Review: The Revenge Playbook by Rachael Allen

The Revenge Playbook

Author: Rachael Allen
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: Paperback, 368 pages
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Release Date: June 16th 2015

Summary:

In this poignant and hilarious novel, Rachael Allen brilliantly explores the nuances of high school hierarchies, the traumas sustained on the path to finding true love, and the joy of discovering a friend where you least expect.

Don’t get mad, get even!

In the small town of Ranburne, high school football rules and the players are treated like kings. How they treat the girls they go to school with? That’s a completely different story. Liv, Peyton, Melanie Jane, and Ana each have their own reason for wanting to teach the team a lesson—but it’s only when circumstances bring them together that they come up with the plan to steal the one thing the boys hold sacred. All they have to do is beat them at their own game.

Brimming with sharp observations and pitch-perfect teen voices, fans of Jenny Han and Sarah Mlynowski are sure to fall head-over-heels for this sharp tale—by the author of 17 First Kisses—about the unexpected roads that can lead you to finding yourself.

Review:

So I expect a cute & fluffy about love and friendship with some fun action thrown in... I mean look at the cover! The cover slut in me, was so sure this was going to be a cute read, then read the blurb.. Says cute & fluffy alright, doesn't it?
But while there is a bit of romance, there are cute moments - this ain't really fluffy. Which is not a bad thing by all means. I just expected different.
Instead I got a intricate story about date rape, hazing, injustice and hierarchy in High School and the forming of new friendships

Let me just be upfront: My biggest issue with this one is the format. Though I kinda like it retrospectively. While reading it, especially the first half, I struggled. Basically i like the idea of how the novel was structured but I don't like the execution.
There are four POVs and a whole lot of cast to this one. Now I have the most atrocious name memory- so this was a nightmare for me, since I kept having to go back and check who was who. Then the different POV all sound the same- which meant if I put the book down I half the time had to go back to check who's POV I was reading. Which made this a really slow read for me. Also since I got the ARC, I kinda had to leave back page by page on my kindle- totally annoying. About 30% in I got clever and started book marking each date and time and POV...
The story is also told on different timelines- so there is jumping back and forth happening. Again I found it rather confusing at the beginning.
Retrospectively this was done really cleverly. And when the timeline collided I thought it was super brilliant.
This is however rather well written otherwise, I like Allen's writing style. (except for the issues above) And I was wondering if I would have as much issues with it, if I had a hardcopy instead of the ebook. The POV problems stands I guess, and , my name memory, I am afraid to say, is always going to be hopeless.


The character building was done well. In fact in my opinion it's the best part of the book. There is a huge cast and at the end of the book I feel like know half the school. I really like the girls and I could related to them. It was interesting to see their journey, see how they changed and how they set out to do something on a bit of a whim, but not only followed through, but kinda uncovered much deeper issues. I like the different relationships the girls have with the cast.

Would you have asked me while I was somewhere before the 50% mark how much I would rate it- It would have been somewhere between 2 and 3 Stars. In fact, if I wouldn't have like the writing style while I was at around 20% I would have DNFed. But I am so glad I didn't. Because for the second half I would rate it 4 Stars.
Allen touch me with the story and the girls and somehow everything came together. I love that the end is actually very realistic. On the face of things no huge victories but those small ones? EPIC!

A beautiful book that takes some work getting through.

On another note: I would love this as a movie- someone make this into a movie please!

Rating: 

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