Review: Faking 19 by Alyson Noel

Faking 19
by Alyson Noel
Pages: 224
Format: Finished Copy
Source: Borrowed
Release Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Stars: 2 out of 5

On the surface, 17 year old Alex has it made; she is beautiful and smart. Plus, she's best friends with M, the absolute most popular girl in school. Feeling bored with their fancy Orange County suburban town, Alex and M decide to check out LA's glitzy nightlife scene.

Pretending to be 19, Alex and M meet Trevor and Connor, two rich older guys. At first Alex can't believe her luck--she gets to hang out at hip Hollywood houseparties and downton LA clubs. There weekend trips into the city become the perfect distraction for Alex, who is secretly struggling with her failing senior grades,her absentee father,and her clueless mom.

But after the initial fun wears off for Alex, she is forced to reevaluate her cfriendship with M., who is hiding some secrets beneath her perfect Burberry clad exterior...

Chic-lit, for me, is a guilty pleasure. I don't read a whole lot of it, and the only chic-lit author I really like is Sarah Dessen. I was expecting this book to be cheesy, girly, and mindless. And it was, but you could tell that Alyson Noel tried to add a layer of depth to it that just didn't really end up working out that well.  Alex, 17, is beautiful, popular, and smart. But she's failing all of her classes, despite her talent for writing that she has been secretly hiding away. Her parents are divorced, her father has no interest in her life, and her mother is lonely and vacant. Her best friend, M, is even more beautiful and more popular than she is. So to get away from their seemingly sucky lives, Alex and M visit LA and explore the  clubs and meet older guys. And even though the premise seems remotely interesting, and the cover is your typical chic-lit cover, the inside of the book wasn't so great. The staging was atrocious and the writing was absolutely terrible. There were also grammar mistakes which I almost never see in books. I have to admit, I was disappointed with this book, especially since my friend said it was so good.

I think what made this book so uninteresting to me is that it wasn't very relatable. I've never faked my age to be with an older guy or anything like that (obviously :p). This book revolves around the lives of two 17 year old girls, and needless to say I couldn't relate to anything that they were talking about. There didn't really seem to be any central plot line, and that drove me crazy. I kept waiting for something interesting or action-packed to happen, but it just didn't. It seemed like a typical mindless read.  The writing wasn't too great either. Noel would write something and then repeat herself two sentences later. The paragraphs were long and rambling, and sometimes I just wanted to scream, "Get to the point, Alex!" Speaking of which, Alex, as a character, drove me insane. All of her decisions were immature and stupid. I knew that she was under stress with everything with her parents, but she drove me up the wall. I also hated M, her best friend.

This book was just your typical chic-lit and I didn't see anything special or note-worthy about it. Sometimes there would be good moments where I'd want to keep reading but this was a fast read that didn't make me think at all. The characters and writing were what really annoyed me, though, and I really wish I liked this book more. Hopefully there'll be some better reads next.

PS. So sorry for the rambling review. I feel like it wasn't very good... I'll do better next time, promise!