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Lucy Vacarro never planned to go to prom, but when Eliana, her best friend, asks her to take her place because she's sick and she can't go, Lucy can't refuse. Rather than slaying zombies all night, she goes to Lavender Oaks' prom at the arm of Ellie's boyfriend Cole. But Lucy has been in love with Cole since the first time they met three years ago and when he invites her to the after-prom party, she knows it only means disaster. The next day, a picture of them kissing with a bunch of other embarrassing pictures of the other guests are posted on her Facebook wall with her stolen phone, framing her as the perpetrator. The whole school is after her, but Lucy has a plan: finding who did it, reveal the truth, have her life back and her best friend back.
#scandal was good. Not extraordinary, but good. I enjoyed some aspects of it like how the book dealt with bullying and the writing, but a lot of things were missing to make me care. I didn't really care for the characters, for the romance or the mysteries.
First, the characters. They were plain. Lucy, Ellie, Cole, Griffin, Franklin. I felt bad for Lucy, but nothing more. The principal was not believable and she didn't do anything to help Lucy and actually stop the bullying. I can't believe not a teacher heard students call Lucy a slut and a narc in the corridors or saw the pamphlets. At least, some cool students stood up to her like the (e)Pic kids. I liked Ellie because even though she was betrayed by her friends, she felt bad for Lucy and tried to stop some students from harassing her. Some people would only think of revenge or that she deserved it, but not her in spite of everything that had happened. She's a good person with a big heart. She was the most likeable character. Nothing to say about Griffin, she was funny at the beginning, but I kind of hate her now. Lavender Oaks students were just infuriating. Two weeks of so much drama for not so much really. I don't know why they were so mad at Lucy, it was just funny pictures of drunk people posted on Facebook. If they didn't want pictures to show up on the internet, they just had to not act stupid and drunk. It's not like they didn't do these things. Olivia made me glad I'm not in high school anymore.
Lucy and Cole's relationship didn't interest me at all. Maybe it can be explained by the fact that we don't see them fall in love, we are just told that Lucy has been in love with him since the first time she met him so we don't get a chance to fall in love with him ourselves? Or that there's almost no romance during the book, but some bits here and there so how are we suppose to care about them when we don't even see them loving each other? Cole is caring but was barely in the book, the end is cute, but nothing more.
I didn't care for the mysteries either. There are two big mysteries : finding who stole Lucy's phone and posted the pictures on her Facebook and who is Miss Demeanour, the Facebook page that made me think of Gossip Girl. I was a little bit surprise of who stole Lucy's phone because I just couldn't see a good motive for this character. The motive was childish. Almost destroy someone's life and reputation just because of that? I can't say more without having a full paragraph under spoiler, but yeah... I guess people bully for less than that, but it felt ridiculous to me in this book.
The bullying/cyberbullying part was really painful. Even more painful when nobody was really doing something about it. I'm not sure if I liked how it was handled, but I liked the topic. I loved >Sarah Ockler's writing and the pop culture references of Veronica Mars, The Walking Dead and The Hunger Games.
Overall, a good read. I don't know if I recommend it. I actually enjoy reading it, it was a fast and entertaining read even though everything I said, but that's it. Like I said, nothing extraordinary.
#scandal was good. Not extraordinary, but good. I enjoyed some aspects of it like how the book dealt with bullying and the writing, but a lot of things were missing to make me care. I didn't really care for the characters, for the romance or the mysteries.
First, the characters. They were plain. Lucy, Ellie, Cole, Griffin, Franklin. I felt bad for Lucy, but nothing more. The principal was not believable and she didn't do anything to help Lucy and actually stop the bullying. I can't believe not a teacher heard students call Lucy a slut and a narc in the corridors or saw the pamphlets. At least, some cool students stood up to her like the (e)Pic kids. I liked Ellie because even though she was betrayed by her friends, she felt bad for Lucy and tried to stop some students from harassing her. Some people would only think of revenge or that she deserved it, but not her in spite of everything that had happened. She's a good person with a big heart. She was the most likeable character. Nothing to say about Griffin, she was funny at the beginning, but I kind of hate her now. Lavender Oaks students were just infuriating. Two weeks of so much drama for not so much really. I don't know why they were so mad at Lucy, it was just funny pictures of drunk people posted on Facebook. If they didn't want pictures to show up on the internet, they just had to not act stupid and drunk. It's not like they didn't do these things. Olivia made me glad I'm not in high school anymore.
Lucy and Cole's relationship didn't interest me at all. Maybe it can be explained by the fact that we don't see them fall in love, we are just told that Lucy has been in love with him since the first time she met him so we don't get a chance to fall in love with him ourselves? Or that there's almost no romance during the book, but some bits here and there so how are we suppose to care about them when we don't even see them loving each other? Cole is caring but was barely in the book, the end is cute, but nothing more.
I didn't care for the mysteries either. There are two big mysteries : finding who stole Lucy's phone and posted the pictures on her Facebook and who is Miss Demeanour, the Facebook page that made me think of Gossip Girl. I was a little bit surprise of who stole Lucy's phone because I just couldn't see a good motive for this character. The motive was childish. Almost destroy someone's life and reputation just because of that? I can't say more without having a full paragraph under spoiler, but yeah... I guess people bully for less than that, but it felt ridiculous to me in this book.
The bullying/cyberbullying part was really painful. Even more painful when nobody was really doing something about it. I'm not sure if I liked how it was handled, but I liked the topic. I loved >Sarah Ockler's writing and the pop culture references of Veronica Mars, The Walking Dead and The Hunger Games.
Overall, a good read. I don't know if I recommend it. I actually enjoy reading it, it was a fast and entertaining read even though everything I said, but that's it. Like I said, nothing extraordinary.