Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Elite by Jennifer Banash

Casey McCloy has just moved to New York City from Illinois to live with her grandmother, while her mother is doing research in England. She gets to reside in a posh apartment building, attend a prestigious high school, and rub shoulders with Manhattan's elite. Even though she's not as rich or sophisticated as the other girls , she becomes friends with the three most popular girls in school: Madison, Phoebe and Sophie. The girls relunctantly allow Casey into their circle, but a social faux pas might push Casey out. Let's just hope that Casey stays away from Madison's on-and-off boyfriend Drew...

This book was a light read, full of fluff, but I still liked it a lot. It reminded me of Gossip Girl, since they're both easy to read and might be considered guilty pleasures. The characters were fun to read about, even though they fit the usual stereotypes: the perfect and pretty queen bee, the innoncent outsider, the cute and sensitive boy. It also seemed like the whole book revolved around one plot point, with few other things thrown in. The whole time Drew and Madison were trying to decide if they still liked each other, and the book was filled with "I like him, no I don't, should we date, will she be at the party, blah blah blah". Even though it got redundant, I liked reading about these girls, who seemed to define elegance and sophistication. I can't wait to see what happens in the next book, In Too Deep.

6 out of 10.

No comments: