is very male heavy.  I don’t really get a sense of her sister or mother as real people at all–which has a lot to do with how Katniss views them, granted–but all of the other major people in her life, the ones who do the most helping, are men.  Her stylist, Haymitch, Peeta, Gale.

Women Unbound?

Does this book examine the relationship between gender and power?  Yes.  One of the things that is compelling about the series is the idea of putting on an act and a show of who you are supposed to be based on the audience.  Katniss is supposed to be a girl consumed by love, silly and superficial.  Not helpless, necessarily, but bound to traditional ideas of femininity with her upcoming wedding etc.  Katniss is a hunter, provider, rule breaker, unfrivolous, and everything opposite of what her Games character is supposed to be.  But the Capitol wants her to be that kind of girl, so that’s the kind of girl she has to pretend to be for her own survival–and her family’s.

There’s so much about class and gender wrapped up in these books and it’s handled so subtly and deftly that it can be easy to miss.  Not only is she just a girl, but she’s a girl from District 12 no less.  But Katniss is the girl on fire, the girl who becomes symbolic of a revolution.  I think that makes her pretty unbound.

In conclusion:  The book is certainly a thrilling read.  I can’t wait to read the sequel.

“You know, if you had told me two weeks ago that I’d be involved in a rally and have a whole new group of girl friends, I never would have believed it…I don’t know whether it’s the rally that’s making me feel so good, or the girls…It’s…I don’t know how to explain it.”

“Exhilarating?”

“Yeah, but that’s not really strong enough,” Stephanie said. “It’s just…the best.”

Last month I said I was rereading the first book in one of my favorite series, Girl Friends, and I finally finished. This is a book I’ve read lots and lots of times, and what I find most interesting is that, of course, as I reread, I notice different things that I hadn’t before.

When I first read the series back in 1993, I related most readily to Natalie and Cassandra, since they’re black cousins.  Natalie is a lot like girls I knew in school and her situation with a deadbeat dad and knowing pregnant teens is something I could easily grab on to.  Cassandra is a ballet dancer, and since I took dance, though not as intensely,  I totally got that part of her.

I also related a lot to Janis who has a big mouth.  There’s a part in one of the later books (book 3 maybe?) where Cassandra laments that Natalie and Janis have found each other since they’re the two biggest antagonists she knows.  It’s a small detail that I’ve always loved because, yes, Janis and Natalie would have been my friends.  And me and my friends were totally obnoxious and loud in high school.

I had a huge crush on a guy who got high all the time, so I got Stephanie and her relationship with Phillip (although, my pothead was not in love with me, sadly).  I was also writing an epic novel/series of my own, so I loved that Stephanie always referred to Frances, the heroine of all her stories.  Stephanie frequently rewrites scenes she’s living in her head or on paper, and that still is awesome.

I never much related to Maria. I mean, yes, I was on the pom squad in high school, but she’s pretty and popular and her family has money. However, on reread, I find her story the most fascinating. I remember most of the details of her story, of course:  she bucks the popular crowd to hang out with the girl friend; her brother is the front man of a local band; her boyfriend assaults her and then brands her a slut.

What Grey does with Maria that I didn’t catch back then or even five or six years ago is pretty thoroughly deconstructs societal pressures on girls.  Maria stays with her boyfriend that she hates because she is terrified of what will happen in her circle of cheerleading friends if she chooses to break up with him.

This is how she describes Leif:

He was in her way, like a thick, brick wall, preventing her from escaping, making her feel trapped and anxious and she wouldn’t be sorry if she never saw him again.

This comes on page 52, which is pretty early in the book, and is the beginning of an exchange when she realizes she should break up with him because she doesn’t really like him, but it’s nice to have someone to date who is in her circle.  Right as she’s about to tell him she doesn’t want to date him anymore, this happens:

“Leif,” she began, then stopped as an image of Vanessa rose in her mind.  ’You what?’ the image shrieked, clutching its chest in horror. ‘You broke up with your only squeeze less than a month before Homecoming because he tried for serious sugar? What’re you, nuts?’

Maria then “surrenders to the familiar logic” and instead of breaking up with Leif, politely says good-bye.  And the thing is Maria HATES Leif.  He completely disgusts her.  When they go on dates, she dresses in what is essentially armor because he has grabby hands, and if he can’t get his hands inside her clothes, she ends her dates with a sense of triumph because she’s bested him.  It is pretty thoroughly disgusting, but Maria is all about appearances.  And not only appearances but maintaing the status quo, keeping things on an even keel. She would rather go out with Leif who is disgusting and who makes her feel anxious than risk not having a date for the dance or having to explain herself to her cheerleading friends.  It’s just easier for her, socially, to go along with it all than to dump him.  Because if she breaks up with him, she’ll be bucking expectation, and worse, she’ll have to explain.  Which she says!

Leif would be showing up anytime now and she hated the thought of dealing with him in front of everybody.  Driving home with him after the game on Friday had been a bad move but everyone had expected it, so what was she supposed to do? They were, in a way, a couple and blowing him off now, for no good reason, would be social suicide.

Everyone had expected it!  She knew it was a bad move, but she knew what was expected of her, so she did it.  Way better to deal with Leif and how gross he makes her feel than to commit social suicide.

Then there are Maria’s parents and brother.

Her parents had always taken great pains to protect her.  They had rules regarding what was acceptable and if her rules were stricter than Jesse’s had been, it was, her parents explained, because more harm could befall a girl.  Having fun was one thing, but once a girl got herself in trouble, it would follow her forever.

Jesse, by the way, is a huge slut.  And that’s what the books call him with no qualifiers (i.e, he is not a “male” slut, just a good old slut) who sleeps with groupies who he describes as a “nameless, faceless way to work off energy.”  He also tells his sister not to be like the girls he has sex with.  And Maria knows and understands it’s a double standard, but she can’t help living it.  Her reputation IS everything to her.  And not just sexually, because she knows the boys lie and say they have gotten something from her, but socially.

So Maria plays by the rules.  She doesn’t break up with Leif. She tries to maintain appearances.  And in the second book, Leif assaults her.

SHE DOES EVERYTHING RIGHT.  She tries to please everybody.  And it fails.  And what I think is brilliant is that Grey clearly shows WHY a girl would stay in a relationship with someone who makes her anxious and suffocates her and who she hates kissing and doesn’t want to touch.  I mean, no, Janis or Natalie wouldn’t do that, and even Stephanie has Phillip who loves her, but Maria wants to fit in and wants to belong and wants to not rock the boat.  And she knows she should like Leif, on paper at least, and she doesn’t really have anybody else right now, and isn’t it better to have someone to go to the dance with than not?  ISN’T IT?

And if Maria is doing all of this with a boy she doesn’t even like, what about the girls who love their abusive boyfriends?  (And let’s be clear here: even if Maria doesn’t think of his relentless pawing of her as assault, there is clearly something about him that threatens her and makes her feel panicked and anxious around him–basically fear.)  Taking out the question of love, erasing whether or not she likes him, makes it even clearer how sometimes there are these unspoken expectations for girls.  It’s better to have a boyfriend than not.  It’s better to have a date than not. It’s different for boys.  Boys want it, girls don’t. Etc.  Of COURSE Maria would put up with Leif then.  Of course.

Anyway, that makes the books sound super heavy, and they do deal with some pretty serious topics (like racism, school shootings, HIV/AIDS, homelessness, death, bulimia, drugs), but oh my word, they are delicious to read.  Here it is sixteen years later, and I’m just now getting how freaking brilliantly a lot of these topics are handled.

Another thing I like is that these girls are isolated or loners and it makes perfect sense, but they all have someone to talk to so that they’re not friendless.  Janis is all about her causes, but she has her friend Simon.  Cassandra is all about dancing, so doesn’t really interact with anyone at school…except Natalie.  Natalie is new to the school, but she has befriended Gus.  Stephanie works to take care of her family and maintain straight A’s so she can get a scholarship, but she has Phillip.  And Maria, while a cheerleader, doesn’t really feel comfortable with them or count them as her actual friends.

So, yes, they have these relationships, but none of that compares to the five of them coming together.  Empowerment through female friendships.  I’d be lying if I said that this series hasn’t inspired my dissertation topic focusing on female friendship.  If I didn’t love these books with all of my heart, I doubt very seriously that I would even think about or consider friendships between girls as much as I do.

I am so sad they are out of print.  Because I want to make other people read them.

Girl Stays in the Picture by Melissa de la Cruz is about three girls with varying degrees of fame or access to fame and their adventures in Saint Tropez one summer. Devon’s a television, movie, and pop star; Livia is the formerly overweight daughter of a mega producer; and Casey is personal assistant to Devon’s co-star Summer Garland.

Devon wasn’t used to having a posse of girls she could count on for fun and support. She wasn’t used to having anyone she could count on. How funny that the three of them had become so close; they were so different and came from such different worlds, it was improbable that they ended up being friends.

What I Liked

- I love, love, love the cover of the book. I think it really captures the whole jet set, rich, fancy pants lifestyle the characters are involved in. Devon (for, lo, that is who is represented on the cover) looks like a true movie star, and I totally want to know more about her and her life. She looks exactly like someone who plays to the cameras and is confident and OWNS that. So, yeah, fantastic cover.

- The format. Before each chapter are gossip articles about the girls (mainly Devon), and it’s interesting to see what the rags/websites are reporting versus what actually happens to the characters. I think it’s a great way to introduce that things aren’t always what they appear or seem to be even if you have pictorial evidence. It’s also a good way to introduce the characters (mainly Devon) as both product and persona versus an actual person.

- The characters. I like that the three girls are very different and therefore have different Saint Tropez experiences. As an assistant, what Casey sees is very different from what Devon the actress sees or Livia the producer’s daughter sees. For example, when Casey goes shopping, it’s not for herself, but for Summer. When Devon goes shopping, it’s to pick up a custom dress. And when Livia goes shopping, she can fit the clothes because she has lost so much weight but she can’t feel comfortable in some of them because she still sees pre-surgery Livia in the mirror. So that’s kind of cool. They also all have different homes and home lives. Devon is a recovering alcoholic/party girl living with her formerly famous hanger on mom and her mom’s skeezy boyfriend, Livia lives with her parents and older sister, and Casey is staying with Summer and Summer’s mom.

- The issues introduced. Again, Devon is fresh out of rehab, Livia is post-surgery, Casey is…Casey. I dunno, not a lot going on there with her. But there’s other stuff like that Devon’s mom can be exceptionally cruel, Livia’s family seems to be disappointed that she can’t/won’t eat the food she used to eat, Casey has to deal with the fact that Summer has changed a lot since they knew each other in school. Then there are the boys, of course.  Devon’s ex is also in the business and super competitive. Livia’s boyfriend is hot and shallow, and she is getting closer to her French friend, Bruno. Casey keeps running into Summer’s co-star that Summer is dating. So that stuff isn’t easy.

- The setting. I want to go to Saint Tropez.

- What the book says about female friendship. The point of the book is that these three girls from different worlds and places are able to come together and connect. In the end, they’re all very good friends because they support each other throughout the novel.

- The diversity. Devon and Livia are Not White. And Devon is the teen queen. Bonus.

What I Didn’t Like

- The plotting. Everything happens super fast, and I almost have whiplash from getting from one point to the other. The quote above is EXACTLY where the book lost me. Look, I very obviously am all about female friendship and enjoy stories about said friendship. At the same time, it has to be earned. When Devon is all, “How funny that three of them had become so close,” I am like, “TELL ME ABOUT IT.”  Because, seriously, where did that come from? They went on exactly ONE shopping trip together, talked for a little while, and now super secretive and closed off Devon who is careful not to confide in Livia too much suddenly can count on them absolutely? Especially when Casey works for Summer who is basically Devon’s arch-nemesis. And then a few pages later, Devon is basically like, “Y’all don’t know me!” when the girls try to give her advice.

I don’t have a problem with them being friends or even Devon being excited about having people to hang out with. It just felt completely out of character for her to be able to count on these girls after one shopping trip. Not only that, but there are so few scenes of the three girls actually interacting together that I just don’t buy it. I mean, yes, they do look out for each other and, while off in their separate plots, remark that they should share something with one of the other girls, but they rarely talk to each other, all together. Heck, even one-on-one!  So I’m not buying that.  Why is all of the friendship stuff happening off-page?

- The boy stuff. I don’t mind when books are about romance. But I do mind, again, when the romances feel unearned. And while I think that Casey and Livia’s romantic stuff makes sense, once again, I’m not buying Devon’s. Like I can SEE what de la Cruz is trying to do and the book is predictable enough that I knew where everything was going, but it still didn’t feel earned. Also, please do not try to sell me “WHOO FRIENDSHIP IS ALL WE NEED” and then have everyone partnered up at the end. Boo.

- The issues introduced are never fully explored. Again, great stuff, but it never comes together. I wanted more with Devon and her mom, more with Devon dealing with her sobriety besides “just having one drink” more than once (!!!! – great message to teens there when she is fresh out of rehab), more with Livia and her food issues, and way, way, WAY more with Summer and Casey.

- Speaking of which, Summer was just poorly handled all around. Such a flat villain. Ooh, she’s ambitious AND mean AND petty. Surely, there is a reason that she and Casey were friends before she became famous, right? And, yes, I get it, Summer treats her horribly as an assistant, but there was nothing there at all to suggest why these two were friends or why Casey put up with the bad treatment without saying anything. Summer was just, you know, mean. Even Regina George knew how to make her friends feel special while treating them feel like crap. I’m just saying.

- The back cover. Livia and Casey are on the back cover, and they both look a little too glam. I just felt it was worth mentioning since I lauded the actual cover.

In conclusion: Meh. It was engaging enough that I finished the book, but the flaws way override anything the book has going for it. I am pretty sure this is the first in a series since it’s called “a GIRL novel” on the front and ends with a cliffhanger (which is too stupid to get into), but I’m pretty sure I won’t be reading it. At least, I know I won’t actively seek it out.

Of note:

1.  A friend linked me to this awesome article:  Hogwarts Is a Terrible School.  I’ve been trying to think up a response to it, but other than “NERDS!” (and I mean that in the most affectionate way possible), I got nothing.

2. I checked out The Book Lover’s Cookbook from the library.  Why?  Because the subtitle is “Recipes Inspired by Celebrated Works of Literature and the Passages that Feature Them.”  NERD NERD NERD.  Will I cook anything from it?  Probably not.  Will I read the whole thing?  Most definitely.