Some girls are
Ratings22
Average rating4
High school can be hell, I don't think that's news to anyone. Even those who enjoyed those years know that it wasn't great for everyone, and this novel really decides to go big or go home on that idea.
Regina Afton is our heroine, for lack of a better term. After she is nearly raped by her best friend Anna's boyfriend, she finds herself ostracized from her group. Anna is the queen bee of the school: though just about everyone hates her, no one can deny how powerful she is. Regina gets a lot of hate just for being Anna's right-hand, though we find out as the novel progresses that she was no angel herself during her stint of popularity.
There's a lot to like about this novel: it is fast-paced and covers important issues and you definitely want to keep reading to find out what happens next, especially as the description offers “ an explosive conclusion.” Overall, a solid 3/5.
Oh jeeze, I stayed up way too late last night to finish reading this because I couldn't put it down. Also, the back cover announced that fans of Mean Girls would love this, which makes me wonder if that person actually read this? Or actually saw Mean Girls? Because Mean Girls is a satire, and this is an intense psychological thriller. They are both about mean girls, so... there's that, I guess.I want to say the bullying in this is over the top, but given what we see about teen suicides and cyberbullying etc, it must not be, at least not for some teens in some schools.It's painful to read but, for me, unputdownable. (Partly I had to keep reading because I had a very real sense that at any moment the bullying was going to escalate into straight-up murder.) It didn't. But it could have.This is a readalike for books like [b:Before I Fall 6482837 Before I Fall Lauren Oliver https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1361044695s/6482837.jpg 6674135], [b:Lessons from a Dead Girl 451220 Lessons from a Dead Girl Jo Knowles https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1320474341s/451220.jpg 439849] and [b:Speak 439288 Speak Laurie Halse Anderson https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1310121762s/439288.jpg 118521]. NOT for the movie Mean Girls.
This book is extremely unpleasant but also extremely good. If that makes sense.