Mean Girls 3.0

Just Sing - René Gilley

This book... What do I say about this book? I've felt like I was reading a bad book remake of Mean Girls, only far less enjoyable and fun. This book tries really hard. It tries really hard to show real life morals, what's right and what's wrong, the right to follow your dreams, importance of a family and acceptance... and it fails in almost every aspect. Instead of topics mentioned above being a main focus of a book, we get our main characters Lily pining half of a time over her hot new neighbour and thinking about how hot he is and how she reaaaaaally wants him to kiss her, and the other half of the time reminding us how her ex-best friend Melanie is a bitch and a slut for wearing tops and shorts and... yeah, no. Look, Mean Girls makes it fun and funny and mate, I laughed every time I watched that movie but I'd never taken it seriously and was always looking at it as a hilarious (but even a true) way of portraying high school. But this book doesn't even try to make it hilarious. Okay, yes, I know Lily's dealing with family issues, her career issues (um yeah) and a hot boy, but maaaaaaaate, you don't have to slut-shame right and left and make sure to point out how you are better than every other girl and how much of a bitch Melanie isssssss. This book didn't want to be funny, I get it, but you shouldn't have thrown Mean Girls vibe into the mix then.

 

I don't even know what writing here was, to be honest. It was, at the same time, overly repetitive, and was lacking some much-needed descriptions. Reading a "he said this, she said that" and "I did this, he did that" over and over again gets boring. It's always telling, no showing. I couldn't connect with characters in any possible way because there was no emotion whatsoever behind any of it.

 

Another major issue I've had with writing particularly, was dialogue. It was so awkward and out of the place 99% of a time and every other sentence, characters seemed to drop the bombshells on each other (and on us, readers), that I'd stop reading and ask myself "Where the hell did that come from?" For example:

 

Dr. Cohen gestured to some chairs by Jack's desk. "Let's all have a seat." His serene demeanor was soothing, and I started to calm a bit. We all sat, but I couldn't keep my eyes off Dad.

"Lily, I screwed up. I've hit rock bottom. I'm going to rehab."

 

The hell? Where the fuck did that come from? Give me some intro, some guiding in this bombshell you're dropping. But better yet, Lily isn't even surprised! She's just happy! Like she had expected it all along, even though her dad never seemed to want to recover or whatever.

 

Then we have this fucked up, confusing writing that seems to go on in almost every YA novel. Like, using words that make no sense, or making impossible things possible.

 

His jaw muscles twitched and his eyes looked stormy.

 

How the fuck did his eyes look stormy?Somebody, please, explain, because I've never seen the storm in anyone's eyes. Not even my mother's, and she can be an angry, angry woman.

 

My heart still hurt like hell.

 

Um, I think you should get that checked because, you know, I would get worried if my heart hurt like hell for so long. Maybe your heartache isn't a heartache because, um, heart isn't really broken and it can't really hurt from it. I mean, seriously?

 

The amount of unrealistic situations in this book also worries me. From the way Lily gets to the singing school, to the way her family issues get easily solved, from loving/unloving mother, from probably-cheating-somehow-boyfriend-but-you-won't-find-that-out-until-the-book-two crisis, to girls' war. Look, I get it, this book was going for an inspirational card, but let's be honest, if you want your dreams come true, it won't always be easy, it won't always go smooth. And maybe some would argue that this book shows that because Lily doesn't make her dreams come true from the first try, but the bumps that she meets along the road are barely there, and she dwells on them from about half a second before going back to thinking about Aiden. And after all, she gets everything done just like that and it pisses me off to no end. I'm quite sure that my family wouldn't be all "Yes! Yes! Go, go! Follow your dreams! Sing, just sing!" if I asked them to study in private school made for singing or whatever, just after I've done my share of "Please, please, pweasseeee! I'll pay for everything!!" To make things even better, Lily unbashfully shames all the singing competitions even though they make half of a music industry, doesn't own a phone, or has any of the social sites, and doesn't know that "that TV show with that high school choir" is called Glee even after actually watching it. It makes me wonder how the hell she would even make it in music industry with being as asocial and, well, as oblivious to the today's music industry as she is.

 

Then there are also her issues with apparently, shorts-wearing, top-wearing girls, and basically every fucking girl she comes in touch with. Because, you know, she's better than anyone and she's going to be a singer one day so who the fuck cares, right? And every girl who even looks at her Aiden is a slut, and Lily has every right to get jealous when he kisses another girl, even though they're not dating. She gets to act like an idiot, and Aiden always has to apologise no matter that they are not dating, that they're just friends. I don't even know why Aiden puts up with her. Of course, I could not know that when all I know is that he's hot and has daddy issues. Oh, he also has dimples (mentioned at least 34829423 times). Basically, none of the characters were built in any way. Mean girl is a mean girl, love interest is a love interest, and MC is perfect. Side characters are barely there. They're mentioned here and there, when the author remembers them, and they're just there to have some plotline.

 

This book lacks depth and actual emotions. We are always told how the character feels but I never got to feel whatever emotion the character was feeling. It was annoying, unrealistic, and unpalatable read. I won't pick up the next book in the series, no matter that there are one million cliffhangers at the end because I'm just not interested.

 

Now, excuse me while I do my I'm-sick dance along with Ed Sheeran's "Sing". I need fun in my life.