Lindsay Faith Rech

The cover looked fun, but the story was dumb.

Tomboyish Cynthia Gene Silverman moves to a wealthy suburb, reinvents herself as CG, and find herself promptly absorbed into the ruling class of her new high school. Convinced that she has to stand out to fit in, CG constructs a tower of lies atop a foundation of poor decisions that will inevitably crush her. That’s pretty much it for plot.

This book is not even worth the energy I have already spent reviewing it. It reads as though written by a high-schooler and falls dully short of the melange of Mean Girls and Pretty Little Liars it was aiming for. CG is somehow desperate for approval from her peers even as she feels superior to them. She claims to be a nice person who has changed a lot into the lying, scornful, manipulative hussy we see by mid-novel, but since we meet her as CG and not Cynthia Gene there is no evidence that she was ever a decent person other than her own word. The dialogue is flat, the attempts to build tension fall limp, and it all seems more than a little far fetched. If the author had gone in a campy direction it might have worked, but she plays it straight while incorporating ridiculous plot elements like a fifteen-year old (who by all accounts has yet to “blossom”) being mistaken for a woman in her mid-20s in both online conversation and after face time in lingerie and a masquerade mask with a teacher she sees on a daily basis.

It is pure fantasy. The fantasy of a nigh-unlikable girl who sees the world as beneath her even as she would like to plunder its riches. Her friends range from shabbily veiled tropes to cartoon villainesses, and despite CG’s (universally acknowledged) average-to-plain looks and hideous personality she has her choice of every male character with a name in the book.… (más)

This one is billed as chicklit, but I found it to be significantly more. The story follows a pair of friends from the junior high locker room through their late twenties, in an extended series of flashbacks. More than just dealing with sex and looks and angst, the story deals with families and suicide and friendships -- with the emphasis on friendships. To say more might spoil what is really a worthwhile read.

Bookcrossing: target="_top">http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5439668/… (más)

Though it's not the best book I've ever read, I did find myself enjoying the mess that main character CG makes for herself as she is trying to fit in to the popular crowd at her new school. Convinced that they won't accept her as she is, CG creates a new version of Truth or Dare and finds the dares getting her deeper and deeper into trouble. Then to top that off, she just can't seem to stop lying about - or hiding - the true CG (or Cindy as she was known at her old school). The trouble continues to mount for her until everything just comes unraveled and she finds herself in a heap of trouble with her friends, her parents and a teacher at school. I think the things that happen are pretty typical teen things. There is some strong language, but not like some books I've read. There's talk of sex, but no actual sex occurs in the story and there is one party where they spike some punch and one of the girls gets drunk, but for the most part, it's tame compared to other YA titles I've read recently. A fun read for teenage girls.… (más)