This was adorable.
I don’t read much contemporary YA, but if they were all as cute and funny as this was, I would read a lot more of it. I picked this book up on a whim in a used bookstore last summer. I remembered that several of my friends had given it glowing reviews, so despite my sometime-aversion to the genre, I bought it. A well-spent $9, for sure. (And my copy, an Owl Crate version somebody sold for credit, is signed by the author!) This is one of those books that if you describe the plot, it doesn’t sound very appealing, but once you start reading it, the voice of the author (and her characters) just sucks you right in.
Our main character is Claudia, a senior at an all-girls private school that she is only attending because her father working there gets the family a steep tuition discount. Claudia is a bit of a goofball, and I love her. She has a best friend who goes to another school, and she has her parents and siblings, who she’s pretty close with (she games with her older sister and brother in an MMORPG and it is so cute). The book kicks off with Claudia attending a party of one of her school mates that she’s only reluctantly attended, but she accidentally witnesses the (private) break-up of the school’s it couple, Paige and Iris. These events in a roundabout way lead to her and Iris being forced to take place in the production of the school’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is put on jointly with the neighboring all-boys school.
So that’s the set-up, but this book lives in the details. All the conversations between characters, as friendships develop and evolve. Claudia and Iris, who is extremely prickly and sometimes pretty mean, develop this lovely friendship that just made me go heart-eyes. And Claudia catches the eye of a boy goofball who is in the play, and clearly is smitten with her right away. It was all just very lovely. And funny! Emma Mills is funny.
I will most definitely be checking out her other books.
[4.5 stars]
CBR Bingo: Friendship
