The Mosts

by Melissa Senate

[Leah]

After Madeline finishes eigth grade, she goes off to Rome for the summer, assuming that when she gets back she'll be just as invisible at Freeport Academy as ever. When Thom, one of the popular guys in school asks her out, Madeline suddenly becomes one of the "Mosts", Most Popular to be precise. Two years down the line, though, and Thom is moving to California leaving Madeline alone and leaving her "Most" status particularly vulnerable. When a group of school misfits beg Madeline for help so they don't end up on the "Not" list (the opposite of the Most list), Madeline says yes. But what will happen when all of her "Most" friends find out? Madeline doesn't want to lose her friends, but are they really her friends?

Melissa Senate is a well-known chick lit author, but because her books are only published in America, I haven't yet gotten around to reading any of her chick lit books. However I saw that Melissa also writes books for teenagers and I really liked the sound of her newest book The Mosts. I decided to take the plunge and buy it for myself and I knew that at only 225 or so pages long, it wouldn't take me long to read so would be perfect for those days when I want something quick and easy to read. Watching the football, I decided now was as good a time as ever to see what I thought of The Mosts.

I must start by saying The Mosts is probably one of the most predictable books I have ever read. And I read chick lit, which a lot of people say is predictable. The Mosts is as light and as fluffy a read as you're ever going to find and there isn't much that really holds this book down. It's sort of a book version of the movie Mean Girls. I loved that movie, by the way, and The Mosts is like it's poor sister. You have the totally-un-popular-to-popular girl in Madeline and then you have the clique of every so popular girls who rule the school (The "Mosts"): Cora, Fergie, Annie and Selena and they take Madeline under their wing when she manages to bag herself a popular boyfriend, Thom. Fast forward a couple of years and Thom is leaving and Madeline's status as a "Most" is under threat... even more so when a gang of misfits enlist Madeline's help so they don't end up on the "Not" list. Madeline's friends aren't happy about that so Madeline has to choose... See, Mean Girls, in a book format.

On the other hand though I whizzed through it in under three hours and while it may have been a slight rip-off of Mean Girls, it was an OK enough read. Sure, Madeline's constant referral of the fact she was only helping out the misfits because they're paying for her trip to see Thom (and her father) does grate (she says it A LOT), but if you get past that, it's a good enough read. It's not going to win any awards but it is what it is: a fairly absorbing, and very quick, teen read. Pre-teens and the like will undoubtedly lap it up, but the message isn't a particularly good one. I'm not one for messages but The Mosts, for the majority, kind of gives away the message that you have to be popular to win at High School, otherwise you're destined to be taunted for life. Not a good message for a young teen just about to embark in High School. Yes, of course, it all could come good in the end, and I'm sure High School life IS indeed like that in reality, but you know, it's not the kind of message I'd want to be sending to a younger teen and that is who The Mosts is mainly aimed at.

The characters were a tad flat and all adhered to their characters; confused girl stuck in the middle of the Mosts and the Nots, the "Mosts" with their stupid attitudes towards people who aren't deemed special enough and then the misfits who are made to feel like misfits because of the horrible popular kids. No one was really fleshed out enough and it kind of made me sad Madeline wasn't as willing to stick up to her so-called friends a bit more. The book could have gone in a totally different direction if Madeline had a bit of gumption to her. All of the Mosts were fairly terrible, vapid and idiotic teenagers who think they're God's gift to high school. Of all the characters, the only ones with any realness to them were the "misfits", Joe, Avery and Elinor. I liked Elinor in particular, she was totally undeserving of the crap she got and I felt so sorry that she felt so low about herself.

Overall, The Mosts was only OK. It wasn't original at all, and was fairly predictable with two-dimensional characters but I carried on reading it and managed to finish it in under three hours. If you're looking for a light teenage read, the this is probably right up your alley but if you're after a book with a bit more depth, I'd steer well clear of this one, just so you don't get too annoyed about it's vapidity. Young teenagers will probably enjoy this more than older teenagers/adults. For me, it was just a bit too light.