Reviews

Top 8 by Katie Finn

teenage_reads's review

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2.0

Friendverse is the new and hotter Facebook. A place where you can post comments, statuses, pictures, but more importantly you’re Top 8. Unlike Facebook, Friendverse lets you pick 8 from your friend list and move them to a ranking numbers from 1 to 8. So number one is your boyfriend, two your best friend, third is your co-worker (can’t let her be mad at you especially after she takes all your Friday night shifts), and so on and so on till you deciding who’s important enough to be your eighth. Friend groups take these things seriously, as you in their mind you “de-ranked” them from your life, only to put someone higher than them. It’s a tricky world this social game, as one false step can send you falling to the bottom.

Madison MacDoanld is less than excited to spend her spring break on a boat in the Galápagos Islands. With her new boyfriend Justin, whom she has been trying to get all year, her great group of friend, and Friendverse, the last place she wants to be is on a boat for two weeks. Yet with her family she does, and even catches the eye of a cute boy, and while exploring the islands, Madison releases that a break from the internet was what she needed. Yet as soon as their car landed in her driveway she raced upstairs to her room, booting up the computer and recharging the cellphone. What she discover was less than pleasing. Over the break someone had hacked her Friendverse profile changing her Top 8, profile settings, as well as posting mean comments, making almost everyone in her school unfriend her. Now back in action Madison convinced her friends that she was hacked now it’s time to convince her ex-boyfriend Justin (who moved on to Kittison in the time Madison was away), the couple “she” broke up, her theater friends, and the school itself. The way to do this was find her hacker, and bring him/her to justice.

Top 8 can only be described as silly. Katie Finn wrote this whole dramatic story about a girl who lost the respect of her school, and almost all her friends, because her “Facebook” got hacked. How realistic is that? Social media pages get hacked almost daily, almost everyone knows someone who got hacked, or have been hacked themselves. You post a status saying you got hacked, apologies for it, and move on. The only realistic part was when Madison met her friends for the first time after the incident, and while they were freaking out, Ruth, her main best friend said “I believe her” about the hacking. The other two truly believed that their friend Madison would post that awful stuff about them on the internet. Even though her new profile was a picture of her drunk, her status saying “is sooooooo hunggover!”, happen in the two weeks that she was on a boat, which pretty much everyone in the school knew about. Yet the things the hacker posted were true, these were things that Madison actually said to people. Where Madison is trying to get her life back together, find the hacker, get her boyfriend back, the cute boy from the boat makes a reappearance in her life, sending her life into another crazy spin.

mburton43952's review

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5.0

4.5 stars

taegibee's review

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4.0

Morgan Matson (aka Katie Finn) is so great at character development, it's literally ridiculous. I loved how fun this novel was, the quotes and songs are so great and the twists and turns made this super duper entertaining. If you've loved all her other stuff, you will love this!

almaranville's review against another edition

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funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

juliahope's review

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3.0

Wasn't spectacular, wasn't terrible. Definitely kept me interested especially because I have a soft spot for internet novels. I liked it enough to read the rest of the series.

aishahashraf's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

this book is super nostalgic for me because i first read it in the sixth grade (over 8 years ago) and it's honestly just as good as i remember. v much high school vibes but i still liked it and it's a pretty fast read.

lory_blanco's review

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4.0

I honestly had no idea what this book was about. I was perusing through the hotels library and it just jumped at me. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down.

Madison Mcdonalds is going to the Galapagos Island for spring break, not a bad thing right, if only she had internet to keep up with her friendverse (a social media like Myspace and Facebook). There she meets a cute guy, that she can barely remember his name. She has a good time but she cant wait to come back to her house and to check her profile, see her friends and her new boyfriend Justin. But when she logs into her computer she finds herself single, without friends and the rest of her life in turmoil.


I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I found myself becoming immersed in the characters and Mads situation. Like her i was wondering who could have been the suspect. I enjoyed every second of this book. Not only is it a good story but it also teaches a few lessons. One: be careful with the internet!! and social medias. Two: Don't talk behind peoples back, it has a way of coming back to you.

sienaka's review

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I low-key can't believe I read every single book in this series as a child.

And. Loved. Them.

dwebster1031's review

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4.0

This book made me punch a brick wall, but in a good way

untidyfurrows's review

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1.0

As a teenager who practically lives on the internet, when I received this book as a gift I thought, "meh. okay, I'll read it." I find that most "internet based" books are written from a parent "OMG YOU NEED TO WATCH WHAT YOUR KIDS OD ONLINE BECAUSE EVERYONE IS AN EVIL HACKER EXCEPT YOUR KID" perspective. This book did not fail to bring out that perspective. Aside from the predictable parent-esque attitude about the internet, I mostly found this novel shallow and unrealistic. Most people, if they were to get hacked, would probably just delete their profile/blog/whatever. Bam! Problem solved, right? Apparently that course of aciton is just too hard to fathom, because instead of deleting, Madison just kind of lets it go on. Sigh. Madison in herself is purely irritating (WHO PAINTS A LAPTOP. WITH PAINT. WHO ARE YOU WHAT NO). All she is concerned with is her multiple love interests (why are they even all interested in her she's literally more annoying than a wasp). All in all, this book was just, uh, not good. The predictable storyline (Wow, rich white girl's life is just so perfect and then BAM- psuedo-crisis that is easily fixable but no) and irritating attitude and characters rendered this unreadable for me.