Small Review: Amy Holder

The Lipstick Laws by Amy Holder
Release Date: April 4, 2011
Publisher: Graphia
Pages: 237
Received: ARC from publisher
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Goodreads Page

Looking for something to read for the 2011 Debut Author Challenge? This would be a great pick!

Summary

From Goodreads:

At Penford High School, Britney Taylor is the queen bee. She dates whomever she likes, rules over her inner circle of friends like Genghis Khan, and can ruin anyone's life with a snap of perfectly manicured fingers. Just ask the unfortunate few who have crossed her. For April Bowers, Britney is also the answer to her prayers. April is so unpopular, kids don't even know she exists. But one lunch spent at Britney's table, and April is basking in the glow of popularity. But Britney's friendship comes with a high price tag. How much is April willing to pay?

Review

What do I say about this book? Did I like it? Yes. Did I dislike it? Yes. This is one of those books where its length works in its favor. I sped through The Lipstick Laws in two days (and only that slow because I read it on my computer) and while I was reading it I pretty much enjoyed it. A few things rubbed me wrong, but overall I had a fun time. It wasn’t until I had finished and was thinking back on what happened that I realized I didn’t actually like it as much as I had originally thought.

The book is narrated by April, an insecure girl who catches the eye of mean girl Britney and her gaggle of followers. April’s voice is very readable. She has a sarcastic sense of humor and just the right combination of insecurity and spunk to make her relatable. I never got tired of her adorable names for things like her crush (Hottie-Body-Brentwood) and all of her hilarious names for boobs and bras. Every time she referred to herself as a “bosom sculptor” (she stuffs her bra) I cracked up. Am I easily amused? Yeah, maybe, but, come on! Bosom sculptor?! That’s just funny.

The humor is really what carried the book for me. April’s running commentary had me chuckling and there were a few scenes that had me laugh out loud. And I mean loud. There’s this one scene by a pool that just kept getting funnier and funnier with each event. As far as mean girl revenge is considered, well, let’s just say someone got OWNED and it was glorious (in that totally immoral I would never do that kind of way). I was so busy laughing through this book that it took me a while to realize I didn’t actually like the main characters.

I could totally see where April was coming from with wanting to be popular and not incur Britney’s wrath, so I understand why she went along with the Lipstick Laws. That didn’t bother me. I get that. What did bother me, though, was how almost every heinous aspect April (correctly) complained about in Britney was something April did herself! In a lot of ways, Britney came off as more sympathetic than April because at least Britney had horrible parents who “made her” how she was. April had no such explanation.

I kept hoping this would be the moral of the story: April would recognize how similar she was to Britney and she’d change her ways. This was touched on and the point was sort of made, a little, but….it wasn’t enough. By the end of the book I wasn’t convinced that April had really learned anything and was going to make any lasting changes (especially with that last page). After letting the book settle with me a little I realized that I was very annoyed with April for not growing enough. In the beginning I could even like her more because she hadn’t realized her behavior yet, but after she realized it and still stayed the same? That bugged me.

This is a big reason why I lowered the rating. If April had really learned her lesson in the end, I probably would have rated this a four. It wasn’t fantastic literature, but for a mean girls book, it was fun.

I recommend this book to readers who liked the movie Mean Girls, The Clique series by Lisi Harrison, or Art Geeks and Prom Queens by Alyson Noel. This was a cute, quick read that was undoubtedly funny. I am sold on Amy Holder’s writing, so I will definitely be interested in picking up her next book. I just hope whatever she writes next has a more likable character with more growth than April showed.