I have mentioned before how I’ll happily read books where I am FULLY aware I am really not said book’s target market. It’s been a while since I wandered so far outside of my demographic as I have here with this story of cheerleaders, rivalry and Generally Bad Goings-On. But Abbott has garnered acclaim for her YA as well her non-YA novels, a few of which I’m also interested in reading. And who among us watched Bring It On and thought “yeah, I bet it’s not really this nice”? Well, this book is for all of us.
It’s a tale as old as time. A Queen Bee is loved and feared in equal measure until a better Queen comes along and takes her throne. The deposed queen becomes obsessed with exposing the new queen as a fake and a phoney and having the scales fall from everyone’s eyes. It never normally ends well. Here, the Queen Bee is head cheerleader Beth Cassidy and in a nice take, the threat comes not from a new girl who can flic-flac her into next week, but from the new cheer coach, who has no time for the way Beth runs her squad. And in an even nicer twist, Beth isn’t just driven into a jealous rage, but is a full blown insane psychopath who will stop at nothing to end the coach’s reign. And when the coach hands her the way to upend her life on a silver platter, shit gets real ugly real fast.
Narrated by Beth’s best friend, Addy Hanlon, there’s no denying that Abbott knows how teenage girls operate. It all feels brilliantly and unpleasantly authentic. One of the many reasons I can’t bear the movie Juno is it all feels like a guess, Diablo Cody thinks it’s how teenage girls talk to each other. I didn’t believe a single word anyone said in that film. I believed every word of this book though. It’s smart, it’s incisive and it’s gripping. Seriously. I know I’m talking about a cheerleading book, I haven’t lost my mind.
Things go from bitchily amusing to ever darker when the Coach is caught red-handed having an affair. If you have any plans to read this book, I’m about to get all spoilerific, so look away now. Coach has an affair with Will, a hot military recruiter and when he turns up dead, and it turns out not to be the suicide initially posited, the noose curls ever more tightly around Coach French’s neck and we all breathlessly await Crazy Beth to storm in and kick her chair away. For me, the end could have gone about four different ways and the direction Abbott eventually pulls you in was one I didn’t see coming until it was almost upon me. That’s how good she is. It’s how good this book is. If you’ve ever wanted to be a cheerleader, been bullied by a mean girl, idolised your best friend, been a cheerleader, been mean, idly plotted your frenemy’s downfall, you’ll find something to relate to in this deliciously nasty little gem.
I wouldn’t ordinarily pick this up, but I have to admit that I’m interested based on your assessment of the accuracy of teen-girl interactions. Disclosure: when a “dramatic catfight” story is ever billed as being “authentic” teen-girl reality, my hackles get raised a bit, because though a bit of drama is part and parcel of that experience, it’s not a descriptor that’s used as frequently for less catty subject material. And Juno was overdone in its quippy-ness for sure, but I maintain that a lot of people would be surprised at how close a lot of it was to how many of us did talk! There are always some like us in high school who weren’t as into fashion or whatever else we were expected to like, and because we were still extroverts it was VERY IMPORTANT to distinguish ourselves — because in high school it’s extremes; you either want to blend in or be ~*UNIQUE*~. You’d adopt a sardonic, laid-back posture, and it was like striking gold to come up with a funny, catchy phrase that all of your friends would use later. Juno is a poster child for that kind of girl. She’s a little too good at the game too often, but not as out-there as many believe!
All that said, I believe Megan Abbott knows what she’s doing, and I’m also intrigued by the ending if it’s as unpredictable as you say!