Author(s) : Leah Spiegel & Meg Summers
Publication date : 18th April 2012
Publisher : Createspace
Source : Sent by publisher, thank you!
Rating : 3.5/5
When Alley started her senior year at Upper East High in the South Hills area, it was supposed to be the usual drag of hanging out with people who spent more on one outfit than Alley did on her entire wardrobe. That was until Kirsten, a girl in their clique, suddenly goes missing and the only people who seem to care are her friends. All evidence leads to the new comer Shane, a cocky and self-pretentious person in Alley’s opinion, but the police seem uninterested so she and the rest of the girls start a little investigation of their own. But they are nowhere closer to finding Kirsten than when they started and now they had the police’s attention; just not in the way they expected. The girls have to start over and discover that maybe it wasn’t an outsider who took Kirsten, but someone within their own clique who has something to hide; a secret that just might have gotten Kirsten killed.
I'm not a massive fan of young adult fiction (YA), but I don't hate it either. It depends on the plot, actually. I can't stand books about vampires and werewolves and mythical creatures and witches and all that sort. Sorry, but those are utter rubbish to me. I like stories that are real. REAL, not fantasy. When Leah emailed me asking if I could review her book, I thought, "Oh, young adult? Let's see what's it about. Please not be fantasy. Please not some rich girl goes broke and lalala". So I did a bit of background check on it and I agreed because it isn't those rubbish YA books that I loathe.
The story is about Alley, average high school girl, average clothes, average car but, she goes to a really posh school, Upper East High, which is quite ironic. She's down to earth and humble, just like your average Jane, but her schoolmates are such snobs! In contrast with Alley, her best friend Val is glamorous, rich and beautiful. What puzzled me was, why do they mix around with snobs? I guess it's all in the high school hierarchy, the popular girls rule the school, something like Mean Girls. There's the "Regina George", Kirsten with her superiority rules the school as the most popular girl in the school followed by her "Karen" and "Gretchen", Kayla and Libby. This book for me was very Mean Girls and I loved how Leah and Meg managed to twist it. Then there were the boys, ugh. Nothing to know about them as they didn't appear much throughout the book. And now, behold the man candy! Shane, ooh! Shane has more surprises than Edward Cullen has in stores for Twihards. *Still not giving away what...*
For me, the story was realistic because it was told by Alley herself, describing her life in high school, which is a tough one to live when you have snarky, jealous girls have it at you, your teachers who hate you for no apparent reason and well, being on top of the social ladder. Leah and Meg discussed the problems faced in school very well, I have to credit them for that. On the other hand, the pace of the book was very upbeat and quick, one moment the girls were having lunch, next moment, poor Kirsten has disappeared. I actually followed the pace well as it wasn't terribly draggy. The quest to find Kirsten and save her was very fun to read as the four girls head around town looking for clues, even to a certain extend of getting arrested! You'll have to read it to find out!
The book has a few funny moments in it, very entertaining for me. I won't give away any of them so you'll have to read about it all on your own. Overall, this has been a good read, very unexpected ending. Though I was quite disappointed about the ending as it was quite stilted, the relationship between Shane and Alley. I would like to thank the authors, Leah Spiegel and Meg Summers and their publisher for sending me a review copy. Thank you!
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