When seventeen-year-old Sia wakes up on a park bench, she has no idea who or where she is. Yet after a week of being homeless, she’s reunited with her family. At school, she’s powerful and popular. At home, she’s wealthy beyond her dreams. But she quickly realizes her perfect life is a lie. Her family is falling apart and her friends are snobby, cruel and plastic. Worse yet, she discovers she was the cruelest one. Mortified by her past, she embarks on a journey of redemption and falls for Kyle, the “geek” she once tormented. Yet all the time she wonders if, when her memories return, she’ll become the bully she was before…and if she’ll lose Kyle.So I was kind of expecting this to be really, ridiculously clichéd. I mean, the cheerleader with the star football player? Yeah, exactly. But it was actually not bad. Wow, glowing review so far, right?
Any-hoo. I'm really on the fence about this story. The story as a whole was good, but everything seemed really planned. I mean, yes it's a book of course it's planned, but everything that happened seemed too perfect. Perfect as in way too many coincidences. Maybe that's just me, though. It was a really quick read, too but I don't know if that's good or bad. I guess that depends on the reader. Personally, I prefer longer books, but like I said--this one was good.
So the main character is Sia Holloway. Someone pointed out to me that when Sia sees her reflection after losing her memory, she describes herself as gorgeous or something like that, which most girls would not do, sadly. So by society's standards, that makes her sound conceited (I don't agree, people should think they're beautiful). But then I thought, her reaction is just like when you see some stranger and think, "Wow, they are a fine piece of meat." Or, maybe not those exact words. But you get it. Back to what I was saying, her reaction is normal. As far as she remembers, she's never seen that person in her reflection before. She genuinely thinks the person she sees is pretty. When I saw this book was written by a guy, I thought he wouldn't get down everything that goes through a girl's mind. But I realize now he pretty much pegged it. At least some of us think like Sia.
Now I'm going to group all her old friends together because they can be. They bothered me. I'm not going to lie to you. They were pretty annoying, but I think they were meant to be. Although no girl says "BFF" anymore, her friends say it on the daily. They're so cliché it's not even funny.
Her new friends are great, although it sort of makes it seem like the down-to-earth friends are better than her old friends. If you judge them by how nice they are, then yes they are nicer. But if you're just looking at them under how they act, then they're the same people! I don't agree that just because someone isn't nice on the outside, they can't be a good friend on the inside. I know that also sounds horrible, but that's kind of how I felt after reading this book. Towards the end, it all evens out a little. So that's all over and done with.
Overall, I give this book about a 3.5/5. I loved some parts of it, and I didn't quite like some others. The author, Josh Grayson, seems like he knows what he's doing though. Good writer. I didn't even notice it.
Okay, I know that makes no sense at all, seeing as I was reading it, how could I not notice the writing? Well, it's like this. A good writer shoves you into the story and you just go with it because you're too busy being invested in the characters and plot. With a not-so-good writer, it's beyond easy to tell that they're trying really hard to impress the reader. I don't need anyone to impress me, I want someone to tell me a story I can sink into. That's what Josh Grayson does, and I would really love to read other books by him.
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