Populazzi by Elise Allen
High school...
Mixed emotions most likely right??
If you haven't gone through it yet, than you most likely have no idea what I'm talking about...but if you have...you should know.
Personally, I hated it. I thought it was a terrible time in my life. Friends turned on friends, rumors were spread, people judged me when they didn't know me, because of what one person told them about me. It just wasn't my thing.
The one thing I will say I got out of the whole social experience of high school is that I became a very independent person out of it. I learned to fend for myself, I learned to enjoy being by myself, and learned about the loveliness that are books.
(For more on my High school experience, you can visit MY post HERE!)
Populazzi by Elise Allen takes the hierarchy of high school to the extreme...sometimes, I'm being honest here, I thought a little too much to the extreme.
Description from Goodreads:
Cara has never been one of those girls: confident, self-possessed, and always ready with the perfect thing to say. A girl at the very top of the popularity tower. One of the Populazzi.
Now, junior year could change everything. Cara’s moving to a new school, and her best friend urges her to seize the moment—with the help of the Ladder. Its rungs are relationships, and if Cara transforms into the perfect girlfriend for guys ever-higher on the tower, she’ll reach the ultimate goal: Supreme Populazzi.
The Ladder seems like a lighthearted social experiment, a straight climb up, but it quickly becomes gnarled and twisted. And when everything goes wrong, only the most audacious act Cara can think of has a chance of setting things even a little bit right.
My thoughts:
At one point or another most people think about being that one person everyone fears, loves, and obsesses over...I got over that pretty early on...probably by seventh grade. I had some great friends (or so I thought), and just didn't care about being "Popular". In fact, I sort of stopped believing in that word, so to say. People make other people "Popular" because they put them on that pedi stool. I just refused to do that. I didn't see the point. Everyone should be treated equal, and even today I still believe in "Treating others the way you want to be treated".
Cara just hasn't learned that lesson. She becomes so obsessed with the Hierarchy of high school that along the way she loses herself, and become not just one but TWO completely different people from who she was.
Here's what I have to day about popularity and hierarchy:
Popularity+Hierarchy= CRAP!!!
There were quite a few times where I wanted to reach inside my Kindle, grab hold of Cara, shake her, and scream in her face to get over herself! Her and Claudia's (Cara's best friend) obsession with popularity...OMG!!! Smack them both!
Ultimately, if it wasn't for Claudia's "Advice" none of this would have happened, and Cara would have been able to at least enjoy her high school experience more than she will after what happened.
Trista, the "Supreme Populazzi"...she's the one to be feared, but with Cara's blindness and eagerness to reaching the point of fame, it just wasn't noticed until it was too late.
This book holds a few great messages...lessons to be learned. Be yourself first of all, don't change because you want to be friends with someone. If they don't like you for who you are, than they aren't worth. As cheesy as that sounds...it's TRUE!!! Also the message on bullying...actually I think Elise Allen could have taken that one a little further. Cara thought she deserved what happened at the end, and let herself be pushed over and forgave way to quickly, by ignoring it. I wouldn't have. I would have complained to the school, told my parents, and done something about it, not ignore and just sit there.
I read online that Bullying Awareness Week is coming up next month, and I do feel this is a pretty good book on that. It reminded me a bit of the movie Mean Girls.
There were a couple of great quotes, that I thought were pretty funny:
"You want me to run my heart through a meat grinder and watch you dance flamenco on the pulp as it struggles to keep beating?"-hahahaha pretty hilarious!!
and then
"Dude, it's like you took her mouth cherry..."-hahaha wow!!!
Also a great sounding recipe I want to try:
Peanut-butter-cream-cheese rolled in Captain Crunch covered Green Apples sounds yummy!!!!
Overall rating:
I recommend this one to the age groups of 14 to 17, I believe once you have graduated from high school you sort of get over the whole hierarchy thing pretty quickly. It's time to focus on your future, and finding yourself as your own person, not relying on others; I think this one a bit young for me. This is a pretty girly book, so keep that in mind. It definitely involved a lot of things high school is about. If you like the movie Mean Girls then I think you might like this one.
You can actually get it right now for only $3.85 on the Kindle, or just $4.05 in HARDCOVER (which is SUPER cheap!!!), here's the link:
http://www.amazon.com/Populazzi-ebook/dp/B0058KQTY8/ref=tmm_kin_title_0
Have a great week everyone! :)
Mixed emotions most likely right??
If you haven't gone through it yet, than you most likely have no idea what I'm talking about...but if you have...you should know.
Personally, I hated it. I thought it was a terrible time in my life. Friends turned on friends, rumors were spread, people judged me when they didn't know me, because of what one person told them about me. It just wasn't my thing.
The one thing I will say I got out of the whole social experience of high school is that I became a very independent person out of it. I learned to fend for myself, I learned to enjoy being by myself, and learned about the loveliness that are books.
(For more on my High school experience, you can visit MY post HERE!)
Populazzi by Elise Allen takes the hierarchy of high school to the extreme...sometimes, I'm being honest here, I thought a little too much to the extreme.
Description from Goodreads:
Cara has never been one of those girls: confident, self-possessed, and always ready with the perfect thing to say. A girl at the very top of the popularity tower. One of the Populazzi.
Now, junior year could change everything. Cara’s moving to a new school, and her best friend urges her to seize the moment—with the help of the Ladder. Its rungs are relationships, and if Cara transforms into the perfect girlfriend for guys ever-higher on the tower, she’ll reach the ultimate goal: Supreme Populazzi.
The Ladder seems like a lighthearted social experiment, a straight climb up, but it quickly becomes gnarled and twisted. And when everything goes wrong, only the most audacious act Cara can think of has a chance of setting things even a little bit right.
My thoughts:
At one point or another most people think about being that one person everyone fears, loves, and obsesses over...I got over that pretty early on...probably by seventh grade. I had some great friends (or so I thought), and just didn't care about being "Popular". In fact, I sort of stopped believing in that word, so to say. People make other people "Popular" because they put them on that pedi stool. I just refused to do that. I didn't see the point. Everyone should be treated equal, and even today I still believe in "Treating others the way you want to be treated".
Cara just hasn't learned that lesson. She becomes so obsessed with the Hierarchy of high school that along the way she loses herself, and become not just one but TWO completely different people from who she was.
Here's what I have to day about popularity and hierarchy:
Popularity+Hierarchy= CRAP!!!
There were quite a few times where I wanted to reach inside my Kindle, grab hold of Cara, shake her, and scream in her face to get over herself! Her and Claudia's (Cara's best friend) obsession with popularity...OMG!!! Smack them both!
Ultimately, if it wasn't for Claudia's "Advice" none of this would have happened, and Cara would have been able to at least enjoy her high school experience more than she will after what happened.
Trista, the "Supreme Populazzi"...she's the one to be feared, but with Cara's blindness and eagerness to reaching the point of fame, it just wasn't noticed until it was too late.
This book holds a few great messages...lessons to be learned. Be yourself first of all, don't change because you want to be friends with someone. If they don't like you for who you are, than they aren't worth. As cheesy as that sounds...it's TRUE!!! Also the message on bullying...actually I think Elise Allen could have taken that one a little further. Cara thought she deserved what happened at the end, and let herself be pushed over and forgave way to quickly, by ignoring it. I wouldn't have. I would have complained to the school, told my parents, and done something about it, not ignore and just sit there.
I read online that Bullying Awareness Week is coming up next month, and I do feel this is a pretty good book on that. It reminded me a bit of the movie Mean Girls.
There were a couple of great quotes, that I thought were pretty funny:
"You want me to run my heart through a meat grinder and watch you dance flamenco on the pulp as it struggles to keep beating?"-hahahaha pretty hilarious!!
and then
"Dude, it's like you took her mouth cherry..."-hahaha wow!!!
Also a great sounding recipe I want to try:
Peanut-butter-cream-cheese rolled in Captain Crunch covered Green Apples sounds yummy!!!!
Overall rating:
I recommend this one to the age groups of 14 to 17, I believe once you have graduated from high school you sort of get over the whole hierarchy thing pretty quickly. It's time to focus on your future, and finding yourself as your own person, not relying on others; I think this one a bit young for me. This is a pretty girly book, so keep that in mind. It definitely involved a lot of things high school is about. If you like the movie Mean Girls then I think you might like this one.
You can actually get it right now for only $3.85 on the Kindle, or just $4.05 in HARDCOVER (which is SUPER cheap!!!), here's the link:
http://www.amazon.com/Populazzi-ebook/dp/B0058KQTY8/ref=tmm_kin_title_0
Have a great week everyone! :)
The Romance Bookie :)
Thanks so much for taking the time to read and review the book! You'll have to let me know how you like the apple recipe -- personally I prefer it with the peanut butter over the cream cheese, but either way you can't lose!
ReplyDeletexo,
E
Thank you Elise!! And I will! It sounds delicious! :)
DeleteThis is not about the book but about the stuff you wrote before: Your description of High school just seemed SO accurate to me, it's exactly what I think! I was so stunned that I copied that part to show it to my best friend :D
ReplyDeleteThis is not about the book but about the stuff you wrote before: Your description of High school just seemed SO accurate to me, it's exactly what I think! I was so stunned that I copied that part to show it to my best friend :D
ReplyDeleteThank you! That is so awesome! I'm glad someone can relate...not that I wish it couldn't have been a better experience for both of us, but it's still nice to find people who can relate! :)
DeleteI've heard mixed things about this book, and I think overall it's not really for me. The whole popularity thing is overdone a lot of the time. Of course there are mean girls and there's always some levels of popularity in high school, but I often find that books and TV make it so strict.. where in real life I didn't find there were specific groups that could be labelled like "jocks" stoners" etc... of course there is some of that, but I found it much more fluid in real life, where you could be friends with a lot of different people and it didn't matter.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that movies and books overdo the whole popularity thing! I will say though my high school was VERY clique oriented I always felt. We did have our jocks, stoners, etc. And quite a few of the groups wouldn't really give me the time of day.
DeleteHowever, you're right to an extent movies like "Mean Girls" and "Clueless" REALLY over do it!!
I would never let anyone treat me like some of those girls do!
DeleteSounds a little too cute and high schooly for me.
ReplyDeleteMica
Dallas Fertility Clinic information