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A review by maggiemaggio
#scandal by Sarah Ockler
4.0
Can I just say how mortified I am that a book with a hashtag title was one of my most anticipated reads of 2014? Plus it involves a girl kissing her best friend’s boyfriend, something I am very strongly against. Only for you Sarah Ockler, only for you.
For fellow Sarah Ockler fans I have to say that this book is very different from Sarah’s other books. I mean, it has a hashtag as a the title (ok, I’ll stop mentioning that). Unlike Twenty Boy Summer which handles death, Bittersweet, which deals with parental abandonment, money woes, and being a child protege, and The Book of Broken Hearts, which deals with a parent with alzheimer’s, #Scandal tackles a high school (you guessed it) scandal. I’m not saying that having your business broadcast all over the internet isn’t traumatic, but it’s also not death or alzheimer’s (especially in this case where it’s all pretty lighthearted). All that said, I liked how Sarah Ockler brought her wonderful storytelling and sense of humor to a lighter story.
There are a lot of characters in this book and they start coming at you right from the beginning (so if you’re like me and have a difficult time keeping track of people, prepare yourself). It’s the night of prom and Lucy, the fantastic main character, is attending with her best friend Ellie’s boyfriend, Cole. Ellie got the flu and roped Lucy, who’d rather be home fighting zombies online, to be Cole’s date in her place. They’re all friends so this should be ok, except that Lucy has secretly been in love with Cole since they met and has pined for him through all of high school when he was with Ellie. I am not a fan of girls who go after other girl’s boyfriends (#girlcode), but in Lucy’s case I made an exception. Yes, she lusted after Cole, but she realized what she was doing was wrong and she never tried to make a move on him or sabotage his relationship with Ellie.
Then, at the prom after party at Cole’s parents’ cabin, Cole, with the help of alcohol, kisses Lucy. She doesn’t immediately push him away, but eventually she does and while I wouldn’t say she regrets the kiss, she knows it shouldn’t have happened. The scenes at prom and the cabin after were some of my favorite in the book. Even though meeting so many of Lucy’s classmates was overwhelming at times, I loved getting to know Lucy and her classmates through her witty, sarcastic observations. It helps that their mythical prom theme is pretty nuts and that so many of her classmates are crazy, but for the most part it seemed like a pretty accurate description of a prom and after party.
Lucy and Cole know they have to tell Ellie what happened, but before they can do so Lucy’s Facebook page blows up not only with pictures of her and Cole kissing, but pictures of many of their classmates’ drunken shenanigans at the party the night before. Lucy, who lost her cell phone during the party, is horrified. She would never post pictures like that, but all the sudden everyone starts blaming her and branding her a slut and a narc. All of this #scandal is egged on by Miss Demeanor, the Gossip Girl-like page that tracks the goings on of the students in Lucy’s class and often adds fuel to the fire of the gossip flames.
The whole Miss Demeanor storyline is important in the end, but it was my least favorite part of the book. It’s just too similar to Gossip Girl for me and also, at this point, kind of cliche. The story could easily have taken place without the whole Miss Demeanor storyline, although it would require some tweaking, but it would have been worth it. Someone stealing Lucy’s phone and posting pictures under her FB account is enough and I wish the whole online component would have ended with that.
For Sarah Ockler fans who are looking for a little bit deeper material that also exists here. As Lucy combats the people who are angry at her for “posting” the pictures and also tries to find out who actually posted them, she learns a lot about friendship and what it means to stand by someone. Sarah Ockler does a great job of showing new friendships being built and old friendships being destroyed, both happen subtly and with no huge dramatics. There’s also a really great subplot with Lucy and her sister growing closer which I won’t say too much about because I think it could spoil part of the story. The only negative in terms of relationships was the adults in the book. Lucy’s parents are absent for much of the story and the teachers and principal at her school are pretty clueless.
One of the things about this story that really appealed to me prior to reading it was the idea that, when wrongly accused and ostracized, Lucy fights back against the accusations. While Lucy definitely doesn’t sit back and take it, she also didn’t fight back as much as I expected from a thigh-high-boot-wearing, nose-pierced, online zombie slayer. I respected that Lucy wanted to figure out what happened before she really came out with guns blazing, but I also really wanted her to shout from the rooftops that she didn’t do it. However, I understand why she didn’t and that her classmates probably wouldn’t have believed her if she did.
Bottom Line: This isn’t my favorite Sarah Ockler book and it lacks some of the depth of her other books, but it was still a fun read. It’s a witty, realistic, timely story about a girl trying to clear her name and just live her life in this crazy technological age that we live in. It’s a fun, easy, slightly outlandish summer read.
I received an electronic review copy from the publisher via Edelweiss (thank you!). All opinions are my own.
This review first appeared on my blog.
For fellow Sarah Ockler fans I have to say that this book is very different from Sarah’s other books. I mean, it has a hashtag as a the title (ok, I’ll stop mentioning that). Unlike Twenty Boy Summer which handles death, Bittersweet, which deals with parental abandonment, money woes, and being a child protege, and The Book of Broken Hearts, which deals with a parent with alzheimer’s, #Scandal tackles a high school (you guessed it) scandal. I’m not saying that having your business broadcast all over the internet isn’t traumatic, but it’s also not death or alzheimer’s (especially in this case where it’s all pretty lighthearted). All that said, I liked how Sarah Ockler brought her wonderful storytelling and sense of humor to a lighter story.
There are a lot of characters in this book and they start coming at you right from the beginning (so if you’re like me and have a difficult time keeping track of people, prepare yourself). It’s the night of prom and Lucy, the fantastic main character, is attending with her best friend Ellie’s boyfriend, Cole. Ellie got the flu and roped Lucy, who’d rather be home fighting zombies online, to be Cole’s date in her place. They’re all friends so this should be ok, except that Lucy has secretly been in love with Cole since they met and has pined for him through all of high school when he was with Ellie. I am not a fan of girls who go after other girl’s boyfriends (#girlcode), but in Lucy’s case I made an exception. Yes, she lusted after Cole, but she realized what she was doing was wrong and she never tried to make a move on him or sabotage his relationship with Ellie.
Then, at the prom after party at Cole’s parents’ cabin, Cole, with the help of alcohol, kisses Lucy. She doesn’t immediately push him away, but eventually she does and while I wouldn’t say she regrets the kiss, she knows it shouldn’t have happened. The scenes at prom and the cabin after were some of my favorite in the book. Even though meeting so many of Lucy’s classmates was overwhelming at times, I loved getting to know Lucy and her classmates through her witty, sarcastic observations. It helps that their mythical prom theme is pretty nuts and that so many of her classmates are crazy, but for the most part it seemed like a pretty accurate description of a prom and after party.
Lucy and Cole know they have to tell Ellie what happened, but before they can do so Lucy’s Facebook page blows up not only with pictures of her and Cole kissing, but pictures of many of their classmates’ drunken shenanigans at the party the night before. Lucy, who lost her cell phone during the party, is horrified. She would never post pictures like that, but all the sudden everyone starts blaming her and branding her a slut and a narc. All of this #scandal is egged on by Miss Demeanor, the Gossip Girl-like page that tracks the goings on of the students in Lucy’s class and often adds fuel to the fire of the gossip flames.
The whole Miss Demeanor storyline is important in the end, but it was my least favorite part of the book. It’s just too similar to Gossip Girl for me and also, at this point, kind of cliche. The story could easily have taken place without the whole Miss Demeanor storyline, although it would require some tweaking, but it would have been worth it. Someone stealing Lucy’s phone and posting pictures under her FB account is enough and I wish the whole online component would have ended with that.
For Sarah Ockler fans who are looking for a little bit deeper material that also exists here. As Lucy combats the people who are angry at her for “posting” the pictures and also tries to find out who actually posted them, she learns a lot about friendship and what it means to stand by someone. Sarah Ockler does a great job of showing new friendships being built and old friendships being destroyed, both happen subtly and with no huge dramatics. There’s also a really great subplot with Lucy and her sister growing closer which I won’t say too much about because I think it could spoil part of the story. The only negative in terms of relationships was the adults in the book. Lucy’s parents are absent for much of the story and the teachers and principal at her school are pretty clueless.
One of the things about this story that really appealed to me prior to reading it was the idea that, when wrongly accused and ostracized, Lucy fights back against the accusations. While Lucy definitely doesn’t sit back and take it, she also didn’t fight back as much as I expected from a thigh-high-boot-wearing, nose-pierced, online zombie slayer. I respected that Lucy wanted to figure out what happened before she really came out with guns blazing, but I also really wanted her to shout from the rooftops that she didn’t do it. However, I understand why she didn’t and that her classmates probably wouldn’t have believed her if she did.
Bottom Line: This isn’t my favorite Sarah Ockler book and it lacks some of the depth of her other books, but it was still a fun read. It’s a witty, realistic, timely story about a girl trying to clear her name and just live her life in this crazy technological age that we live in. It’s a fun, easy, slightly outlandish summer read.
I received an electronic review copy from the publisher via Edelweiss (thank you!). All opinions are my own.
This review first appeared on my blog.