Yuck. Boooo.
I had a hard time getting through this one, especially after reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children that had so much depth to it. This one was too shallow.
It's about a senior in high school, Samantha, who is secretly in love with her best friend/next door neighbor Nick. The book starts out with her getting ready for a party, and the reader learns how she's dressing to impress a football star (Carter) so he'll flirt with her and she can make Nick jealous. She drinks too much at the party, ends up in Carter's bedroom, and is rejected by him in a nasty, nasty way right before she falls over and bangs her head, ripping her clothes on furniture. She exits the bedroom in tears, and the school's gossip girl jumps to conclusions that Carter raped Samantha; Samantha nods her head yes, even though she's drunk and didn't even know what she was saying "yes" to.
The rest of the book (not long, only 228 pages) is about the rumor spiraling out of control and Samantha's inability to set everyone straight for this reason or that. For a little while Samantha thinks maybe Carter deserves some of this treatment and being thrown off his gold pedestal, since she learns how he said and did awful things to other girls, too. Still, she has to suffer the repercussions of her lie, including harassment by sports jocks, damage done to her car, and more.
At the same time, there are two other smaller storylines going on: Samantha and Nick's growing romance, and Samantha's relationship with her controlling army-sargeant-like father. Samantha needs to learn to make her own decisions, gain self-confidence, and believe in herself. The conclusion is predictable and it's disappointing how it rolls out.
I chose this book because the summary on the back drew me in, but I was disappointed. The major storyline lacked depth and it was obnoxious to be in Samantha's head the whole time, hearing the same thoughts over and over and over. "I need to tell the truth, I need to tell the truth, I need to tell the truth." Shut up already and do it! And think something else more interesting, too!
As a reader, you already know nothing good is going to come from this mess of lies. It's just a matter of finding out how destructive it will be. The whole message about how rumors are bad and can spiral out of control to ruin lives (like I said, not deep at all) can be predicted as soon as Samantha leaves the party on page 20.
Good for: someone who likes to start rumors and needs to gain some perspective by reading an example.....that's it.
Would interest: girls grades 8-10
Themes: rumors and gossip, truth, harassment
My grade: B-
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