The Lipstick Laws

Author: Amy Holder
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Release Date: April 4, 2011
Genre: Young Adult

This is Mean Girls, only better - much better! What I found lacking in the resolution of Mean Girls is addressed in The Lipstick Laws, and the plot - but I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's what happens:

April Bowers is not the new girl at school - she was last year - but she may as well be, for all anyone notices her. She is overjoyed when Britney Taylor, the most popular girl in the grade, invites her to sit with her group at lunch. Although Haley, who moved away last year, warns her not to get involved with Britney, April is too desperate for a social life to listen. By the time Britney presents her with the Lipstick Laws, April is in way over her head. And then when Britney kicks her out of the group for an infraction of the Lipstick Laws and proceeds to make her life miserable, April, along with fellow Lipstick Lawbreakers, vows to get even with Britney.

I love the tone of the book. It's fresh and open, almost conversation-like, as if April is telling you the story. (The use of present tense to tell the story helps with that!) You hear April's way of thinking underlying all the events, and seeing it from her perspective helps the complexity of the plot that I like so much.

Because the plot is complex - it's not just about hurt girls getting even, it's about character and social issues more than that. The peripheral characters are actually sort of integral to the plot, because April's interactions with each of them propels her thoughts and reactions about the main plot-line. That's great, because it makes the story that much fuller, and it makes it a worthwhile read, not just catfights.

I love the ending of the book. I didn't see it coming - I hoped for something like it, but the way it's written kept me hoping, not knowing what would happen. I like how Britney does get her comeuppance, but April doesn't do major damage to her character in the process.

All in all, a really really great book!

Thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and to netGalley for providing me with a digital copy of The Lipstick Laws for review.