The Julian Game

✍ Scribed by Griffin, Adele

• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile;Speak
• Year: 2010;2014
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 100 KB
• Edition: 1
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN-13: 9780399254604

✦ Synopsis

From School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up–Raye Archer, a scholarship student at the prestigious Fulton School, can't say no when popular girl Ella Parker approaches her for help with Mandarin. But what starts as peer tutoring turns into quasi-friendship when Raye offers Ella access to her secret weapon: a Facebook profile for gorgeous but imaginary Elizabeth Lavenzck, connected to the hot guys at MacArthur school, created with the help of her friend Natalya. When Ella wields Elizabeth for revenge on MacArthur heartthrob Julian, using Raye to pose for revealing candid shots of Elizabeth, she doesn't anticipate that Julian might just fall for Raye. Griffin mines familiar territory–cyberbullying and mean girls–in a novel brimming with deception and manipulation. Readers will relate to Raye's outsider status and sympathize with her as she becomes the new target for Ella's revenge. While Raye's friendship with Natalya at times seems underdeveloped and convenient, the book is tightly written and plotted, and its clever cover will help sell it to readers. While the mean girl behavior doesn't approach that in Courtney Summers's Some Girls Are (St. Martin's Griffin, 2010), Griffin's novel has much to offer readers looking for a twist on the typical prep school coming-of-age story.Jennifer Barnes, formerly at Homewood Library, IL
© Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

Raye Archer is warily thrilled when Ella, queen bee at her tony new school, enlists her to seek revenge against gorgeous heartbreaker Julian. With pictures of Raye in a blue wig and slinky top, they create a fictitious online profile (so different from Raye’s low-key, real-life persona); lure Julian into a relationship; and act out Ella’s vindictive schemes. The results are predictable: in online chats, Raye falls for Julian, confesses their deceit, and faces Ella’s full-force campaign of vitriolic harassment. Griffin elevates the mean-girl plot with spot-on insights into teen social politics and quirky, multidimensional characters, including troubled, OCD Ella. The potent details of cyberbullying may eventually date this title, but Griffin’s timely cautionary messages about online communication, including its permanence (“One stupid picture could swing back around and punch me when I’m 30 years old”), are never too heavy-handed, and her themes about the appeal of reinventing oneself, the frightening power of manipulation, the futility of revenge, and the true meaning of friendship are timeless. Grades 8-12. --Gillian Engberg