Thursday, June 29, 2006

The Clique by Lisi Harrison

This book is wildly popular with middle school girls, including several girls in Pageturners Book Club, who recommended that I read it. I will start off by saying that I can see why this book is in demand. It is fast-moving, has characters that you love to hate, and is full of contemporary references to fashion and popular culture.
However, I also have to say that this is one of the worst books I have read in a long time! The characters are completely shallow--even the "good" girl (Claire) that we are supposed to identify with. I just did not believe that a) Claire would want to be friends with the awful clique of girls after the things they did to her and that b) she could sneak into the mansion and text message from Massie's computer. And the final scene in which Claire and Massie are in a bush listening to their drunk fathers sing 99 Bottles of Beer is about as contrived an ending as I could think of.

The mean things that the clique does to the new girl are truly awful, and I'm sure there is some therapy in reading about kids who are meaner than the people who are mean to you. There is nothing wrong with reading these books--kids love series books and of course everything a person reads doesn't have to be well-written, but I just had to give my true opinion of this one. If you're looking for a better book about the horrors of middle school, try The Girls by Amy Goldman Koss or Define Normal by Julie Ann Peters.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ok, this book is really popular, but not too good.
It's just one of those teen drama books, where the geek girl gets invited to hang with the popular girls and she gets put in these weird situations that make the popular girls hate her, well, just the most popular girl hated her. The other girls follow her, and she becomes the new leader, then blah blah blah. So very cliche. It was okay. I won't recommend it to anyone though, there are better ones out there. I'm surprised no one has commented this.
Oh well, go check out th A list insead.

-Anonymous.
(Well, I'll give you a hint, I'm an 8th grader,
With good grammer.)

Anonymous said...

Hi! Listen I need your help. This is the only decent (actually very decent) blog/forum that I've ever encountered. My dilemma: I've read all the clique novels until the 6th, because then it got boring and superficial. Now my question is, do you think parents actually buy these books for their children or is it the girls who buy them as soon as they're allowed to?

p.s. for the 8th grader with good grammer: I haven't read the A list, but I've tried reading Gossip Girl (twice!)and I just couldn't because it was terrible. Do you know how it could become so famous?

Anonymous said...

well i think the clique books are great and just so you know people liked them so much that they made a movie and are noe shooting the second on so back off. the books arnt there to please everyone and if you had good enough sense you would know that CLAIR THE SO CALLED'newgirl' becomes friends whith MASSIE and cliar becomes part of the pretty commity

Anonymous said...

THE CLIQUE RULES!!!!! LOVE THE SERIES!!!! UP TO BOOK 4!!!! HAPPY DANCE!!

Anonymous said...

I think that this series is going to be the best that I have read in a really long time. I saw the movie that they came out with. I actually stumbled across it on pure accident. I'm 23 and I live with a family who has five kids. The oldest girl, who is eleven, begged me to watch the movie with her when we were staying up late one night. I was absolutely amazed about how accurate they were in detailing exactly how the clique was. And to say the least I can relate because of the fact that I was an outsider in school and only wanted to fit in. I can't wait to read these books and hope that they come out with another movie soon.

Anonymous said...

i like the serries i mean yay you've seen it b4 but it is still good there problems in the story are not exactly as you would expet. To first "Anonymous" you may be to i dont want to use the word stcuk up but it fits especially when you said "so very cliche." and "(Well,i'll give you a hint, i'm an 8th grader, Whith good grammer.)" Yah nobody asked a ? on how old you were and it made u look kinda snoty and very stuck up like thinking your better than everybody else. But of coarse u will come back saying no im not and as u say blah blah blah (and if you wanted 2 be exact u dont have super good grammer cuz even i know there should be a comma in between ur blahs) and yes there should so ha i went there :P ow yah i know im being a jerk but i can admit it and i dont care who u r cuz i jsut dont