Ever since
she had asked her parents to go to a boarding school [a side effect of reading
Harry Potter], her parents had been applying to Manderley Academy on her
behalf. In her final year she gets accepted and she leaves her comfortable life
and best friends behind. However once she is reaches the school, she realizes that
she had taken the place of Becca Normandy. Becca was the most popular girl in
the school who went missing at the end of last year. She promptly finds herself
dubbed as the ‘New Girl’ and finds herself constantly compared to Becca. But as
things would have it, she finds herself attracted to the handsome Max only to
realize that he is off limits as he was Becca’s boyfriend.
The story
is alternately told from Becca & New Girl’s point of view. Last year Becca
had been the ‘New Girl’, but through her chapter we come to know how she
managed to become Becca Normandy, the most popular girl in Manderley. While in the
other chapters we find out how the other girl is forced to be the ‘New girl’
who came in Becca’s place but would never be like Becca. So much so that we are
not told her name until the very last page of the book…
The
characters in this book are all very complex. The New Girl seems to be the
simplest person around and yet she has her own insecurities. The way she is
treated throughout the school year seemed a bit extreme to me but then I guess
we all tend to be a bit extreme and obsessed about something at that age and
students of Manderley had chosen to be obsessive about Becca. Becca had her own
secrets and compulsively lied to her friends. Max & Johnny are cleverly
manipulated by Becca, yet they are the only ones who are not mean to the New
Girl. Still there are times when I didn’t like either of the boys. Johnny’s
obsession with Becca while she was dating Max was a bit irritating. On the
other hand, Max didn’t really treat the New Girl fairly because of his
experience with Becca.
But I feel
that the Genius of this work lies in two aspects. One, the author not telling
us the name of the protagonist until the very end as that helped set her
identity as the ‘New Girl’. Second, the alternating POV created a clash among
the New girl and Becca as they both dealt with the same situation differently
thus giving us an even better idea about their different personalities.
I was a
bit put off with the paranormal twist and the too much partying at the school.
I mean really, there are secret parties in boarding schools but not as much as
in Manderley! Still the book felt realistic till the twist in the end.
Anyway,
overall it’s a brilliant book. Go give it a try!
I've been looking at this book for a while. I'll have to go and grab a copy! Great review!
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