The Mall

by Megan McCafferty

New York Times bestselling author Megan McCafferty returns to her roots with this YA coming of age story set in a New Jersey mall.

The year is 1991. Scrunchies, mixtapes and 90210 are, like, totally fresh. Cassie Worthy is psyched to spend the summer after graduation working at the Parkway Center Mall. In six weeks, she and her boyfriend head off to college in NYC to fulfill The Plan: higher education and happily ever after.

But you know what they say about the best laid plans...

Set entirely in a classic “monument to consumerism,” the novel follows Cassie as she finds friendship, love, and ultimately herself, in the most unexpected of places. Megan McCafferty, beloved New York Times bestselling author of the Jessica Darling series, takes readers on an epic trip back in time to The Mall.

• ISBN10: 1250209951
• ISBN13: 9781250209955
• Publish Date: 28 July 2020
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 30 July 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[llamareads]

Content warnings: underage drinking, drug use, secondary character was date raped (off-page, before book starts), MC’s parents plan to divorce

Come for the teased hair and Cabbage Patch Dolls, stay for the sweet coming-of-age story as a teen spends the summer before college working at the local mall, scouring the mall as part of a treasure hunt and navigating her derailed plans for love and her future.

Like the rest of her life, Cassie has her summer all figured out. It’s not exciting, but working at the mall food court with her boyfriend Troy (both voted “Most Likely to Succeed”) will earn her book money for when she goes to Barnard College at the end of August. A bout with mono is not in her plans, nor is discovering, once she’s recovered, that not only has she been fired from her job, but her boyfriend has dumped her for another mall worker. Unwilling to tell her perfect parents about either event, she sets out to find a new job. Unfortunately, the only place hiring is Bellarosa Boutique, home of New Jersey’s finest tube dresses, catsuits, and bustiers, owned by Cassie’s ex-best friend’s mom.

“Compact discs have superior sound quality,” Sam Goody was saying. “They absolutely will not be replaced by any new form of musical technology any time soon.”
“Yeah, yeah,” griped the customer. “That’s what they said about eight-tracks.”

It’s a bit off-putting to realize I’m now of the age where books about my childhood are, well, vintage. To be honest, though, in 1991 I was still in elementary school, but most of what the book describes was very familiar to me. I was vividly brought back to the local mall I hung out at with my friends when I was a teen, from the music store with its stacks of CDs to Spencer’s with its black lights to my favorite Waldenbooks. Even the never-ending argument among my friends over which mall entrance it was best to park near (never the food court, folks)! There’s a revenge makeover! Orange Julius! That weird store that sells stuff to a very specific subset and you have no idea how it actually survives! So, as a fun microcosm of teen life in the early 90s, it definitely hits the spot. It reminded me very much of a teen movie from that era – very predictable, with the standard teen movie plot, complete with the immediately recognizable love interest, misunderstood female characters, and he-was-never-right-for-you ex. It’s also very much a coming-of-age story in terms of Cassie making mistakes and learning from them. It’s light entertainment, and we never actually get too deep into the other characters besides Cassie and Drea.

“If you want to forget that loser, I can help you with that,” she said. “Just like you can help me with the treasure.”
“The treasure?” What was Drea even talking about?
“There’s a fortune hidden somewhere in the mall,” Drea said, “and I’m determined to find it.”

While there is a romance, it takes second stage to the relationship between Cassie and her ex-best friend Drea. Cassie looks down on Drea, who seems to be content with working at her mom’s boutique and serial dating anyone who catches her eye, while Cassie’s got her life all planned out and her sights set on more. Never mind how badly her summer plans have gone so far… The driving force behind most of their interactions is Drea’s quest to find a treasure supposedly hidden in the mall, which leads to them working together to find ways into various stores to find, I’m not joking, hidden Cabbage Patch Dolls with Supermarket Spree-style clues written on their birth certificates. The quest takes them from the basement teen party spot to a variety of stores to the mall’s roof, and along the way Cassie slowly realizes exactly how wrong she is about herself and Drea. There’s also some interesting moments contrasting Drea’s relationship with her mother and Cassie’s relationship with her mother, and a bit about female empowerment and friendship.

My big concern is of how much interest this would be to an actual teen reader today. This book is like wallowing in the mall fountain of nostalgia for me, but are teens today really that interested in 90s culture? Overall, I’d give this book 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 due to the nostalgia factor. It’s light, it’s entertaining, it’s a sweet confection of a summer read.

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

[whisperingchapters]

This 90s-inspired novel transported me completely to The Mall. McCafferty had me wanting more from the 90s and wanting to be born a little bit earlier than 1994.

Cassie cannot wait to head out of New Jersey and straight to New York at the end of the summer. In the mean time, her plan is to work alongside her boyfriend, until that plan fails. Her boyfriend dumps her and she ends up getting fired. She ends up finding a job at a boutique, owned by her ex-best friend's mom. Soon, the girls put aside their differences when Drea pulls Cassie in on a treasure hunt around The Mall.

This novel was adventure-filled and had me glued to its pages! Cassie is a quirky and fun character I enjoyed. Being inside her head was lots of fun. Drea was a character I adored! I want this girl's self-esteem. She embraces herself and doesn't care about the rumor-mill.

This friendship was the highlight for me in the story. You guys know I love to read books with romance. Basically, if it doesn't have romance, I don't want it. Let me tell you that this book had me forgetting it didn't have romance, and had me rooting for the friendship, the treasure hunt, and just everything! I honestly couldn't stop reading this wonderful masterpiece. I loved the tribute it gave to the 90s, with the jean jackets, the pins, the music, the mall itself.

Speaking of which, I felt like The Mall was its own character. I don't know how the author did it, but she managed to have me caring for a building. I was never once bored with the setting just being the mall. It actually enhanced the reading experience because a lot could be touched on with depth, instead of brushing it off.

I was still excited about Barnard and New York City, about seeing what life beyond Pineville had in store for me. Yet, part of me wondered if everything I really needed to know--about family and friendship and love and loyalty and betrayal and sisterhood [...]--I had already learned that summer at the mall.

Aside from friendship, this book also focused on finding oneself. Cassie had a lot of soul-searching to do, and I think this book touched on everything it needed without it feeling too much. Cassie slowly grew throughout the novel and in the end, she ended up becoming "the best possible version" of herself.

Overall, The Mall is a nostalgic and adventurous 90s-inspired novel with a lovely focus on friendship and discovering oneself.
--
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[girlinthepages]

90s historical fiction is something I didn't know I needed but now can't believe I've been living without! (Also, the fact that the 90s is considered historical fiction makes me feel ~old~). I absolutely flew through The Mall, which follows recent high school graduate Cassie as she navigates her last summer before college navigating retail life at The Mall. Which should have been a quick summer of serving up cookies and daydream of NYC, she finds her life turned totally upside-down with mall shenanigans, featuring everything from underground parties to Cabbage Patch scavenger hunts.

In many ways The Mall is irreverent fun, with some truly hilarious characters to overzealous stereotypes (from bros working at the arcade and skate shops to the mother and daughter owned boutique serving up the pinnacle of Jersey mall fashion). But in other ways I found it to be a legitimate coming of age story for Cassie as she reckons with becoming her own person and exploring her feminist ideals and beliefs that she's repressed for so long due to her bland, dentist parents and/or her subtly controlling boyfriend. I adored seeing her rekindle her friendship with her total 90s cliché of an ex-best friend Drea (her honking laugh was sending me) and their adventures together after (and sometimes during) work hours after finding an unlikely quest in the mall's basement. As someone who worked in a mall for most of my high school and college years, there's nothing quite like flexing your new found freedom and adult abilities (like driving) than taking yourself to and from your retail job and developing friendships that form between stock room breaks and running clothing from the fitting room back to the floor.

Obviously I have to talk about the 90s nostalgia I experienced while reading this book. I was a kid rather than a teen in the 90s, so my experience was obviously different than that of Cassie's and her peers, but there's still so much that made me giddy. I was a devoted Cabbage Patch parent and owner of many a cassette tape (in fact, I can clearly remember at 6 or 7 years old my mom taking me to the music store in our mall and picking out my first cassette that I bought with "my" money, the first Spice Girls album). I loved that Dreas' hair was big but her attitude and dreams were bigger. I loved seeing Cassie's starry eyed encounter with a real life Mac computer. I laughed when I saw the alternative to blackmail was a Polaroid picture rather than someone texting proof of "receipts." But most of all I loved that the classic teen story was still the same as any one set in modern times, and I easily could have imagined the story taking place in a contemporary setting because the characters' stories and arcs were so relatable- still- to those of teens today.

The Mall was a quick read for me, and at the time of reading it was the perfect pace to pick me out of a little bit of a reading slump. Upon further reflection, however, I do think the story could have benefited from a bit more backstory and closure, because there were so many interesting side characters. I wanted more context as to Cassie's parents' marriage, wanted to get to know "Sam Goody" better, wanted to see Drea pursue her fashion dreams. I want a whole second book on Zoe, the mysterious manager of the cookie shop in the food court with a witchy vibe, eerie appearances, and hints at a surprisingly tragic history. I really think there's a whole world that could be layered onto this novel that I would love to explore!

Overall: The Mall is a story that is rooted in the teenage retail summer experience, serving up a ton of nostalgia for those who were around in the 90s and prioritizing friendship vibes with just a light smattering of romance. It's a fun, light mystery for those who want a zany yet heartwarming adventure. I can't wait to see what other 90s historical fiction books the YA genre holds!

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!*
This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for sending me a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Cassandra and Troy have been dating for two years and have a plan. The plan didn't involve Cassie getting the worst case of mono in medical history, missing prom and graduation or Troy dumping her for a "foaming-at-the-mouth mallrodent who tried to spritz her to death." On top of that Cassie loses her job and her parents decide to separate after 25 years of orthodontic/marital bliss.

No, things definitely aren't going to plan. What does ensue however is a summer of life in the mall; a new job, new friends, new love interests and a treasure hunt involving Cabbage Patch Dolls.

I mostly enjoyed this homage to 90's New Jersey, even if being born in 1988 Britain put me at a disadvantage with a lot of the references. I found Cassie funny although not always that likeable and the same goes for most of the side characters. I'd have liked to see more of the mall employees but we seemed to spend so much time in Cassie's head that there wasn't alot of other character development. There wasn't really enough of anything for me...I wanted more treasure hunt, more family, and more friendship building but I feel like it was all rushed and half-done. Despite this, it was an enjoyable read and a solid three stars from me.

[katie]

THE PERFECT SUMMER BOOK.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS BOOK THIS SUMMER.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[A Darker Shade of Rosie]

Thank you NetGalley for lending me a copy of this book in exchange for a review!

- The Mall was a wonderful 90s-inspired novel that I devoured in less than a week (pretty big for me). Cassie, a girl bound for college in NYC at the end of the summer, finds herself dumped and in need of a job at the mall before she sets out on the next chapter of her life. She finds herself at the gate of the Bellarosa Boutique, and the store owner’s daughter used to be her best friend before Drea dubbed her “too uncool.” A friendship is rekindled once Drea drags her into a treasure hunt of sorts involving Cabbage Patch dolls and really badly hand-drawn maps, and that is one of the aspects I really enjoyed about Cassie’s adventures in the mall. I loved how new characters were introduced after each new clue lead them to a different store of the mall, and they usually had some tie to Drea, who seems to be the equivalent of mall royalty. Through this little adventure, Cassie is on her own personal quest to discover who she is, to ultimately find fulfillment and transforming into the best possible version of herself while working with the Bellarosa’s.

“I was excited about [college] and New York City, about seeing what life beyond Pineville had in store for me. Yet, a part of me wondered if everything I really needed to know — about family and friendship and love and loyalty and betrayal and sisterhood [...] — I had already learned that summer at the mall.”

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