Freddie and Stella are on a mission: take down their former best friend turned queen bee Levi Preston by depriving her of the one thing she wants more than anything: The Beaumont-Gardiner Award. Only the coolest, smartest, and―let’s face it―hottest girls win. . . so Freddie and Stella are going to have to get a whole lot cooler, smarter, and hotter.
At first, it seems to work―Freddie and Stella slowly manage to worm their way in with the cool girls. With every shopping date, agonizing salon appointment, and hot yoga class, the girls get closer to the in-crowd and Levi fades more and more into the background. The higher they rise, though, the more uneasy Freddie starts to feel. Stella’s gone from her lovable, goofy best friend to someone she barely recognizes, using her newfound power for evil at every opportunity. Soon, Freddie realizes she’s created a monster―and she needs Levi’s help to put a stop to it.
This was an interesting read albeit a bit predictable. From the moment Freddie mentioned in her internal monologue that she had feelings for Levi, and that she suspected Stella also had feelings for Levi although they never talked about it out-loud. So yeah, there’s clearly more hurt feelings than solely friend ditching them to be popular. It’s crush ditching them to be popular.
There’s a thin line of homoeroticism and obsession when it comes to female friendships. They’re intense, and while I can understand the hurt both girls felt for when Levi ditched them, I felt that the resolution of Stella’s mini-villain arc was forgiven too easily. She orchestrated the reason for Levi ditching them, albeit unintentionally, nearly put someone in jail, and broke up several friendships, all because she got rejected. She needed to do more than an apology, maybe therapy for her sociopathic traits.
At least Freddie and Levi’s slow-burn return to friendship and teaming up to take down Stella after finding out about her machinations. Plus I enjoyed how it dovetailed to Freddie’s own growth of being a complicit bystander to Stella’s more heinous actions.
Another point against the book is the number of times “fuck” was in it. I’m okay with the word, but every other sentence. In thought and in dialogue. Horne toned it down in the later half of the book, but it felt a bit much in the beginning. It felt like Horne was trying too hard to be edgy like this was a R-rated “Mean Girls.”
Kendare Blake is the author of the Three Crowns trilogy, Antigoddess series, Anna in Blood, and so much more. Traversing from horror to fantasy, Kendare took the time to answer my questions about her influences, favorite seasons of Buffy and what’s coming next. Enjoy!
1. When did you begin writing? What are some of your influences?
I started writing in Middle School. I scratched out a novel in a notebook. No idea how I did that, as these days my hand cramps up filling out a greeting card. And then I wrote horror stories in high school. Copying the styles of my favorite authors as best I could. For the practice. The handwritten novel was about horses, because as a child I read The Black Stallion. But by seventh grade I was mostly reading Stephen King and Anne Rice. Hence the horror.
2. In interviews you’ve often said that the characters evolve and change the narrative, but what about your extensive world-building. Do you create each world from the onset or is it also a seat of your pants situation?
It depends on the world, but yes, to some extent it’s always a seat of my pants situation. I know about some things going in: some of the rules, some of the geography, but the bulk of it I learn as my characters walk around. I’m like a tourist. Which is why I like to write about fictional places rather than actual. I’d be bound to get something wrong if I tackled a real place.
3. Your books are also noted for its building intensity as the series progresses. How do you deal with the pressure to deliver in sequels and conclusions?
The story tends to handle that for me. Everything that’s been set out from the beginning, all those threads and details, every time the plot twists they all cinch tighter. I find writing endings exhausting–truly like fighting a great battle–but also it’s loads of fun.
Despite being the forgotten middle sisters, Mary and Kitty get on each other’s nerves the most. Kitty thinks she’s a snobby nerd, and Mary believes she’s flighty, superficial and too ignorant to amount to anything. Passive aggressive sniping has been their mode of conversation pretty much their whole lives.
But Mary’s still home-bound as she commutes to Harvard to save money, dropping Kitty off to college in the same route. A chore both detest. However, close proximity sometimes breeds bonding, and this is a year may be the time they find out they can be sisters after all.
Flirty, and ever-stylish, Julia Bertram is always the top of the class whether it’s academics or theater. She has the style, the wealth. . . and is always second best to her older sister, Maria.
Since her sisterly relations are strained, she’s made Kitty her new BFF. Since they’re in the same forgotten sister boat, they connected fast, but Julia’s easy upbringing and her obliviousness brings more clashes than expected when bumped against Kitty’s working girl lifestyle and huge insecurities.
But she does brings the excitement Kitty has been missing since Lydia left, and who can resist her persuasive smile?
Tall dark, and handsome, Frederick Tilney fits the mold as Kitty’s dream guy. Plus he’s rich to boot which is sure to make Mrs. Bennet happy. An avid photographer and budding auteur, Frederick takes his craft seriously, making sure everyone understands the high-faultin’ meaning of his art. Especially since his critical father disapproves of his choice in vocation. He seeks his praise elsewhere, bedding as many women who can soothe his moody heart.
His primary subject- the standards of what society considers beautiful and its evolution.
It’s a flattering line when he asks Kitty to be a model for him, and she’s thrilled to get into a glimpse of his world of luxury, and prestige, and remain the beauty of his eye.
Just as the title implies Kathryn Atwood’s books center on sung and unsung heroines during WW2. She has several popular ones like Sophie scholl, Carrie ten boom, Josephine Baker, Irene Sandler and Martha Gelhorn, Nancy Wake, Noor Inayat Khan, and Virginia Hall, but she also shares plenty new ones. Split into seven sections of each country from the Western front, she introduces new heroes like:
German: Maria von Maltzan, a Countess who hid Jews right under the Nazis. Poland’s Stefania Podgorska whose prayers to God allowed her to save a family and meet her future husband. France’: ‘s Agent Rose aka Andrée Virot, Netherland’s Diet Eman; Belgium’s Fernande Keufgens who literally talked the Nazis into letting her escort a smuggled boy to freedom; Denmark’s Ebba Lund aka the Girl with Red cap that utilized the ports to smuggle families out, and Marlene Dietrich, the German movie star who converted to U.S. citizenship and was at the Battle of the Bulge.
Easy, thorough reads, Atwood continues her spotlight on these underrated bravery of ordinary women in her second book that focuses on the Pacific Campaign. Since the Western Front gets so much recognition, this women were all brand-new to me. Separated in four chapters covering China, the Philippines, Malay/Singapore, and Iowa Jim, Atwood gives age-appropriate information for young readers about such horrors as the Nanking Massacre, the Bataan Death March, “comfort girls” and human experimentation during the war. She explains why those atrocities weren’t given a reckoning in Japan and how there is still historical revisionism.
But in slightly more hopeful note here are some highlights of the survivors and heroes: Minnie Vautrin, a girl’s school teacher who helped women and girls stay protected in the Nanking Safety Zone while Gladys Aylward worked in the Shanaxi province to rescue war orphans.
Denny Williams was an American nurse in the Philippines who continued to work, operate and bandage under fire all while the upper brass decided to withdraw from the islands to go to the Western front, leaving Americans and their Filipino allies under Japanese fire.
Yay Panlilo: Atwood primarily focuses on Americans who found themselves stuck in the Pacific or had been living there during the war, but Panlilo is one of the few natives she spotlights and wow, does she deserve it. Panlilo worked as a reporter to boost morale for soldiers, but was actually an undercover agent for the US, and a guerilla fighter. Same with Claire Phillips whose espionage activities in Manila helped to help rescue prisoners of war, facing torture and near-death.
The most tragic would have to be the story of Maria Rose Henson who was repeatedly kidnapped and raped by Japanese soldiers when the war started (she was only 12), dealing with more abuse after she used her inside information to save her village from being burned down, and carried her traumas in silence after the war ended. Until 1992, when she bravely became the first survivor to tell her story. She made sure these crimes were put into the historical record, did press conferences and wrote a memoir, prompting calls for restitution and for Japan to acknowledged their war crimes.
Sybil Kathigasu was a nurse, and her husband was a doctor when the Japanese invaded Malay, and she continued to do her work under duress (even when the soldiers threatened to kill and her daughter) to ensure the guerillas were able to survive their wounds, and fight back against the invaders.
Finally, Dickey Chappelle was a war correspondent and photographer who followed the Pacific Campaign documenting Japanese and American atrocities only to have her accreditation stripped and never published because they were too “dirty” and depressing to see their soldiers like that. But she continued her work, dying in Vietnam on the frontlines.
James is new to the theater scene, and Pemberley Community College in general. Kitty’s initially miffed by his glib nature in regards to the musical, seeing it as a fun extracurricular rather than a serious career.
However, she ends up finding herself in his company more than not. Despite the fact that he couldn’t be more out of her depth-blue-collar, avid reader, takes philosophy classes for fun- she’s surprised to find their conversations at the coffeeshop are the best part of her day.
It was her father who convinced her otherwise. You see—Julia’s dad believes he was abducted by aliens. And ever since then, he’s been obsessed with the extraterrestrial beings living out there. So when a festival commemorating the 75th anniversary of the infamous UFO crash in New Mexico rolls around, Julia turns down a dream vacation to Hawaii with her best friend, Sara, to join her dad for a weekend trip to Roswell, where he expects the aliens to make contact.
But amid the alien-themed goofiness of the festival, Julia finds she isn’t sure whether her father really did get abducted. His memories of alien interference are starting to sound increasingly shaky, and with them, her faith in him. Will this weekend bring the two closer together or only drive them apart?
You either believe aliens or you don’t. It’s one of those things that drive people to be either total believers or cynics, neither side understanding the other. Julia heartily believes her dad, and readers can tell that this belief is partially fueled by Julia’s need to see the good in her dad. That his flakiness is for the greater, universal good and not a sign that he doesn’t care like her mother seems to imply.
At its heart, it’s a story about a dad and daughter. I most enjoy the thoughtful, introspective narrative and how Miller left the ending ambiguous. Will her Dad will change his flaky ways or will Julia will learn the timely art of settling for the ones you love?
Still, it offers great insight to why people believe as intensely as they do. Some of it comes from a place of delusion, psychologically filling a hole in the person. For others, it offers hope and curiosity about the wider world. Overall, an interesting look into the weird, cosmic world of Roswell that will have people itching to take a trip to look at the stars and come back down to enjoy the beauty of Earth.
Kayla Miller’s Olive/Click series
Olive “clicks” with everyone in the fifth grade—until one day she doesn’t. When a school variety show leaves Olive stranded without an act to join, she begins to panic, wondering why all her friends have already formed their own groups . . . without her. With the performance drawing closer by the minute, will Olive be able to find her own place in the show before the curtain comes up?
Much like Chmako’s Berrybrook Middle School series or Libenson’s Emmie and Friends, Miller’s Olive series follows a set cast and the daily friendship fun and conflicts that arrive with the tumultuous middle school years. Olive is a likable girl. Unique in that she doesn’t have a best friend, but rather juggles multiple friends unlike the more loner, only one BFF protagonists that populate these graphic novels. It’s this exact problem that she struggles to figure out in the first book.
Olive’s family is equally fun and distinct especially her aunt Molly who provides a supportive, alternative ear to her mother’s more try to get along with everyone, I’ll talk to the girl’s parents method. Same with her lovable, annoying brother Goober.
Each novel tackles a distinct coming of age, friendship story-balancing a busy schedule, how to live peacefully with a person that doesn’t like you but likes your friends, working to change the school system, and Miller also offers tips and crafts in the back of the novels for readers to try at home. Olive’s world feels real, relatable, and ever-evolving and kids will surely enjoy her daily adventures.
I think someone once said in the many Pride and Prejudice discussion boards I perused that Kitty is an introvert trying to copy an extrovert, ie. her sister and mother, and that’s the interpretation I carried through in my own novel. She’s someone who wants to be part of the party and have a good time, but her insecurities make her quieter and copy whoever’s the most confident person in the room.
As one can imagine that a major part of her arc is learning to become confident. Here’s a peek at Julia’s unorthodox way of helping her friend.
Rachel Reads & Reviews 