that girl with a book

Bronwyn, Nate, Addy, and Cooper: “The Bayview Four.” Immediate Breakfast Club vibes. We have, respectively, the nerd, the bad boy, the popular girl, and the jock. Oh, and Simon. Momentarily. He’s got some gossip-girl-esq blog where he spills the tea on all the students.

We start off with our core four in detention where they realize they have all been framed to get there. Simon is also there, spouting some BS about being an omniscient narrator. He chugs some water and then goes into anaphylactic shock. And dies. Darn.

The book carries us through the four perspectives as their secrets are revealed and they deal with the consequences, whilst also being investigated for Simon’s murder. That’s right, the cops figured out someone put peanut oil in Simon’s water. Whodunnit?

Bronwyn started off annoying but grew on me by the end. She almost immediately, and unrealistically, falls in love with bad-boy Nate. Her big secret is she cheated on a Chemistry exam. *Gasp*. Lamest secret of the four. However, Bronwyn has a younger sister, Maeve, who is in remission from cancer. Their relationship is adorable. Bronwyn also speaks to the pressure she feels being the daughter of an immigrant and not wanting to disappoint her parents, which I actually thought could have been touched on more. She also was the only one who kept her head about her throughout the whole situation.

Nate. I don’t know, I wasn’t impressed. I get it, he came from a sad background: bipolar mom split, useless alcoholic dad. He’s giving only-child Fiona Gallagher but instead of working five jobs, he sells dr*gs. He’s not good enough for Bronwyn and realizes it, but then comes crawling back at the end of the book. Yeah, that’s right Nate, you are never doing better than Bronwyn Rojas. Also, he lied about his mom being dead. Uh. Okay! Oh right. Nate’s big secret was he was still selling dr*gs while on probation. I lied earlier. This is the lamest secret.

Then we have Cooper, my sad little southern jock. I loved Cooper. I also predicted him being gay. The way everyone described Keelee, without any other love interest to replace her, was a dead giveaway. Why wouldn’t he want her? The only explanation: Cooper wanted a him. When he finally got the balls to go out in public with Kris, I could’ve cried. Cooper is just adorable. He just wanted his homophobic dad to still be proud of him. My favorite part about Cooper, though, was that he consistently stood up for Addy.

ADDY. Addy Prentiss, the love of my life. Favorite character by far. She starts off ungodly annoying by just being obsessed with her boyfriend, Jake. Jake this, Jake that. Barf. Things spice up when we find out Addy cheated on Jake by sleeping with this other dude, TJ. Sweet. I don’t condone cheating but if anyone deserved it here, it was precious Jakey-poo. He was controlling of Addy and clearly saw her as arm candy. Once Addy realizes her secret is coming out and tells Jake, he dumps her and she loses all her friends, with the exception of Cooper. Excellent character development for my girl here. She chops off her hair, dyes it purple, and takes up bike riding. She also leans on her older sister, Ashton, throughout the process. Another adorable sister relationship. She also takes up talking to the girls she never spoke to in school before, including Janae, who was friends with Simon. She also forms a friendship with Bronwyn, which is another point that I love. Eventually, Addy is the one that realizes that JAKE is the one posting cryptic blog posts after Simon’s death. She also runs over to Janae’s house and concocts the plan to catch Jake, only to be exposed by her ringtone while hiding in the kitchen. Jake chases her into the woods, where Cooper comes and saves the day by smacking the eff out of Jake before he can do any more damage to Addy. Later, she stays friends with Bronwyn, moves in with Ashton, and tells TJ to get lost so she can focus on herself. Addy the Baddy. I love her idc.

Now, the most disappointing part of this book is the end. Maybe I’m just cynical, but the idea that Simon committed sewerslide was pretty obvious to me from the start. The longer the book went on without mentioning that idea, the more worried I became that that would be the ending. Sure enough, Kris magically puts together that Simon slipped the peanut oil into his own drink and chugged. Duh guys. Did you not see the weird stuff my bestie Maeve pulled up that he was saying online? The fact that the police didn’t investigate that option was also wild to me.

Jake being involved was somewhat of a saving grace for the shock factor. However, I still put the book down (well… turned off my audiobook?) feeling disappointed. That’s the only reason the ranking is at 3.5 instead of 4. Not that this book hasn’t been turned into a whole Netflix show, so I don’t think Karen probably gives a flying frick about my feedback, but there it is. Predictable ending. Or maybe I’m Sherlock mf Holmes. Who knows?

Live, laugh, love,

girlwithabook