Book Review: Some Girls Are

Author: Courtney Summers
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (Jan. 5, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0312573804
ISBN-13: 978-0312573805

Synopsis:

High-school senior Regina Afton has been what she believes is an important part of the most popular girls’ clique during middle and high school. And then she’s not. Summers spins a story in which kids are mean, abusive, and quixotic, while adults are for the most part absent or ignorant. Regina, nearly raped by her best friend’s boyfriend, pays for telling by being victimized in a hate campaign. Only her deceased psychiatrist’s teenaged son seems to really care, and when she tries to take revenge on his behalf after her former friends bully him as well, egregious behavior spins out of control. Comeuppance-seeking readers won’t mind that most of the characters are flat: Regina and her once and future crowd make up for their lack of depth with spiteful tongues and dangerous degradings of themselves and their fellow students. An additional choice for collections where Gossip Girl maintains a loyal following.

My Take:

When lies spread after Regina Afton is near-raped by her best friend's boyfriend, this member of the Fearsome Fivesome is thrust into no-man's land in the school halls she once owned. She's forced to reconcile with her past actions of tormenting others and hopefully make some kind of amends...and maybe find friends in the gutter.

Though she's hurt so many people, her regret endears her to readers and you end up aching for Regina to find a place somewhere. Her former friends don't make life easy with their horrid pranks. And when Regina decides to fight back, the war is on and there's no turning back. Every gain and setback can be felt by the reader and the tension builds to a bloody end.

While I myself found some of the pranks to be far-reaching, I'm sure someone who's been seriously bullied would beg to differ about their realism.

The novel could've been a bit longer with further exploration and depth, like with the romance in the book, I would've liked to see more growth, connection and chemistry, but overall, I enjoyed the read.

MY RATING

Here's the Some Girls Are book trailer:

~ Signing off and sending out cyber hugs.