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A review by omccloskey
Spoiled by Heather Cocks, Jessica Morgan
3.0
I’ve never been particularly girly – at the age of five, my favorite color was green and I spent the majority of my time collecting bugs in the backyard and bringing them into the house (much to my mother’s dismay). Not much has changed since then – I don’t own a single piece of designer clothing, have barely figured out that mascara goes on one’s eyelashes, and find myself routinely shoveling manure at the barn. Therefore, I was well aware going into this book that I might not be the happiest camper coming out of it.
To my surprise, I made it through the book in its entirety and found that I enjoyed it, but didn’t love it. The plot lends itself to a variety of cliches, all of which I’ve read countless times before. The high school clicks and rivalries also gave it a certain Mean Girls feel, right down to the recurring theme of sabotage and betrayal. From the summary alone, I’m sure you could take a decent guess as to the plot and its minimal, easily predictable twists and turns.
For the most part, the characters appeared relatively fake, not far removed from your average Hollywood celebrities. Combine this with extremely privileged, stuck-up teenagers attending an elite, private institution, and you have a recipe for disaster. Rumors flew nearly every other page and the gossip was pretty much off the charts. Characters divided their time among moping about their oh-so-miserable lives, shopping/applying makeup/perfecting their appearances, backstabbing, and attending parties and press events. Definitely your average high schoolers.
The romances were very poorly developed and executed. For the majority of the book, the main character, Molly, carries on a long-distance relationship with an old childhood friend. Yet his name is rarely mentioned. She speaks to him on the phone perhaps three or four times over the course of multiple months, and neither of them seemed particularly concerned. But keep in mind, they still considered their relationship exclusive. Hence Molly’s immediate feelings of guilt the instant she felt attracted to any other person. Molly’s stereotypical indecisiveness and uncanny ability to pick up jerks became a rather annoying combo after the first one hundred pages or so.
Overall, I wasn’t expecting much of this book, and it didn’t amount to a whole lot. If you’ve been reading young adult novels for a long enough period of time, they all start to sound very similar, and Spoiled was no exception. Nothing exceptional stood out throughout the novel, causing it to blend into its young adult contemporaries. While it was a relatively fast and painless read, I likely won’t be rereading it or continuing on with the series.
To my surprise, I made it through the book in its entirety and found that I enjoyed it, but didn’t love it. The plot lends itself to a variety of cliches, all of which I’ve read countless times before. The high school clicks and rivalries also gave it a certain Mean Girls feel, right down to the recurring theme of sabotage and betrayal. From the summary alone, I’m sure you could take a decent guess as to the plot and its minimal, easily predictable twists and turns.
For the most part, the characters appeared relatively fake, not far removed from your average Hollywood celebrities. Combine this with extremely privileged, stuck-up teenagers attending an elite, private institution, and you have a recipe for disaster. Rumors flew nearly every other page and the gossip was pretty much off the charts. Characters divided their time among moping about their oh-so-miserable lives, shopping/applying makeup/perfecting their appearances, backstabbing, and attending parties and press events. Definitely your average high schoolers.
The romances were very poorly developed and executed. For the majority of the book, the main character, Molly, carries on a long-distance relationship with an old childhood friend. Yet his name is rarely mentioned. She speaks to him on the phone perhaps three or four times over the course of multiple months, and neither of them seemed particularly concerned. But keep in mind, they still considered their relationship exclusive. Hence Molly’s immediate feelings of guilt the instant she felt attracted to any other person. Molly’s stereotypical indecisiveness and uncanny ability to pick up jerks became a rather annoying combo after the first one hundred pages or so.
Overall, I wasn’t expecting much of this book, and it didn’t amount to a whole lot. If you’ve been reading young adult novels for a long enough period of time, they all start to sound very similar, and Spoiled was no exception. Nothing exceptional stood out throughout the novel, causing it to blend into its young adult contemporaries. While it was a relatively fast and painless read, I likely won’t be rereading it or continuing on with the series.