Confessions of a Hater

The Basics:

Title: Confessions of a Hater

Author: Caprice Crane

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends (2013)

Pages: 368

The Overview:

Hailey Harper has always felt like an invisible outcast, and every day at high school brings a new embarrassment at the hands of the "cool kids". So, when her father takes a new job in Hollywood, Hailey sees an opportunity to reinvent herself in the image of her ultra-cool, popular older sister, Noel, who has gone away to college. With the help of a journal she discovers in Noel's belongings, entitled "How to be a Hater," Hailey transforms herself into a confident, take-no-nonsense cool girl-- at least on the outside. 

When she arrives at West Hollywood High School, Hailey quickly uses the wisdom she has gleaned from her sister's journal to fall in with the coolest crowd of girls in school, led by the pernicious Skyler Brandt. However, she soon grows tired of the shallow, manipulative Skyler and branches out on her own, embracing her unique neighbor Anya and a crowd of misfits. They label themselves The Invisibles and turn to Noel's journal as a sort of bible instructing them on how to change their social situation. They also go to war with Skyler's crew in a malicious prank battle that reaches "epic" heights. 

Aided by her highly-acclaimed comic strip, which appears in the school paper under the title "Abby Invisible" and lampoons the social structure of the high school, Hailey takes on the established bully culture in West Hollywood. However, she soon finds herself out of control and struggling to solidify an identity, and personal crises begin to pile up. 

Why I Read It:

A pre-release Variety review referred to it as a mix between Mean Girls and Revenge of the Nerds, which are two of the best things. Additionally, an astute reader of this blog may notice that I have been reading exclusively material aimed at or about (or both) young adults in the past couple months (including a few stinkers I didn't even bother posting about).  After this I am moving onto a string of more adult things, so I figured why not go out on the teenagerest of teenager books? 

Why You Should Read It:

Every once and a while, someone makes a movie or a book or a piece of art that is a perfect snapshot of the time in which it was created. This is an example of that phenomenon. From lingo (including online abbreviations --in text--!) to music to TV to movies to twitter to Facebook to fashion, all of the cultural references are here. The girls' outfits are even often described in great detail, including extremely contemporary, hip, young name brands. If you want to know what it was like for a young person in 2012-2013, this is the book to reference. 

Caprice Crane is more than qualified to write this kind of novel. She has worked for MTV productions, written for the CW's new 90210 and Melrose Place, and written on YA films, but she is also an experienced novelist. (Bonus: her mom is Ginger from Gilligan's Island.) So for all its pop culture indulgence, it is an extremely savvy and well-crafted book. Hailey and her friends can be irritating, but teenagers are sometimes irritating people. These characters are completely believable as modern, drama-fueled teens, and even the high school feels real. Hailey herself is one of those characters that you feel like you know completely, even if you don't always love her. 

It is probably necessary to mention that this book likely would not exist without Mean Girls. The plot parallels that film to the extent that it sometimes feels like a novelization of the movie. However, it incorporates some elements that Mean Girls did not have room for, and it goes further in almost every way (language, sex, nastiness, roundness of characters, etc). So, if you are a fan of that film, you probably will not be disappointed by this book. 

You can look at Confessions of a Hater as a book version of that super right-now Lorde song "Royals". Possibly brilliant, but a little bit irksome, interesting, and oh-so current. It won't be relevant soon, but it is horribly relevant right now. So, if you like hyper-contemporary writing, definitely read this book, but do it soon.