The Julian Game by Adele Griffin

Rating:
Characters: 19/20
Plot: 18/20
Originality: 19/20
Writing: 18/20
Recommendation: 19/20
Overall: 93/100 or A
Source: Author

All new girl Raye Archer wants is a way into the in crowd, so when ice-queen Ella Parker picks her to get back at her ex, the gorgeous Julian Kilgarry, Raye is more than game. Even if it means creating a fake Facebook identity so she can learn enough about Julian to sabotage him. It's a fun and dangerous thrill at first, but Raye hadn't counted on falling for Julian herself and igniting Ella's rage. As Raye works to reconcile the temptress Elizabeth with her real-life self, Ella serves up her own revenge, creating an online smear campaign of nasty rumors and trashy photographs. Suddenly notorious, Raye has to find a way out of the web of deceit that she's helped to build, and back to the relationships that matter. Adele Griffin's riveting novel explores the issues of generation Facebook: the desire to be someone else, real versus online friends, and the pitfalls and fall outs of posting your personal life online for all the world to judge.

I really liked Raye. She was a little immature at the beginning, but I still found her to be really sweet. I also though that she was a believable in her trust with Ella, even though she knew that she shouldn't. Ella is not the typical mean girl. Her insecurities are shared with the narrators, like her gloves and strange catch phrases. Also the fact that she feels that she has been burnt Julian. I really liked that Griffin didn't make him seem perfect, like a lot of love interests are protrayed in Young Adult books.. Natayla was really sweet and I loved her strong personality and the fact that she liked Sci-Fi. Julian seems like a normal jock, but his family has financial issues like a lot of teens are dealing with at the moment. Henry Henry was a great character. He made me laugh a lot and was British, which is awesome. I liked that he was quirky and different, then most characters.

The plot of the Julian Game was very well developed and seemed to be very realistic to how life really is. Raye is an honest, funny, and vulnerable narrator that really kept the plot interesting and fun. The plot also warns you about putting yourself on the Internet like Facebook and that once something is on the Internet anyone can see it and that isn't always a good thing. It also talks about how once bullying starts on a target, it doesn't stop. I have seen this first hand on my sister, who was severely bullied last year on Facebook and Youtube and Griffin represented that part well. I found aspects of the book to be very original, while other parts were very stereotypical. Griffin is a stunning writer and I can't wait to read more books from her in the future. I highly recommend this book. The Julian Game was fresh, funny, and addictive.