A review by missmoonshine
Rosebush by Michele Jaffe

4.0

This story reminds me of exactly the reason I never wanted to be popular; because when you're all the way at the top, the only way to go is down. And Jane, the protagonist, goes down in spectacular fashion, and with a literal bang. Waking up in hospital with amnesia places Jane in exactly the same boat as the reader; clueless. The mixture of present time and memories is very effective, allowing the reader only to know what Jane herself knows, thereby keeping the mystery. And - for me, at least - it was a mystery, right until the very end: keeping me reading after I'd told myself I would only read a couple of chapters, when I really should have been revising. What also kept me reading was the impeccable writing; I had read another of Michelle Jaffe's books, in which she was laugh out loud funny and reminiscent of Meg Cabot, but for me, Rosebush shows just how well the author can adapt to different styles successfully. There are only two grievances I have with this book, one is Jane's character; her overwhelming naivete - it's been the fodder for feel-good teen movies for decades, but I still find it quite unbelievable that a girl who has previously been under the radar thinks she can become popular and not have to pay some price. Also annoying is her seemingly irrational dislike of her step-father-to-be for much of the book. The other is that the end seems a little rushed, as though there had been that much time spent on the mystery that very little had been put into the solving of it, but the fact that Jane is in more danger when the mystery is solved keeps it from feeling too anti-climatic.
Cliched or not, this book directly supports the phrase 'With friends like these, who needs enemies'- but the twist is that it's not made entirely clear to whom this applies - but it could be used to describe every single person in the book.