Populazzi by Elise Allen

Populazzi

Cara has always dreamed of being a Populazzi, one of the popular crowd. But it’s not until she changes schools that she gets a shot at it, thanks to her best friend Claudia’s crazy plan. The idea is simple: The rungs of The Ladder are relationships. First get a boyfriend who's ranked low, then climb up through more boyfriends until you're not just one of the Populazzi, but the Supreme Populazzi. Yet what starts off as a fairy tale turns into a somewhat dark comedy of errors. Just when Cara reaches the top, her life hits rock bottom. She wonders why she wanted to be popular in the first place—and if there’s any way to live happily ever after now.

At First Sight:
I was expecting for this book to be very light, humorous, and entertaining, if maybe a little bit bland. The cover was cool and it looked more like a Tween novel than a YA one, to be honest. OH HOW WRONG I WAS.

My Thoughts:
So I sat down to read this book at the beach and was like, "Okay, I'll read 5% and then put it down," but I couldn't AT ALL. Cara's narration and just the whole idea of the book had me addicted. Archer was absolutely adorable and I liked his relationship with Cara much.

The whole high school clique thing was a bit too cliche for my tastes at some points but then the author would reel back in her characters and they would seem much more realistic. I expected this book to be very tweensy but I was extremely surprised that the book dealt with deeper issues such as bullying, drugs, and sex. Definitely not as light as I thought it would be.

The only thing I didn't love was that there was the parent plot line that didn't really get resolved at the end. It would have been interesting to see how Cara dealt with that but unfurtunately, we didn't get to see it here.

In one sentence:
"Definitely unexpected!"

Plot: 4
Characters: 4
Writing: 4
Cover: 5
Overall Feeling: 4
Average: 4.2