Goldy Moldavsky

This was too cute! The PowerPoint scene...*melts*.
I was really hoping for good things when I picked this up. The author spent most of the page time in the first half developing relationships between characters. The story did not suffer on account of the message (see note below) for the most part.
Vitaly was a great character. I think that Jimena still has a lot of growing up to do (she only wants to go to college to party :), but Vitaly brought out the best in her and she brought out the best in him.
That being said, Blue drove me crazy because his whole identity was *activist*. Also, I just don't think that he added anything of value to the story.
The ending was so rushed. I have so many questions that were not answered. I kid you not, the ending is packed into one short chapter.
A note about politics: The subject matter is often a hot topic. I thought the author did a decent job dealing with the topic although it is no secret what she believes. There were a few instances where she started discussing how horrible anyone who votes Republican is, but it had a lot less politics than I was expecting.

3.5 Stars

Content: language, underage drinking, kissing (no further and no hints of more)

Vitaly’s document finally loads.
The first slide fills the screen with big purple letters.
WHY CAN’T JIMENA LAND A GUY?
I lean in and squint to get a better look at the subtitle, even though its font is at least twenty points big.
A STRATEGY TO HELP JIMENA GET TO DATE NUMBER TWO.
I turn to him, still fully squinting. “You made a PowerPoint presentation about my ineptitude at dating? Is this a joke?”
“I never joke about PowerPoint, Jimena.”… (mais)

I waited so long to read this book. I should have kept waiting. Rachael was attacked in her home and accidently killed her attacker. Flash forwards a year, she is in a new school, in a new city, trying to make friends and fit in. But her trauma has brought on a love of horror movies. She feels that by watching horror movies she can arm herself or train herself to not be frightened by what happened to her. She ends up joining a secret society all about the love of a good scare. The purpose of the club is to scare people with frights that are prank like. But when people start getting hurt and even dying, this is no longer a prank, its life and death.

This book moved fast. It has a Gossip Girl crossed with The Game (old Michael Douglas Movie that is even mentioned in the book) feel with the poor kid in the elite private NYC school. The only character I thought was genuine ends up dead. The concept is interesting and does work. The problem is it involves gamification, and that has been done much better. I do like that the story moves quickly and at no time does the book feel like the 460+ pages it is, and while I did enjoy it, the most memorable part of the entire thing, is the cover. While this is a standalone, and it does NOT have a cliffhanger, it has been left open for a sequel.… (mais)