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stephxsu's review against another edition
3.0
Humor and heart shine equally bright in Leila Sales’ brilliant debut novel, MOSTLY GOOD GIRLS. Female readers of all ages will laugh and cry as they relate to Violet’s difficulties and chuckle over her mishaps.
It is a sad indication of our times that we are able to relate so well to Violet’s situation. Westfield School is extremely competitive, and Leila Sales beautifully captures the utter ridiculousness of upper-middle-class prep school culture: the democracy that results in no decision being made for the most mundane issues, a lack of perspective, etc.
But what makes MOSTLY GOOD GIRLS so enjoyable is not a focus on its setting: it’s because the two main characters are so real, likable in their flaws. It’s easy to see from just her first-person narration that Violet is intelligent. However, she is also very much her age, and thus lacks a certain degree of perspective that makes her escapades so funny. Whether it’s attempting to gain experience talking to guys, to her confusion over Katie’s seemingly changed personality, Violet tries to solve her problems with typical adolescent gusto. She’s far from being perfect, but we love her all the more because of that.
MOSTLY GOOD GIRLS deals well with the sensitive issue of changing friendships during adolescence, but in a humorous way that is sorely lacking in YA lit. I think if I were closer to Violet’s age I would’ve loved this book to pieces: as it is, sometimes her drama grated on my nerves. But as it is, this is teen chick lit as its smartest and most incisive. It will make you laugh so hard your stomach will hurt, and yet it also brings to light the troubling pressures that high-achieving teenagers are facing these days. I’m looking forward to more from this talented new author!
It is a sad indication of our times that we are able to relate so well to Violet’s situation. Westfield School is extremely competitive, and Leila Sales beautifully captures the utter ridiculousness of upper-middle-class prep school culture: the democracy that results in no decision being made for the most mundane issues, a lack of perspective, etc.
But what makes MOSTLY GOOD GIRLS so enjoyable is not a focus on its setting: it’s because the two main characters are so real, likable in their flaws. It’s easy to see from just her first-person narration that Violet is intelligent. However, she is also very much her age, and thus lacks a certain degree of perspective that makes her escapades so funny. Whether it’s attempting to gain experience talking to guys, to her confusion over Katie’s seemingly changed personality, Violet tries to solve her problems with typical adolescent gusto. She’s far from being perfect, but we love her all the more because of that.
MOSTLY GOOD GIRLS deals well with the sensitive issue of changing friendships during adolescence, but in a humorous way that is sorely lacking in YA lit. I think if I were closer to Violet’s age I would’ve loved this book to pieces: as it is, sometimes her drama grated on my nerves. But as it is, this is teen chick lit as its smartest and most incisive. It will make you laugh so hard your stomach will hurt, and yet it also brings to light the troubling pressures that high-achieving teenagers are facing these days. I’m looking forward to more from this talented new author!
christiana's review against another edition
3.0
I feel like this had a little less of a driving plot than most other fiction. It was more like different scenarios of the two best friends and following big changes in their relationship more than an every day kind of story line. I think that teen girls will definitely feel a kinship with Violet and Katie though. It's a very true representation of what best friendship is like when you're in high school.
aimeelio's review against another edition
3.0
this book was very light. i liked it, but did not love it.
andreathereader's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to really like this one, you know? It’s gotten pretty good reviews, so I figured it would be a sure thing. But I just couldn’t love it. I liked it okay, but I definitely wouldn’t call it a must-read.
Right off the bat, why do the chapter have names? That seems like such a childish thing. Especially with names like:
Some of the chapters were only a few pages long. One was actually just one page. When I got to the end of the page, I literally thought “One page chapters? Really? Am I in first grade?”
The plot was very basic. Two girls are besties, one starts to act different and like a boy, the other one is left behind. There is no great mystery or puzzle to solve. No climax to build toward. It kind of coasted along very evenly, then just petered out at the end.
To me, the story smacked of immaturity. Like this reply from Katie when Violet asks about her new boyfriend:
Really, is that what girls are learning these days? Or is that the result of going to an all-girls school? Maybe it is… Having never been to one, I wouldn’t know.
There were random chapters and sections mixed in that had nothing to do with the story at all. They seemed like filler, just created to make the book a little longer. I know most books need extra information to make a book more balanced and full, but lots of this book just seemed tacked on with no purpose.
The characters are rounded, if a bit shallow. Maybe I’m too old to really judge this, but they seemed so young to me. Not like any 16 year old I ever knew in my teen years.
Sales never made me care for the girls, to feel invested in them. At the end of the book, I didn’t really care how it ended, how each character grew (or didn’t).
The dialogue seemed a little forced to me. It was very casual and seemed mostly real, but every once in a while, somebody would say something and it seemed like maybe Sales had hit up the Urban Dictionary and was trying to fit in some teen slang.
Zero sexy hotness. (I mean, look at the last quote above. Can you see those girls doing anything sexy or hot?)
There were a few great lines, like this random fun quite:
The Sum Up: I consider Mostly Good Girls an average easy read. Fine for a day at the beach or a plane trip.
Right off the bat, why do the chapter have names? That seems like such a childish thing. Especially with names like:
Katie’s boyfriend (is probably not a serial killer)
and
Getting comfortable with our … never mind, I can’t say it [the it in question is sex. gasp!]
and
Katie’s family only talks to God
Some of the chapters were only a few pages long. One was actually just one page. When I got to the end of the page, I literally thought “One page chapters? Really? Am I in first grade?”
The plot was very basic. Two girls are besties, one starts to act different and like a boy, the other one is left behind. There is no great mystery or puzzle to solve. No climax to build toward. It kind of coasted along very evenly, then just petered out at the end.
To me, the story smacked of immaturity. Like this reply from Katie when Violet asks about her new boyfriend:
“Did you kiss him?” I asked.
“Of course! If you don’t kiss someone, he’s not your boyfriend. He’s just your friend. Who’s a boy.”
Really, is that what girls are learning these days? Or is that the result of going to an all-girls school? Maybe it is… Having never been to one, I wouldn’t know.
There were random chapters and sections mixed in that had nothing to do with the story at all. They seemed like filler, just created to make the book a little longer. I know most books need extra information to make a book more balanced and full, but lots of this book just seemed tacked on with no purpose.
The characters are rounded, if a bit shallow. Maybe I’m too old to really judge this, but they seemed so young to me. Not like any 16 year old I ever knew in my teen years.
Sales never made me care for the girls, to feel invested in them. At the end of the book, I didn’t really care how it ended, how each character grew (or didn’t).
The dialogue seemed a little forced to me. It was very casual and seemed mostly real, but every once in a while, somebody would say something and it seemed like maybe Sales had hit up the Urban Dictionary and was trying to fit in some teen slang.
Zero sexy hotness. (I mean, look at the last quote above. Can you see those girls doing anything sexy or hot?)
There were a few great lines, like this random fun quite:
I was almost hyperventilating with jealousy. Scott Walsh must be the perfect boyfriend. If I were Julia, I would have been like, “So sorry, family, the death of Grandpop is really sad—but I’m sure he would have wanted me to stay in Boston this holiday season, with Scott Walsh.” And the ghost of my grandfather would have appeared just to confirm, “Yes, my dear granddaughter. Stay with Scott Walsh. For he is God’s gift to womankind.”
The Sum Up: I consider Mostly Good Girls an average easy read. Fine for a day at the beach or a plane trip.
maggiemaggio's review against another edition
2.0
2.75 stars
It seriously pains me to give Mostly Good Girls 2.75 stars. I love Leila Sales and I don’t think this is a bad book, it’s not even that I disliked it, I just never clicked with it. Here’s the thing, I liked Violet, I liked Katie, I liked their school, but I absolutely hated the short chapters that kind of worked as individual short stories about the same characters and I thought Violet’s attitude and the attitude of her school were very polarizing.
The story is narrated by Violet, who’s hilarious and I did often find myself laughing out loud at things she said. But it was just hard to get into the book. The individual stories were all good, I just hated how disjointed they felt. There’s the story about Violet’s class arguing over what their yearbook theme will be. There’s the story of Violet and Katie going on a non-date with the boy they have a crush on. There’s the story about Violet having Thanksgiving at her passive aggressive uncle’s house. And really, I liked them all, I just wish there had been more tying it all together.
Seventy pages into the book I was anxious for it to go somewhere and unsure if I could finish and 170 pages in I had committed to finishing, but I was as equally unsure of where it was all going. Or even if it was going any where. It did ultimately go somewhere, but I knew what was coming from the description and it just didn’t seem like a big enough deal, or at least big enough to make me think I had read something with a real story arc.
My other issue is how polarizing I found the story to be. Violet and Katie attend a prestigious all-girls high school in Boston that’s super competitive. I can relate to this, I went to a pretty competitive high school, attended an ultra-competitive all-women’s college (that reminded me a lot of Violet and Katie’s high school), and I’m trying to get into one of the best grad schools in the country for what I want to do, I get it. I just wonder how many other people will get it? Because honestly, all that competitiveness, judgement, and quest for perfection is kind of off-putting. I like that it’s realistic, but, any maybe this is just because I grew up around it, it’s not an attitude that endears me to characters or stories.
I will say that I liked the ending and the conclusions that Katie came to about perfection and happiness, I think that’s something everyone can benefit from remembering. But that certainly wasn’t enough to save the story for me.
Bottom Line: This book has Leila Sales’ trademark humor and unique voice, but otherwise it was a disappointment for me. I didn’t like the lack of an overall story, the short chapters made me feel like I was reading a series of short stories about the same characters, and I found the attitudes of the ultra-competitive girls’ school the main character attends off-putting.
This review first appeared on my blog.
It seriously pains me to give Mostly Good Girls 2.75 stars. I love Leila Sales and I don’t think this is a bad book, it’s not even that I disliked it, I just never clicked with it. Here’s the thing, I liked Violet, I liked Katie, I liked their school, but I absolutely hated the short chapters that kind of worked as individual short stories about the same characters and I thought Violet’s attitude and the attitude of her school were very polarizing.
The story is narrated by Violet, who’s hilarious and I did often find myself laughing out loud at things she said. But it was just hard to get into the book. The individual stories were all good, I just hated how disjointed they felt. There’s the story about Violet’s class arguing over what their yearbook theme will be. There’s the story of Violet and Katie going on a non-date with the boy they have a crush on. There’s the story about Violet having Thanksgiving at her passive aggressive uncle’s house. And really, I liked them all, I just wish there had been more tying it all together.
Seventy pages into the book I was anxious for it to go somewhere and unsure if I could finish and 170 pages in I had committed to finishing, but I was as equally unsure of where it was all going. Or even if it was going any where. It did ultimately go somewhere, but I knew what was coming from the description and it just didn’t seem like a big enough deal, or at least big enough to make me think I had read something with a real story arc.
My other issue is how polarizing I found the story to be. Violet and Katie attend a prestigious all-girls high school in Boston that’s super competitive. I can relate to this, I went to a pretty competitive high school, attended an ultra-competitive all-women’s college (that reminded me a lot of Violet and Katie’s high school), and I’m trying to get into one of the best grad schools in the country for what I want to do, I get it. I just wonder how many other people will get it? Because honestly, all that competitiveness, judgement, and quest for perfection is kind of off-putting. I like that it’s realistic, but, any maybe this is just because I grew up around it, it’s not an attitude that endears me to characters or stories.
I will say that I liked the ending and the conclusions that Katie came to about perfection and happiness, I think that’s something everyone can benefit from remembering. But that certainly wasn’t enough to save the story for me.
Bottom Line: This book has Leila Sales’ trademark humor and unique voice, but otherwise it was a disappointment for me. I didn’t like the lack of an overall story, the short chapters made me feel like I was reading a series of short stories about the same characters, and I found the attitudes of the ultra-competitive girls’ school the main character attends off-putting.
This review first appeared on my blog.
keepcalmandcurl86's review against another edition
2.0
A decent young adult novel. Short chapters, realistic thoughts and it brought me back to high school years. It wasn't the best young adult novel I've read, but it was decent.
lornarei's review against another edition
3.0
For most of this book I was sure I was going to give it four stars. I mean, even though I went to a small town, public high school in Indiana at the end of the Seventies, I could really relate to the story of the two girls at an exclusive Boston prep school in the 2010s. But somehow it started to fall apart for me near the end. Not sure why, but it was still a fun read.
dtrumps's review against another edition
4.0
Great story about friends, and accepting people for who they are rather than what you think they should be. 3.75/5
storytimed's review against another edition
2.0
OK. Kind of generic. I did like the focus on a dizzying, intense friendship, but I'm not really sold on the emotional conflict: Katie seemed to expect unquestioning support no matter what she did, and that's not really my vision of a healthy friendship.
missprint_'s review against another edition
3.0
Violet Tunis has a plan for her junior year at the prestigious Westfield School. This year isn't just going to be different, it's going to be perfect.
This year she is going ace her PSATs, get straight A-minuses (or better) in all of her classes, and improve the school's literary magazine to the point where it doesn't completely embarrass her. She's going to pass her driving test, get famous, and do many awesome projects with her best friend Katie. She will also make Scott Walsh fall in love with her.
Unfortunately for Violet, things don't go according to plan. At all.
Instead of having a perfect junior year, Violet has the exact same problems she always has struggling to keep up with Westfield's high academic standards (and competition) and failing miserably at sounding like a sane person when talking to boys.
On top of that, the literary magazine is a disaster and her editorial board is possibly filled with illiterates. Her driving teacher is mentally unstable. And her best friend Katie might be losing her mind.
Everything always comes so easily to Katie. She makes being pretty and smart and successful look effortless. So why is she suddenly making all of the wrong decisions? And if even Katie is falling apart, what hope does Violet have? More importantly, if Violet doesn't have Katie by her side, does any of it matter?
All Violet knows for sure is it's going to take a lot more than her Junior Year To-Do List to get things under control in Mostly Good Girls (2011) by Leila Sales.
Mostly Good Girls has a lot going for it. Violet is a quirky narrator with a voice that is almost as distinct as her sense of humor. Interestingly, this book is also the first one I have ever read where the teenagers talk exactly like I did as a teenager.*
Violet and Katie and their friend Hilary are all well-developed and come alive on the page. They are all so real, so unique, and so exactly like I was a teenager. It was refreshing to be able to see my own experiences reflected in this crazy, hysterical book.
My love for Violet, Sales' beautiful writing, and the book's wonderful setting is almost enough to make me love this book unconditionally. But I also wanted more from it.
The beginning of the novel is, simply put, genius--filled with witty snapshot-like chapters about Violet's life at Westfield. Snapshots that, I might add, could have been from my own high school. The actual plot, the plot you'll see on the book jacket, doesn't come up until about halfway in. At that point, for me, the story lost some of its verve.**
While the book remains authentic and charming I probably would have been just as happy with more snapshots about Westfield and less about Katie's crisis. That might be me.*** The ending offers some semblance of closure although a lot about Violet's life does remain up in the air.
Mostly Good Girls is an exceptional debut from a masterful author. Leila Sales is definitely going places and Mostly Good Girls is definitely a must read for anyone looking for an antidote to the vanilla, artificial high school experiences so often seen in books and movies.
*I have never before, and probably never will again, read a book where a teen character says, "Indeed."
**Part of that might have to do with my never having the "Violet and Katie" kind of best friend experience. Who knows?
***Or maybe it's just that at that point the plot diverged to something different from my high school experience and what I really loved here was that the book was so very similar to my high school experience.
Possible Pairing: A Little Wanting Song by Cath Crowley, Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly, Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg, Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey, Where I Belong by Gwendolyn Heasley, After the Kiss by Terra Elan McVoy, Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin, Easy A (movie)
This year she is going ace her PSATs, get straight A-minuses (or better) in all of her classes, and improve the school's literary magazine to the point where it doesn't completely embarrass her. She's going to pass her driving test, get famous, and do many awesome projects with her best friend Katie. She will also make Scott Walsh fall in love with her.
Unfortunately for Violet, things don't go according to plan. At all.
Instead of having a perfect junior year, Violet has the exact same problems she always has struggling to keep up with Westfield's high academic standards (and competition) and failing miserably at sounding like a sane person when talking to boys.
On top of that, the literary magazine is a disaster and her editorial board is possibly filled with illiterates. Her driving teacher is mentally unstable. And her best friend Katie might be losing her mind.
Everything always comes so easily to Katie. She makes being pretty and smart and successful look effortless. So why is she suddenly making all of the wrong decisions? And if even Katie is falling apart, what hope does Violet have? More importantly, if Violet doesn't have Katie by her side, does any of it matter?
All Violet knows for sure is it's going to take a lot more than her Junior Year To-Do List to get things under control in Mostly Good Girls (2011) by Leila Sales.
Mostly Good Girls has a lot going for it. Violet is a quirky narrator with a voice that is almost as distinct as her sense of humor. Interestingly, this book is also the first one I have ever read where the teenagers talk exactly like I did as a teenager.*
Violet and Katie and their friend Hilary are all well-developed and come alive on the page. They are all so real, so unique, and so exactly like I was a teenager. It was refreshing to be able to see my own experiences reflected in this crazy, hysterical book.
My love for Violet, Sales' beautiful writing, and the book's wonderful setting is almost enough to make me love this book unconditionally. But I also wanted more from it.
The beginning of the novel is, simply put, genius--filled with witty snapshot-like chapters about Violet's life at Westfield. Snapshots that, I might add, could have been from my own high school. The actual plot, the plot you'll see on the book jacket, doesn't come up until about halfway in. At that point, for me, the story lost some of its verve.**
While the book remains authentic and charming I probably would have been just as happy with more snapshots about Westfield and less about Katie's crisis. That might be me.*** The ending offers some semblance of closure although a lot about Violet's life does remain up in the air.
Mostly Good Girls is an exceptional debut from a masterful author. Leila Sales is definitely going places and Mostly Good Girls is definitely a must read for anyone looking for an antidote to the vanilla, artificial high school experiences so often seen in books and movies.
*I have never before, and probably never will again, read a book where a teen character says, "Indeed."
**Part of that might have to do with my never having the "Violet and Katie" kind of best friend experience. Who knows?
***Or maybe it's just that at that point the plot diverged to something different from my high school experience and what I really loved here was that the book was so very similar to my high school experience.
Possible Pairing: A Little Wanting Song by Cath Crowley, Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly, Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg, Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey, Where I Belong by Gwendolyn Heasley, After the Kiss by Terra Elan McVoy, Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin, Easy A (movie)