A review by alifromkc1907
The Rivals by Daisy Whitney
3.0
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When Alex is in charge of leading The Mockingbirds, she's thrown into a case with her boyfriend, which is sure to cause romance-issues, and an half-brained junior politician, Parker. But when Alex's best friend and mentee are at the center of her investigation, will she do what's right? Or will she protect her friends?
You may like this book if you like the following sub-genres:
Drug Abuse
Dating/Relationships
Vigilante Justice
Boarding School
Goodreads users gave this book a 3.71. I think it was more deserving of a 3.00.
The concept of this book was really strong. Most kids don't go to private schools; even more so, most don't go to boarding schools. So it's kind of one of those books that makes you wish you were there (if you're a high school student, anyway). But, the execution was just kind of "meh." I was really expecting a lot more of the vigilante justice to come through and less of the high school experience. When there's a case of a cheating ring, it's understandable that we'll get insight to some of the high school drama brought into the story line, but there was a lot of mumbo-jumbo about dance, and piano, and violin. It just felt kind of unnecessary - like a filler. I would've rather seen that information skimmed over, or brought into the story in a different way.
Alex's past should've been a larger part of the story line. I really would've liked the story to start with her trial - even if it only spanned the course of 10-20 pages. There was a lot of discussion about Alex's growth; but a reader doesn't want to take your word for it. We want to see it; experience it; feel it. We want to take a journey with our characters. If we wanted to just read what happened, we'd have someone else read the book and write a chapter-by-chapter summary and read that. As much as I wanted to feel the growth that Alex ventured down, I just couldn't. Her assault supposedly took place her junior year. But when the school year starts in August, we are assuming that her recovery took place over the course of maybe, 6 months at the most. We just never got a lot of that story line, and I think the author tried to do that towards the beginning of the story, but it completely dropped off.
The main component of this plot line is that Alex and the Mockinbirds are brought a case about a cheating ring with a drug called Annie (it's basically XL-Ritalin). And I thought the underground vigilante justice group was a really cool way to show teenagers (who are likely the ones reading this) that they can do the right thing; that an adult doesn't have to be the one involved in their choices. I thought the story line it self was just on-point with what kids want to read. The delivery wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible either. Majority of the language was really basic, so it was an easy read. there was enough twists-and-turns that you felt compelled to keep reading. I struggled with the idea that the dean was turning a blind eye to every single thing happened, despite being after an award. I just don't see that happening with every code-violation (despite the dean being hands-on with the teachers). But I love the idea of a crime being solved; even if it's just a high-school level crime. And that's what kept me involved in this story line. I kept deciding who was guilty, who wasn't guilty, and being proven wrong (or in a few cases, right).
The story line took an odd turn towards the end. The last 50 pages felt like a short-story that was based on the same characters, but completely separate from the rest of the novel. Once the trial has been completed, another group is started called The Watchdogs. But it's so random, it doesn't even make sense. It's just felt as if the author needed, yet another, filler. Because of this new vigilante group, members of this group inflict physical pain on a member of The Mockingbirds (also doesn't make any sense as to why physical violence is all of a sudden happening). And then finally, Alex takes payback into her own hands. The Mockingbirds are supposed to stand for justice; for what's right and fair. Not for playing pranks on other members of the school. It was just so out of place, that it felt like all the hard work the author put into teaching teenagers that there's appropriate justice that can be taken has turned into a message that it's okay to inflict some embarrassment on other students. It was just a really crappy ending.
When Alex is in charge of leading The Mockingbirds, she's thrown into a case with her boyfriend, which is sure to cause romance-issues, and an half-brained junior politician, Parker. But when Alex's best friend and mentee are at the center of her investigation, will she do what's right? Or will she protect her friends?
You may like this book if you like the following sub-genres:
Drug Abuse
Dating/Relationships
Vigilante Justice
Boarding School
Goodreads users gave this book a 3.71. I think it was more deserving of a 3.00.
The concept of this book was really strong. Most kids don't go to private schools; even more so, most don't go to boarding schools. So it's kind of one of those books that makes you wish you were there (if you're a high school student, anyway). But, the execution was just kind of "meh." I was really expecting a lot more of the vigilante justice to come through and less of the high school experience. When there's a case of a cheating ring, it's understandable that we'll get insight to some of the high school drama brought into the story line, but there was a lot of mumbo-jumbo about dance, and piano, and violin. It just felt kind of unnecessary - like a filler. I would've rather seen that information skimmed over, or brought into the story in a different way.
Alex's past should've been a larger part of the story line. I really would've liked the story to start with her trial - even if it only spanned the course of 10-20 pages. There was a lot of discussion about Alex's growth; but a reader doesn't want to take your word for it. We want to see it; experience it; feel it. We want to take a journey with our characters. If we wanted to just read what happened, we'd have someone else read the book and write a chapter-by-chapter summary and read that. As much as I wanted to feel the growth that Alex ventured down, I just couldn't. Her assault supposedly took place her junior year. But when the school year starts in August, we are assuming that her recovery took place over the course of maybe, 6 months at the most. We just never got a lot of that story line, and I think the author tried to do that towards the beginning of the story, but it completely dropped off.
The main component of this plot line is that Alex and the Mockinbirds are brought a case about a cheating ring with a drug called Annie (it's basically XL-Ritalin). And I thought the underground vigilante justice group was a really cool way to show teenagers (who are likely the ones reading this) that they can do the right thing; that an adult doesn't have to be the one involved in their choices. I thought the story line it self was just on-point with what kids want to read. The delivery wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible either. Majority of the language was really basic, so it was an easy read. there was enough twists-and-turns that you felt compelled to keep reading. I struggled with the idea that the dean was turning a blind eye to every single thing happened, despite being after an award. I just don't see that happening with every code-violation (despite the dean being hands-on with the teachers). But I love the idea of a crime being solved; even if it's just a high-school level crime. And that's what kept me involved in this story line. I kept deciding who was guilty, who wasn't guilty, and being proven wrong (or in a few cases, right).
The story line took an odd turn towards the end. The last 50 pages felt like a short-story that was based on the same characters, but completely separate from the rest of the novel. Once the trial has been completed, another group is started called The Watchdogs. But it's so random, it doesn't even make sense. It's just felt as if the author needed, yet another, filler. Because of this new vigilante group, members of this group inflict physical pain on a member of The Mockingbirds (also doesn't make any sense as to why physical violence is all of a sudden happening). And then finally, Alex takes payback into her own hands. The Mockingbirds are supposed to stand for justice; for what's right and fair. Not for playing pranks on other members of the school. It was just so out of place, that it felt like all the hard work the author put into teaching teenagers that there's appropriate justice that can be taken has turned into a message that it's okay to inflict some embarrassment on other students. It was just a really crappy ending.