About the Book
-
Author:
- Ann Valett
- Genre:
- Contemporary
- Voices:
- Cis Girl
- Straight
- White (Non-Specified)
Cover Story: Best Title Ever
Drinking Buddy: No
MPAA Rating: R (alcohol use, language, sexual situations)
Talky Talk: TV High School
Bonus Factor: Revenge
Bromance Status: The Popular Kid I Don’t Regret Never Talking To
Cover Story: Best Title Ever
Seriously. I’m jealous, that was perfect. I’m not sure why there are nine Xs when Chloe only had six targets.
The Deal:
Every chapter opens with Chloe Whittaker writing a letter to her best friend, Monica. Monica was once a regular girl until she decided she wanted to join the most popular kids in school. The Level 1s. The high school royalty. But then something terrible happened to Monica. Monica is no longer around. And Chloe isn’t going to let that pass.
Chloe is going to get revenge on the six most popular kids in school. She blackmails one of them into giving her an opening to join the group, then learn their secrets and their weaknesses, ready to destroy them one by one. Provided she doesn’t start falling for her blackmail target. Or start enjoying her new high class status.
Drinking Buddy: No
Yes, we’ve all wanted to get horrible, violent revenge when people hurt our friends. But Chloe wasn’t very sympathetic. For starters, we never find out what, exactly, the popular kids did to Monica until the end of the book, so we have no idea if her vengeance is justified or over the top. Secondly, in a plot borrowed liberally from Mean Girls, Chloe really goes native, not standing up for other Monicas, including her old friends, Jack and Claire. Finally, she just kind of didn’t have much of a personality. Take away the revenge, there’s just not much left.
MPAA Rating: R (alcohol use, language, sexual situations)
So Chloe’s reporter father has uncovered some dirt on the mayor of Los Angeles. He’s taken a bribe to bury the scandal, but Chloe isn’t bound by silence. She threatens the mayor’s son, Warren, to expose his father unless he agrees to pose as her boyfriend. This gets Chloe an in with the popular kids, allowing her access to their soft spots. She’s going to destroy all six of them, including Warren. Warren, the sensitive, dimpled, not-like-the-other-popular-kids guy. What if (gasp!) she started to have feelings for him? But that could never happen, it would be way too cliche.
Talky Talk: TV High School
Nothing about the high school in this book was believable. The six targets (well, five of them), were the kids of very rich, important people, and they sure act like it. However, it got ridiculous. When a lower caste student spills cola on a mean girl’s skirt, she is forced to give her own skirt as a replacement. Right then. In the cafeteria. In front of teachers. And that’s only the beginning of the punishment this poor klutz had to suffer. Yes, bullying is real, but this was James Bond villain territory. Everyone in the group is determined to hang on to their popularity, and will destroy the others if they have to. The other girls constantly threaten to have Chloe destroyed, with only Warren standing in their way. When Chloe leaks a clip of one of the popular guys making out with another boy, he’s ruined. Not because he’s gay, everyone already knew that. But because his secret lover was less popular. When the most popular girl humiliates Chloe’s old friend, Jack, Chloe doesn’t even react. And the popular kids all kind of ran together in an homogeneous lump. They all had different personalities and backgrounds, but they didn’t keep my interest enough to keep them separated in my head. Warren was nice, but Chloe makes is clear from the start that she plans to destroy his friends, so he’s not what you’d call a loyal guy.
Bonus Factor: Revenge
Look, we’ve all had those revenge fantasies, where those who have wronged us stare up from the mud with their one remaining eye and silently beg us for mercy, even as we swing the crowbar for one last blow. It’s part of any healthy psyche. I’m glad to see the younger generation takes their vengeance with a little more tact and planning.
Bromance Status: The Popular Kid I Don’t Regret Never Talking To
Our paths never crossed before…and I can see why.
Literary Matchmaking
For a book with 100% the same plot, read Premeditated, by Josin McQuein.
Owen Matthews’s How to Win at High School deals with another teen social climber.
Or Killing Time in Crystal City, by Chris Lynch.
FTC Full Disclosure: I got a free copy of this book from the publisher, but no money or a seat at the Level 1 table. This book comes out April 28th.
