Gr 8-Up Raye Archer, a scholarship student at the prestigious Fulton School, can't say no when popular girl Ella Parker approaches her for help with Mandarin. But what starts as peer tutoring turns into quasi-friendship when Raye offers Ella access to her secret weapon: a Facebook profile for gorgeous but imaginary Elizabeth Lavenzck, connected to the hot guys at MacArthur school, created with the help of her friend Natalya. When Ella wields Elizabeth for revenge on MacArthur heartthrob Julian, using Raye to pose for revealing candid shots of Elizabeth, she doesn't anticipate that Julian might just fall for Raye. Griffin mines familiar territory-cyberbullying and mean girls-in a novel brimming with deception and manipulation. Readers will relate to Raye's outsider status and sympathize with her as she becomes the new target for Ella's revenge. While Raye's friendship with Natalya at times seems underdeveloped and convenient, the book is tightly written and plotted, and its clever cover will help sell it to readers. While the mean girl behavior doesn't approach that in Courtney Summers's "Some Girls Are"(St. Martin's Griffin, 2010), Griffin's novel has much to offer readers looking for a twist on the typical prep school coming-of-age story.-"Jennifer Barnes, formerly at Homewood Library, IL" Copyright 2010 Media Source Inc.
Socially seduced by the formidable Ella Parker, queen of mean at her posh high school, good-girl Raye finds herself in the middle of an online scheme to humiliate heartthrob Julian. Raye soon ends up caught between her romantic inclinations and her fear of Ella's retaliation. Griffin hits the mark with her manipulative girl villain and the potential dangers of social networks.
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