**A Review of "The A-List" Series: Fun and Escapist Reading**

I recently revisited "The A-List" series by Zoey Dean, a collection of young adult novels that explore the lives of privileged high school students living on the East Coast. My experience with these books was mixed, but ultimately, I found them to be enjoyable and relatable.

As I began reading through the series, I couldn't help but think about how different my own high school experience was from those depicted in the novels. While I wasn't a bully like some of the characters, I did have my share of struggles and insecurities. The books seemed to capture the essence of teenage life, with all its drama, romance, and social hierarchy.

One of the main characters, Sam, is particularly interesting. As the daughter of a famous director, she's always felt like an outsider among her peers. Her struggles with body dysmorphia are relatable, and it's clear that she's not internalizing the advice of her doctor to work through these issues. Instead, she's stuck in a cycle of self-hatred that's hard to break.

The other characters in the series are equally well-developed, each with their own unique personalities and motivations. There's Anna, who's struggling to find her place after being rejected from an internship; Hana, who's always been confident and outgoing but now finds herself at odds with Sam; and Ben, who's the object of desire for several characters.

One of the things that struck me about these books was the way they explore the theme of girl friendship. While there are certainly moments of catty behavior and competition among the female characters, there are also some genuinely supportive relationships that make you root for them. The girls in this series may not always get along, but they're ultimately united by their experiences as young women.

The plot of the books is relatively straightforward, with each installment focusing on a different character's story arc. There isn't much in the way of complex plotting or unexpected twists, but that's not necessarily what these books are going for. They're meant to be fun and escapist reading, rather than serious literature.

I found myself enjoying the world-building aspects of the series, particularly when it comes to the depiction of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. The author does a great job of capturing the essence of these privileged communities, with all their excesses and superficialities. It's easy to get lost in the glamour of this world, even if it's not always entirely realistic.

The character development is another highlight of the series. Each book focuses on one or two main characters, which allows for a deeper exploration of their motivations and relationships. The author doesn't shy away from exploring difficult topics like body image and social hierarchy, but she also knows when to dial back the drama and focus on the more lighthearted moments.

One thing that did strike me as problematic at times was the portrayal of certain characters, particularly those who engage in bullying behavior. While the author does acknowledge these actions and their consequences, it's clear that some of these behaviors are normalized or even romanticized in certain contexts. This is a criticism that could apply to many young adult novels, however.

Ultimately, my experience with "The A-List" series was one of fun and escapist reading. These books were a great way to pass the time during the summer months, especially when paired with a poolside read-a-thon or lazy day at home. While they may not be perfect or entirely realistic, they're certainly enjoyable and relatable in their own ways.

In terms of ranking the series, I'd say that "A List" is my favorite. There's something about its blend of humor, drama, and social commentary that really resonated with me. The other books in the series also have their moments, but there's just something about "A List" that feels like a perfect snapshot of teenage life.

Overall, I'm glad I revisited these books and had the opportunity to share my thoughts on them. If you're looking for fun and escapist reading that explores themes of teenage life, privilege, and social hierarchy, then these books might be worth checking out.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello peasants welcome back to my channel so for this video I have decided to revisit some of my favourite mean-girl bully middle grade / young adult books that were such a thing I feel like back in the day and I kind of want to know why like I don't know why these are so popular and why there were so many different versions of this same sort of like trope carried out in like the mid to late 2000s but these were definitely books a very read in my formative years these were people that I aspired to be for some one godly reason and I thought it would just be a really fun time to revisit some of these mostly for fun and nostalgia but also to kind of see if these books are problematic how they hold up is there a lot of girl hate is there no girl hate like what what are these I don't I don't know except for a good time that's that's what I do know the books that I'm going to be reading for this video are as follows private by Kate Bryan this was sort of what inspired this video I kind of remembered how wild the series was I believe there's like a murder at this sort of private school setting these were more of like the sophisticated stories I feel like next up another popular choice is Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard I read almost all of these books back in the day even when I was probably a little bit too old to be reading these books they're just fun you know we love the murder and intrigue and double-crossing goodness also I have Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar classic there's a again a television show based on this so who doesn't love Gossip Girl right and then I have obviously the click by Lisi Harrison I mean the og like I remember reading this in third grade which was definitely too young to be reading this but like so fun so is that Steve and then this last book I would really could not find a vehicle copy of I tried my best to buy it but they sent me another copy of The Clique goddamn Amazon and it's the a-list which I don't know if you guys know this series but this one's a little bit different than these ones in that it is set on the west coast and it's about kind of like Hollywood elite definitely definitely was too young to be reading those but I did anyway so those are the books that I'm going to be reading in this video and giving my thoughts letting you know how they've held up over time oh it's gonna be good time I am I'm more than excited to get into these so let's do it so after a series of further unfortunate events I'm sick and actually finished a private already but the footage audio is terrible so I'm just gonna go ahead and tell you how I felt about this book did it live up to my remembrance of it and all kind of probably splice in some of the clips that I had when I blogged this cuz I've logged too much for private so how do you describe this it's about this girl named Reed Brennan who ends up getting into this elite private school it's a boarding school in Connecticut she's from Pennsylvania went to public school previously and she's very much a not like other girls kind of girl if she talks about how she's never had any female friends before which is like such a red flag but anyway she ends up going to Billings Academy wait actually it's called Easton but the dorm that she wants to get into his Billings anyway he ends up getting into Easton Academy and when she's there she is in her dorm room with her super annoying roommate she looks out the window and she sees four beautiful women in a dorm across the quad or whatever the I'm not entirely sure how these buildings are situated but like it semantics right so Reed sees them and she's like who are those girls like what what building is this she finds out it's Billings which is the dorm for upperclassmen women and it is only the most elite girls they end up getting into Ivy League schools and they're the captains of the soccer team and they're just all very cool and Reed is just a sophomore but she wants to be friends with them even though she's never had female friends before she's gonna just risk it all so she can finally be popular and I think that's really where the story is the best like the fact that Reed is so hell-bent on becoming a part of this gang of girls even though she's not old enough really to hang out with them I mean you can obviously have friends they're older than you but like I mean in a dorm setting like she can't live in the upperclassmen dorm just the desperate feeling that you get at the beginning of the book carries on through the book and keeps it from being entirely boring because to be honest this book wasn't exactly exciting the day-to-day happenings of this boarding school were boring but seeing how much Reed was willing to do to become a part of this girl gang was pretty cool I guess I will say there were like some problematic elements quite a few problematic elements there are a couple of slurs used in here that I wasn't a big fan of they were questioned which I thought was surprising given that this book was written 2006 but it still wasn't great and then the romantic really if we're even gonna call it that Reid ends up getting hit by a football in you know the beginning of this book and it's very stupid she ends up falling for the bad boy his name is Thomas the girls are telling him like stay away from him he's a bad boy he doesn't listen he sells drugs and he's an alcoholic and he treats her like garbage so we don't stand Thomas and I'm gonna insert right now a couple of clips of things that he says I can't believe you choose them over me you disappoint me I just don't want to see you get hurt it just seems all sort of backhanded and abusive and like yeah sure though feelings girls are shitty but it's Reid's decision whether or not she like wants to hang out with the billings girls I really wish Thomas would just go away because this sex scene is not described well his kiss was urgent almost violent and I knew for sure what he wanted why I was there essentially Thomas invites Reid back to his dorm and kind of throws around the bed and it's like you know I love you right not cool I mean he hasn't coerced her into sex she goes willingly but it does not seem romantic or sexy or anything like that afterwards she's like it was done my virginity officially gone given away I don't know how long she's known this dude have they been texting for like two weeks and then she's like you know what let's get it on I'm 15 but let's do it that's the thing she's 15 and he's a senior so Reid come on you're not mad you're not you love me right if you love me you have to love everything about me you're not breaking up with me over this you can't leave me you love me she's 15 pal and you're a drug dealer she doesn't love you as you can tell he's kind of an abuser so didn't love that and it's kind of unclear at the end of the book whether or not they're going to try to resolve their relationship like they end up breaking up and Thomas disappears out of nowhere so I you know I'm not really sure about their romantic relationship so those are like the most problematic elements of the book and then obviously they're just like bullying I guess you could say the ringleader of the building's girls her name is Noelle and she kind of puts read through some like she kind of haze her a little bit and says like hey if you want to be one of us you have to steal a test from this professor's office or you have to spike this professor's drink with alcohol and while I did find out like shitty I mean neither of those seem particularly high stakes that sounds bad but I mean like I I remember this being just so scandalous back in the but upon reread I was like this it seems like high school growing it takes like stupid and I do like that read kind of fights back against some of that like the building's girls tell her like I said to spike the drink of her professor and she's like I'm doing that I don't know I like that she isn't just like a doormat essentially so that was nice and then I loved it ending of this I mean she ends up I'm gonna spoil it for you she ends up getting an invitation to Billings even though she's an underclassmen and I say invitation she shows up to her dorm one day and none of her is in her room and then she ends up getting called to Billings house and she walks in and there's like a bunch of girls with like black candles and they're gonna initiate her into Billings house so kind of scandalous I like the whole like cliffhanger element it makes it a little bit more exciting so did I like this yes I give it three stars it probably deserved too but the ending really got me I don't think this is going to be the best book of the five that I'm going to read for this but it wasn't terrible and I think the takeaway from this is that well it's stupid it is fun and I don't think that anyone is going to try to emulate this behavior and I also like I said like that Reid was willing to fight back I think that was really a good takeaway you know you don't have to put up with people's and in fact your friends might like you more if you kind of you know don't just listen to everything they said I don't really know what I'm trying to say but I like this and it was fun and I'm ready to read some more so like I said I'm sick so what I think I'm gonna try to do I am at home it's one o'clock I think I'm going to try to read the rest of these four books today ambitious perhaps but they're also like only 250 pages max so I think I think I can do it I can think I could do this video all in one day the next book I'm gonna start with is Gossip Girl I'm just feeling those East Coast live still I think it's gonna be a good time sorry you have to see me like this for the entire day but you know we're gonna we're getting through it xoxo okay so I am a hundred pages into Gossip Girl and I feel like I've read some of these books or at least I've read some of the sequels I know I read the spin-off series back in the day the Carlisle's or whatever and the it girl spent off with like Jenny Humphrey but I don't really remember the plot of the first book and I will say I was kind of thinking back to the TV show when I was reading this and thinking of the differences say that the book itself is much more realistic I think this is supposed to be an inside block into you know Manhattan's lead in the show there's just this level of like unbelievable 'ti like how could people's parents behave like this how are they letting teenagers behave like this let me get into some of the differences so in the TV show I think it's the pilot or maybe even the second episode there's this kiss on the lips party that they put together and in the book there is a kiss on the lips party but it is done for fundraising which makes sense because they're in high school unlike charitable stuff looks good on college resumes also in here it talks about how Blair like studies for the SATs and volunteers and like has her life together which we don't really see so much in the TV show we're led to believe she's got her together but we don't actually see that happen for quite a while I think there's one episode of her trying to do all on SATs like that's about it and in here like from day one you know that they're actually high school students and then Serena as well I think is a little bit different from her persona on the television show like she's that effortlessly cool girl but there's this element of but I'm not that smart I dunno how I'm going to get into college and I definitely think that plays a big part in her insecurities I think that's the most interesting thing about this book is the fact that it is more realistic than I thought and also that both of the main characters Serena and Blair are very insecure and they don't hate each other in a girl hate sort of why in my opinion it comes from a place of just deep insecurity and maybe that's where all girl hate comes from I don't know but I actually sympathize with both of them and you know Serena might not be jealous of Blair but she has her own to deal with and Blair is jealous of Serena because she has you know perceived inadequacies I'm kind of rambling but I'm liking this so far I will say the writing isn't that great it's accessible but it's taking me longer than I thought it would to read through it just because of the way that it's written the first couple of chapters are just very cut and dry and some of the phrasing is a little awkward so it's been not fun in terms of like the actual reading experience if that makes sense the writing is not great well I think that's pretty much it does all my commentary so far okay so I finished Gossip Girl and it ended up being just like the television show there's that like creepy scene with Chuck and Jenny at the end and Serena and Dan come to her rescue but let's kind of I guess wrap up my thoughts like I said I think this is a more realistic portrayal than the television show I think that otherwise everything is pretty damn similar I will say in terms of like problematic content in this book most of it is fat phobic commentary and just comments in general that seems to be the only insult that people tend to give it's like oh she's so fat or oh she's gonna not be able to fit into her dress as if that's the worst thing that could ever happen to you that I didn't enjoy and it was very prevalent and frequent in this book which I don't know I really didn't appreciate that is to kind of be expected for the early 2000s when being like stick skinny was you know the ideal now it's skinny waist big ass anyway didn't love that commentary but overall this was okay I think I actually liked private more than this mostly just because I think the TV show for this is so much more entertaining than the book is like I'm not upset about having read it it's just it's whatever it's like man I think the next thing that I'm going to read it's gonna be the click this is gonna be super easy to get through super fun I'm hoping I just remember really liking the in-and-out lists that Massie makes so new book new filming location I just finished the click by Lisi Harrison this is exactly as I remembered it so I didn't feel the need to update you guys as I read but I figured I could give my thoughts and like I don't know if the plot of this book and my feelings about it the first thing that I noticed when reading this is that the writing was world's better than both Gossip Girl in the private series I was shocked because this is written for a much younger age demographic the girls in this book are in seventh grade so I figured it would be very childish writing but it was actually like very easy to get through I wouldn't call it sophisticated writing by any standards but it definitely wasn't anything that I was like struggling to read because it was poorly put together or there were too many like reused phrases it was a good read if a book itself is about this group of girls there's four of them the ringleaders name is Massie and they go to this like private school in upstate New York very rich very wealthy very privileged and this new girl comes to town named Claire she ends up living in Massey's guest house because their dads are friends Claire is just a typical girl from Florida just very normal like middle-class and she doesn't know how to fit into this like upper-crust Society I guess he could say doesn't wear designer clothes and that sort of creates this alienation right so like Matthew doesn't want her friend group to be disturbed she likes having take control over her friend group so it's kind of about the power struggle Claire desperately wants to make friends desperately wants to get into this friend group sort of I guess like read in the private series but in this series it's a little bit more obviously juvenile and there is less hazing involved because Claire isn't wanting to like stoop to the level or like impress Massie and anyway really I mean there's times when she wants to dress as cute as the other girls and things like that but he never felt like she was giving up her morals I don't know the whole book I guess it's just sort of a lesson on popularity and on how you should be yourself and like make friends that actually care about you and like you which I thought was a pretty good lesson towards the youth so this isn't that bad I really expected this to be a lot more problematic than it was the only real content warning I would give is the egregious fatphobia and like diet culture in this like eating a salad and a diet coke for lunch is not normal for seventh graders I did not like that inclusion I didn't think that was necessary and one of the characters Herbert hole personality seems to be that she's the fat friend and that she needs to be constantly dieting which I did not appreciate other than that though I didn't see a ton of super problematic behavior it just was like girls being girls stupid girls and rude girls but likey and it was fun there wasn't any like straightforward girl hate it was more like our struggles I don't know how to describe this book I think if you've read it you know what it is and also if you've watched the movie it's just like the book I didn't remember them being identical so that's that on the click I think this has been my favorite read so far but I'm feeling a little bit more inclined to read something spooky so I think I'm gonna start in on Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard I wish I could have gotten the original cover but I like couldn't find one on Amazon I loved the series I loved this TV show so I'm really excited to get into this I think I'm probably going to wait to read the next two books till tomorrow because I want to have fresh eyes and like fresh zest and personality to bring to this will be ready okay hi I'm sixty-five percent done with pretty little liars and I have thoughts and feelings and I'm also still sick which I'm sure you can hear and you can also tell some wearing a stupid t-shirt I'm not gonna have much more time to read this today which is sort of tragic so I'm going to a music festival but um I just thought I'd let you know how I'm feeling about this so far because it's not great I will say in terms of storytelling and atmosphere and actual writing itself this book is even better than the three books that I read previously which i think is good I also spoiler started the a list and that one's even better writing wise than this one so it seems like we're going in order of like worst written - best written which I'm not upset about but my issue is that what is with all these authors fat shaming left and right I am so sick of it like I thought I would just do like you know a casual note at the end for the amount of fatphobia in these books but it is like really getting to me and I'm not even someone who feels like they're super affected by diet culture but I'm just like I can't believe it's in every single book like every book and obviously these are targeted towards I don't even know what specific audience like teen girls clearly and it's like I want to make an excuse for them because they're not supposed to be this like sophisticated literature that is supposed to be like uplifting women but at the same time it makes me think like what other books were in during this time period were targeted towards you know teen girls that weren't about like bullying and like murder and intrigue that were also fat mobic like I'm just my mind if you didn't know one of the main characters Hannah who in the book doesn't look like this but Hannah is she doesn't eating dessert her she has super disordered eating she also shoplifts and I guess I like that she you can tell she's struggling with an eating disorder at least she's not like thinking her habits are healthy but people are people teased her for being fat and it's like shamed her into developing an eating disorder I guess I should probably tell you what this is before I like just go off on a rant about this about the content in here but obviously this book is about for our girls who used to be friends and seventh grade with this girl named Alison DeLaurentis and Alison kind of kept dirt on each individual girl not all of the girls knew each other secrets Alison knew each individual girl's secret and she kind of like lured them over each individual girl and Ellison goes missing I think like the last day of summer of seventh grade or something and this book picks up I think sophomore year of high school for these girls it's about these notes that they're getting from someone labeled a and they're like only Allison would know my secrets why am I being blackmailed it's obviously intriguing and I'm sure most people know what the story is about because there's a TV show but that's sort of the gist of it and like the story itself is like pretty interesting I like that each of the girls kind of have their own insecurities not hang up but it is sad that they were so manipulated by a girl in seventh grade that they have taken what has happened to them and have internalized it and turn it into their own drama Allison ruthlessly teased Hannah for being fat and so and I decided to be skinny she teased Emily for having a crush on her and now Emily feels like she has to kind of keep her feelings to herself even though they're completely normal feelings like liking women is not abnormal it's intriguing but it's also upsetting and I mean it I think it's realistic to an extent because I think we all are kind of affected by the relationships we had in our formative years I know I was but um it's hard to read about and also some of the behaviors of the girls are just like wild to me like Spencer her insecurity with boys and having to like try to get with her sisters boyfriend and Aria getting with her teacher like all of these girls act so much older than their age I mean I remember having crushes on teachers in high school but like I would never have tried to make out with my teacher or like make him jealous like the realism is not really there with this it's entertaining for sure it's fun and I guess I could think of this as just mindless but like I said since it is at its heart targeted towards teens it's hard to just brush it off as like who cares which is weird cuz I was able to do it with the click cuz the click seemed a little bit more harmless so yeah I'm not hating this I have an hour of the audiobook left technically three hours but I listen on three times speed and I know what's gonna happen so like I don't even I don't know okay so as you can tell I am about Ted to the music festival but I just thought I would tell you guys how I felt about the end of Pretty Little Liars because I just finished it I don't I didn't I didn't love it I won't say like I said the plot is intriguing enough wasn't a terrible book but I think all of the V reason these girls are getting blackmailed are easily preventable and it's like hard to feel sorry for people who kind of their own lives up that sounds stupid I mean like Emily it's not her fault that she likes women obviously but other girls I'm just like maybe if you didn't sleep with your brother's boyfriend or maybe if you didn't sleep with your teacher or maybe if you didn't shoplift like these are easily avoidable issues y'all dumbasses and that's that so I mean I do like the cliffhanger at this ending on they found Alison's body but they're still getting blackmailed by someone who is kind of claiming to be Alison so I guess that's intriguing the story itself it's not really that bad but when you actually stop to look at the individual pieces the characters and their motivations it it's worrisome especially for high school-aged people so I'm glad to be done with that okay so I am 60% into the a-list by Zoe Dean and I have to tell you guys I'm liking this a lot more than any of the other books that I've read that doesn't mean that it's without problem which I'll get into later let me tell you about the plot first so the book it's about a girl in on a Percy who's from Upper East Side super wealthy kind of a Blair Waldorf type she's like a little bit stick up her ass but nice girl very smart and she is gonna go live with her dad an intern at a literary agency in LA on the way over on the plane Anna gets a little bit drunk because her seat mate is being just kind of gross and his all up in her face and she drinks and whatever dis guy ends up saving her and is like hey like he won't sit by me instead he's super cute he's a freshman at Princeton and they kind of end up like hooking up the bathroom and he ends up inviting AMA to this like a list celebrity wedding the same night it is New Year's Eve that's basically what the book is it's about this one night getting to know our main characters it's a series obviously yeah honestly like it's just funny leaves definitely like a television show but it is very succinctly written and I like that you get upfront pretty much everybody's insecurities and understand why people behave wait the video it's good like I'm definitely enjoying this it is you know a vapid and like catty but that's kind of like all of these books I guess but I'm having a really good time reading it I'm gonna get into some of the issues that I have with it pretty quickly here there is a little bit of fat shaming slash fat phobia and I say that it's actually not shaming one of our characters who is the daughter of the person getting married so basically it's Anna versus like these three girls who are best friends they're all kind of competing for this one guy's attention which is like is he really the best guy that you guys have access to I don't know his name's Ben he's the guy on the plane that's kind of how she like meets people makes friends and or like makes enemies because she's with Ben and like who's no girl one of the girls her name is Sam she like I said is the daughter of the guy who's getting married it was this like famous director she has been bad all her life and the the thing is she's not even that she was she I think she was that previously but she has a lot of body dysmorphia I think it's even mentioned in the book of that her doctor tells her you have body dysmorphia and like let's work through this you can tell that she's not really internalizing any of the things that she's learning like she definitely hates herself and from what I can tell most of the other characters around her don't really shame her for her weight Hana definitely doesn't at all yeah I mean it's like a definite improvement over the other box for jerk but there is obviously a lot of girl hate which when it's bullying and like gossipy me and girls that like it's gonna be girl hey like that's kind of the theme of this videos girl hey this is why I think it's particularly bad because like I said they're all fighting over the same guy and it's like everybody's secretly in love with him but isn't willing to like be honest with their other friend about it so like they'll just end up competing for this dude it's pretty silly and there's like some kind of catty stuff that ends up happening at the wedding so they can get closer to Ben I'm like enjoying the way it's written I like the way that I'm getting an inside booking to like LA and and DA kind of it's like fun it's fun to read about I'm rambling at this point but I'm gonna go ahead and finish it up I don't really know where the books going in terms of plot like there isn't a whole lot I think it's just gonna end at the stroke of midnight but like I don't know we'll see okay so I am officially done with the a-list and this video so let me wrap up my thoughts it ended up being exactly as I had described previously nothing kind of crazy happened in family like plot twist was that Anna ended up not getting the internship kind of fell through so now she has to attend a Beverly Hills High School with all of these Mean Girls so there's that also the guy that she attended that party with or I get wedding band he ended up leaving her alone on a boat apparently he had a good excuse for by that made things interesting so who knows what their relationship will be like in the next book yeah that's pretty much it a guy like that was a lot less problematic than some of the other things that I've read and I feel weird I'd say even calling these books problematic because they have an intent right and it's not to be this perfect example of how you should treat others these books are supposed to be sort of escapist and fun and a kind of stupid fodder I mean like we all love Gossip Girl it shows like that and we can all admit that like they're not perfect they're just fun and that's kind of what this video and experience reading these books has been like I've had a really good time reading them and I definitely remember why I enjoyed these so much have they shaped me into a cold stubborn high school bully I don't know you can answer that for yourself no but really I think these books were just fun for me like they were fun to read in the summer by the pool my life was nothing like any of these books growing up like I was not a bully in school I lived a very normal life and these were just like fun escapist things you know I feel like again everybody wants to have that experience of going to a boarding school like getting in with the cool crowd I think it speaks to the part of all of us that just wants to be like I know that sounds kind of silly I shouldn't be waxing poetic about these books but you know I had a fun time and I hope you guys kind of enjoyed watching this I know this wasn't my most exciting vlog but I definitely wanted to revisit some of my old faves and did they all hold up no I would say probably my favorite of all of these is a list which sounds weird because that's probably the one that I remembered the least but I really enjoyed that one I'd say a close second would be the click you know despite some of that phobia the other three take them really bummed but yeah that's pretty much it I hope you guys enjoyed this video I have some more serious I read five content coming soon I might be reading this a low rated book thank you guys so much for watching I love you guys so much and until next timehello peasants welcome back to my channel so for this video I have decided to revisit some of my favourite mean-girl bully middle grade / young adult books that were such a thing I feel like back in the day and I kind of want to know why like I don't know why these are so popular and why there were so many different versions of this same sort of like trope carried out in like the mid to late 2000s but these were definitely books a very read in my formative years these were people that I aspired to be for some one godly reason and I thought it would just be a really fun time to revisit some of these mostly for fun and nostalgia but also to kind of see if these books are problematic how they hold up is there a lot of girl hate is there no girl hate like what what are these I don't I don't know except for a good time that's that's what I do know the books that I'm going to be reading for this video are as follows private by Kate Bryan this was sort of what inspired this video I kind of remembered how wild the series was I believe there's like a murder at this sort of private school setting these were more of like the sophisticated stories I feel like next up another popular choice is Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard I read almost all of these books back in the day even when I was probably a little bit too old to be reading these books they're just fun you know we love the murder and intrigue and double-crossing goodness also I have Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar classic there's a again a television show based on this so who doesn't love Gossip Girl right and then I have obviously the click by Lisi Harrison I mean the og like I remember reading this in third grade which was definitely too young to be reading this but like so fun so is that Steve and then this last book I would really could not find a vehicle copy of I tried my best to buy it but they sent me another copy of The Clique goddamn Amazon and it's the a-list which I don't know if you guys know this series but this one's a little bit different than these ones in that it is set on the west coast and it's about kind of like Hollywood elite definitely definitely was too young to be reading those but I did anyway so those are the books that I'm going to be reading in this video and giving my thoughts letting you know how they've held up over time oh it's gonna be good time I am I'm more than excited to get into these so let's do it so after a series of further unfortunate events I'm sick and actually finished a private already but the footage audio is terrible so I'm just gonna go ahead and tell you how I felt about this book did it live up to my remembrance of it and all kind of probably splice in some of the clips that I had when I blogged this cuz I've logged too much for private so how do you describe this it's about this girl named Reed Brennan who ends up getting into this elite private school it's a boarding school in Connecticut she's from Pennsylvania went to public school previously and she's very much a not like other girls kind of girl if she talks about how she's never had any female friends before which is like such a red flag but anyway she ends up going to Billings Academy wait actually it's called Easton but the dorm that she wants to get into his Billings anyway he ends up getting into Easton Academy and when she's there she is in her dorm room with her super annoying roommate she looks out the window and she sees four beautiful women in a dorm across the quad or whatever the I'm not entirely sure how these buildings are situated but like it semantics right so Reed sees them and she's like who are those girls like what what building is this she finds out it's Billings which is the dorm for upperclassmen women and it is only the most elite girls they end up getting into Ivy League schools and they're the captains of the soccer team and they're just all very cool and Reed is just a sophomore but she wants to be friends with them even though she's never had female friends before she's gonna just risk it all so she can finally be popular and I think that's really where the story is the best like the fact that Reed is so hell-bent on becoming a part of this gang of girls even though she's not old enough really to hang out with them I mean you can obviously have friends they're older than you but like I mean in a dorm setting like she can't live in the upperclassmen dorm just the desperate feeling that you get at the beginning of the book carries on through the book and keeps it from being entirely boring because to be honest this book wasn't exactly exciting the day-to-day happenings of this boarding school were boring but seeing how much Reed was willing to do to become a part of this girl gang was pretty cool I guess I will say there were like some problematic elements quite a few problematic elements there are a couple of slurs used in here that I wasn't a big fan of they were questioned which I thought was surprising given that this book was written 2006 but it still wasn't great and then the romantic really if we're even gonna call it that Reid ends up getting hit by a football in you know the beginning of this book and it's very stupid she ends up falling for the bad boy his name is Thomas the girls are telling him like stay away from him he's a bad boy he doesn't listen he sells drugs and he's an alcoholic and he treats her like garbage so we don't stand Thomas and I'm gonna insert right now a couple of clips of things that he says I can't believe you choose them over me you disappoint me I just don't want to see you get hurt it just seems all sort of backhanded and abusive and like yeah sure though feelings girls are shitty but it's Reid's decision whether or not she like wants to hang out with the billings girls I really wish Thomas would just go away because this sex scene is not described well his kiss was urgent almost violent and I knew for sure what he wanted why I was there essentially Thomas invites Reid back to his dorm and kind of throws around the bed and it's like you know I love you right not cool I mean he hasn't coerced her into sex she goes willingly but it does not seem romantic or sexy or anything like that afterwards she's like it was done my virginity officially gone given away I don't know how long she's known this dude have they been texting for like two weeks and then she's like you know what let's get it on I'm 15 but let's do it that's the thing she's 15 and he's a senior so Reid come on you're not mad you're not you love me right if you love me you have to love everything about me you're not breaking up with me over this you can't leave me you love me she's 15 pal and you're a drug dealer she doesn't love you as you can tell he's kind of an abuser so didn't love that and it's kind of unclear at the end of the book whether or not they're going to try to resolve their relationship like they end up breaking up and Thomas disappears out of nowhere so I you know I'm not really sure about their romantic relationship so those are like the most problematic elements of the book and then obviously they're just like bullying I guess you could say the ringleader of the building's girls her name is Noelle and she kind of puts read through some like she kind of haze her a little bit and says like hey if you want to be one of us you have to steal a test from this professor's office or you have to spike this professor's drink with alcohol and while I did find out like shitty I mean neither of those seem particularly high stakes that sounds bad but I mean like I I remember this being just so scandalous back in the but upon reread I was like this it seems like high school growing it takes like stupid and I do like that read kind of fights back against some of that like the building's girls tell her like I said to spike the drink of her professor and she's like I'm doing that I don't know I like that she isn't just like a doormat essentially so that was nice and then I loved it ending of this I mean she ends up I'm gonna spoil it for you she ends up getting an invitation to Billings even though she's an underclassmen and I say invitation she shows up to her dorm one day and none of her is in her room and then she ends up getting called to Billings house and she walks in and there's like a bunch of girls with like black candles and they're gonna initiate her into Billings house so kind of scandalous I like the whole like cliffhanger element it makes it a little bit more exciting so did I like this yes I give it three stars it probably deserved too but the ending really got me I don't think this is going to be the best book of the five that I'm going to read for this but it wasn't terrible and I think the takeaway from this is that well it's stupid it is fun and I don't think that anyone is going to try to emulate this behavior and I also like I said like that Reid was willing to fight back I think that was really a good takeaway you know you don't have to put up with people's and in fact your friends might like you more if you kind of you know don't just listen to everything they said I don't really know what I'm trying to say but I like this and it was fun and I'm ready to read some more so like I said I'm sick so what I think I'm gonna try to do I am at home it's one o'clock I think I'm going to try to read the rest of these four books today ambitious perhaps but they're also like only 250 pages max so I think I think I can do it I can think I could do this video all in one day the next book I'm gonna start with is Gossip Girl I'm just feeling those East Coast live still I think it's gonna be a good time sorry you have to see me like this for the entire day but you know we're gonna we're getting through it xoxo okay so I am a hundred pages into Gossip Girl and I feel like I've read some of these books or at least I've read some of the sequels I know I read the spin-off series back in the day the Carlisle's or whatever and the it girl spent off with like Jenny Humphrey but I don't really remember the plot of the first book and I will say I was kind of thinking back to the TV show when I was reading this and thinking of the differences say that the book itself is much more realistic I think this is supposed to be an inside block into you know Manhattan's lead in the show there's just this level of like unbelievable 'ti like how could people's parents behave like this how are they letting teenagers behave like this let me get into some of the differences so in the TV show I think it's the pilot or maybe even the second episode there's this kiss on the lips party that they put together and in the book there is a kiss on the lips party but it is done for fundraising which makes sense because they're in high school unlike charitable stuff looks good on college resumes also in here it talks about how Blair like studies for the SATs and volunteers and like has her life together which we don't really see so much in the TV show we're led to believe she's got her together but we don't actually see that happen for quite a while I think there's one episode of her trying to do all on SATs like that's about it and in here like from day one you know that they're actually high school students and then Serena as well I think is a little bit different from her persona on the television show like she's that effortlessly cool girl but there's this element of but I'm not that smart I dunno how I'm going to get into college and I definitely think that plays a big part in her insecurities I think that's the most interesting thing about this book is the fact that it is more realistic than I thought and also that both of the main characters Serena and Blair are very insecure and they don't hate each other in a girl hate sort of why in my opinion it comes from a place of just deep insecurity and maybe that's where all girl hate comes from I don't know but I actually sympathize with both of them and you know Serena might not be jealous of Blair but she has her own to deal with and Blair is jealous of Serena because she has you know perceived inadequacies I'm kind of rambling but I'm liking this so far I will say the writing isn't that great it's accessible but it's taking me longer than I thought it would to read through it just because of the way that it's written the first couple of chapters are just very cut and dry and some of the phrasing is a little awkward so it's been not fun in terms of like the actual reading experience if that makes sense the writing is not great well I think that's pretty much it does all my commentary so far okay so I finished Gossip Girl and it ended up being just like the television show there's that like creepy scene with Chuck and Jenny at the end and Serena and Dan come to her rescue but let's kind of I guess wrap up my thoughts like I said I think this is a more realistic portrayal than the television show I think that otherwise everything is pretty damn similar I will say in terms of like problematic content in this book most of it is fat phobic commentary and just comments in general that seems to be the only insult that people tend to give it's like oh she's so fat or oh she's gonna not be able to fit into her dress as if that's the worst thing that could ever happen to you that I didn't enjoy and it was very prevalent and frequent in this book which I don't know I really didn't appreciate that is to kind of be expected for the early 2000s when being like stick skinny was you know the ideal now it's skinny waist big ass anyway didn't love that commentary but overall this was okay I think I actually liked private more than this mostly just because I think the TV show for this is so much more entertaining than the book is like I'm not upset about having read it it's just it's whatever it's like man I think the next thing that I'm going to read it's gonna be the click this is gonna be super easy to get through super fun I'm hoping I just remember really liking the in-and-out lists that Massie makes so new book new filming location I just finished the click by Lisi Harrison this is exactly as I remembered it so I didn't feel the need to update you guys as I read but I figured I could give my thoughts and like I don't know if the plot of this book and my feelings about it the first thing that I noticed when reading this is that the writing was world's better than both Gossip Girl in the private series I was shocked because this is written for a much younger age demographic the girls in this book are in seventh grade so I figured it would be very childish writing but it was actually like very easy to get through I wouldn't call it sophisticated writing by any standards but it definitely wasn't anything that I was like struggling to read because it was poorly put together or there were too many like reused phrases it was a good read if a book itself is about this group of girls there's four of them the ringleaders name is Massie and they go to this like private school in upstate New York very rich very wealthy very privileged and this new girl comes to town named Claire she ends up living in Massey's guest house because their dads are friends Claire is just a typical girl from Florida just very normal like middle-class and she doesn't know how to fit into this like upper-crust Society I guess he could say doesn't wear designer clothes and that sort of creates this alienation right so like Matthew doesn't want her friend group to be disturbed she likes having take control over her friend group so it's kind of about the power struggle Claire desperately wants to make friends desperately wants to get into this friend group sort of I guess like read in the private series but in this series it's a little bit more obviously juvenile and there is less hazing involved because Claire isn't wanting to like stoop to the level or like impress Massie and anyway really I mean there's times when she wants to dress as cute as the other girls and things like that but he never felt like she was giving up her morals I don't know the whole book I guess it's just sort of a lesson on popularity and on how you should be yourself and like make friends that actually care about you and like you which I thought was a pretty good lesson towards the youth so this isn't that bad I really expected this to be a lot more problematic than it was the only real content warning I would give is the egregious fatphobia and like diet culture in this like eating a salad and a diet coke for lunch is not normal for seventh graders I did not like that inclusion I didn't think that was necessary and one of the characters Herbert hole personality seems to be that she's the fat friend and that she needs to be constantly dieting which I did not appreciate other than that though I didn't see a ton of super problematic behavior it just was like girls being girls stupid girls and rude girls but likey and it was fun there wasn't any like straightforward girl hate it was more like our struggles I don't know how to describe this book I think if you've read it you know what it is and also if you've watched the movie it's just like the book I didn't remember them being identical so that's that on the click I think this has been my favorite read so far but I'm feeling a little bit more inclined to read something spooky so I think I'm gonna start in on Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard I wish I could have gotten the original cover but I like couldn't find one on Amazon I loved the series I loved this TV show so I'm really excited to get into this I think I'm probably going to wait to read the next two books till tomorrow because I want to have fresh eyes and like fresh zest and personality to bring to this will be ready okay hi I'm sixty-five percent done with pretty little liars and I have thoughts and feelings and I'm also still sick which I'm sure you can hear and you can also tell some wearing a stupid t-shirt I'm not gonna have much more time to read this today which is sort of tragic so I'm going to a music festival but um I just thought I'd let you know how I'm feeling about this so far because it's not great I will say in terms of storytelling and atmosphere and actual writing itself this book is even better than the three books that I read previously which i think is good I also spoiler started the a list and that one's even better writing wise than this one so it seems like we're going in order of like worst written - best written which I'm not upset about but my issue is that what is with all these authors fat shaming left and right I am so sick of it like I thought I would just do like you know a casual note at the end for the amount of fatphobia in these books but it is like really getting to me and I'm not even someone who feels like they're super affected by diet culture but I'm just like I can't believe it's in every single book like every book and obviously these are targeted towards I don't even know what specific audience like teen girls clearly and it's like I want to make an excuse for them because they're not supposed to be this like sophisticated literature that is supposed to be like uplifting women but at the same time it makes me think like what other books were in during this time period were targeted towards you know teen girls that weren't about like bullying and like murder and intrigue that were also fat mobic like I'm just my mind if you didn't know one of the main characters Hannah who in the book doesn't look like this but Hannah is she doesn't eating dessert her she has super disordered eating she also shoplifts and I guess I like that she you can tell she's struggling with an eating disorder at least she's not like thinking her habits are healthy but people are people teased her for being fat and it's like shamed her into developing an eating disorder I guess I should probably tell you what this is before I like just go off on a rant about this about the content in here but obviously this book is about for our girls who used to be friends and seventh grade with this girl named Alison DeLaurentis and Alison kind of kept dirt on each individual girl not all of the girls knew each other secrets Alison knew each individual girl's secret and she kind of like lured them over each individual girl and Ellison goes missing I think like the last day of summer of seventh grade or something and this book picks up I think sophomore year of high school for these girls it's about these notes that they're getting from someone labeled a and they're like only Allison would know my secrets why am I being blackmailed it's obviously intriguing and I'm sure most people know what the story is about because there's a TV show but that's sort of the gist of it and like the story itself is like pretty interesting I like that each of the girls kind of have their own insecurities not hang up but it is sad that they were so manipulated by a girl in seventh grade that they have taken what has happened to them and have internalized it and turn it into their own drama Allison ruthlessly teased Hannah for being fat and so and I decided to be skinny she teased Emily for having a crush on her and now Emily feels like she has to kind of keep her feelings to herself even though they're completely normal feelings like liking women is not abnormal it's intriguing but it's also upsetting and I mean it I think it's realistic to an extent because I think we all are kind of affected by the relationships we had in our formative years I know I was but um it's hard to read about and also some of the behaviors of the girls are just like wild to me like Spencer her insecurity with boys and having to like try to get with her sisters boyfriend and Aria getting with her teacher like all of these girls act so much older than their age I mean I remember having crushes on teachers in high school but like I would never have tried to make out with my teacher or like make him jealous like the realism is not really there with this it's entertaining for sure it's fun and I guess I could think of this as just mindless but like I said since it is at its heart targeted towards teens it's hard to just brush it off as like who cares which is weird cuz I was able to do it with the click cuz the click seemed a little bit more harmless so yeah I'm not hating this I have an hour of the audiobook left technically three hours but I listen on three times speed and I know what's gonna happen so like I don't even I don't know okay so as you can tell I am about Ted to the music festival but I just thought I would tell you guys how I felt about the end of Pretty Little Liars because I just finished it I don't I didn't I didn't love it I won't say like I said the plot is intriguing enough wasn't a terrible book but I think all of the V reason these girls are getting blackmailed are easily preventable and it's like hard to feel sorry for people who kind of their own lives up that sounds stupid I mean like Emily it's not her fault that she likes women obviously but other girls I'm just like maybe if you didn't sleep with your brother's boyfriend or maybe if you didn't sleep with your teacher or maybe if you didn't shoplift like these are easily avoidable issues y'all dumbasses and that's that so I mean I do like the cliffhanger at this ending on they found Alison's body but they're still getting blackmailed by someone who is kind of claiming to be Alison so I guess that's intriguing the story itself it's not really that bad but when you actually stop to look at the individual pieces the characters and their motivations it it's worrisome especially for high school-aged people so I'm glad to be done with that okay so I am 60% into the a-list by Zoe Dean and I have to tell you guys I'm liking this a lot more than any of the other books that I've read that doesn't mean that it's without problem which I'll get into later let me tell you about the plot first so the book it's about a girl in on a Percy who's from Upper East Side super wealthy kind of a Blair Waldorf type she's like a little bit stick up her ass but nice girl very smart and she is gonna go live with her dad an intern at a literary agency in LA on the way over on the plane Anna gets a little bit drunk because her seat mate is being just kind of gross and his all up in her face and she drinks and whatever dis guy ends up saving her and is like hey like he won't sit by me instead he's super cute he's a freshman at Princeton and they kind of end up like hooking up the bathroom and he ends up inviting AMA to this like a list celebrity wedding the same night it is New Year's Eve that's basically what the book is it's about this one night getting to know our main characters it's a series obviously yeah honestly like it's just funny leaves definitely like a television show but it is very succinctly written and I like that you get upfront pretty much everybody's insecurities and understand why people behave wait the video it's good like I'm definitely enjoying this it is you know a vapid and like catty but that's kind of like all of these books I guess but I'm having a really good time reading it I'm gonna get into some of the issues that I have with it pretty quickly here there is a little bit of fat shaming slash fat phobia and I say that it's actually not shaming one of our characters who is the daughter of the person getting married so basically it's Anna versus like these three girls who are best friends they're all kind of competing for this one guy's attention which is like is he really the best guy that you guys have access to I don't know his name's Ben he's the guy on the plane that's kind of how she like meets people makes friends and or like makes enemies because she's with Ben and like who's no girl one of the girls her name is Sam she like I said is the daughter of the guy who's getting married it was this like famous director she has been bad all her life and the the thing is she's not even that she was she I think she was that previously but she has a lot of body dysmorphia I think it's even mentioned in the book of that her doctor tells her you have body dysmorphia and like let's work through this you can tell that she's not really internalizing any of the things that she's learning like she definitely hates herself and from what I can tell most of the other characters around her don't really shame her for her weight Hana definitely doesn't at all yeah I mean it's like a definite improvement over the other box for jerk but there is obviously a lot of girl hate which when it's bullying and like gossipy me and girls that like it's gonna be girl hey like that's kind of the theme of this videos girl hey this is why I think it's particularly bad because like I said they're all fighting over the same guy and it's like everybody's secretly in love with him but isn't willing to like be honest with their other friend about it so like they'll just end up competing for this dude it's pretty silly and there's like some kind of catty stuff that ends up happening at the wedding so they can get closer to Ben I'm like enjoying the way it's written I like the way that I'm getting an inside booking to like LA and and DA kind of it's like fun it's fun to read about I'm rambling at this point but I'm gonna go ahead and finish it up I don't really know where the books going in terms of plot like there isn't a whole lot I think it's just gonna end at the stroke of midnight but like I don't know we'll see okay so I am officially done with the a-list and this video so let me wrap up my thoughts it ended up being exactly as I had described previously nothing kind of crazy happened in family like plot twist was that Anna ended up not getting the internship kind of fell through so now she has to attend a Beverly Hills High School with all of these Mean Girls so there's that also the guy that she attended that party with or I get wedding band he ended up leaving her alone on a boat apparently he had a good excuse for by that made things interesting so who knows what their relationship will be like in the next book yeah that's pretty much it a guy like that was a lot less problematic than some of the other things that I've read and I feel weird I'd say even calling these books problematic because they have an intent right and it's not to be this perfect example of how you should treat others these books are supposed to be sort of escapist and fun and a kind of stupid fodder I mean like we all love Gossip Girl it shows like that and we can all admit that like they're not perfect they're just fun and that's kind of what this video and experience reading these books has been like I've had a really good time reading them and I definitely remember why I enjoyed these so much have they shaped me into a cold stubborn high school bully I don't know you can answer that for yourself no but really I think these books were just fun for me like they were fun to read in the summer by the pool my life was nothing like any of these books growing up like I was not a bully in school I lived a very normal life and these were just like fun escapist things you know I feel like again everybody wants to have that experience of going to a boarding school like getting in with the cool crowd I think it speaks to the part of all of us that just wants to be like I know that sounds kind of silly I shouldn't be waxing poetic about these books but you know I had a fun time and I hope you guys kind of enjoyed watching this I know this wasn't my most exciting vlog but I definitely wanted to revisit some of my old faves and did they all hold up no I would say probably my favorite of all of these is a list which sounds weird because that's probably the one that I remembered the least but I really enjoyed that one I'd say a close second would be the click you know despite some of that phobia the other three take them really bummed but yeah that's pretty much it I hope you guys enjoyed this video I have some more serious I read five content coming soon I might be reading this a low rated book thank you guys so much for watching I love you guys so much and until next time\n"