Populazzi: A Contemporary Teen Novel About a Twisted Social Experiment and the Quest for Popularity

by Elise Allen

Cara has never been one of those confident, self-possessed, and always ready with the perfect thing to say. A girl at the very top of the popularity tower. One of the Populazzi.Now, junior year could change everything. Cara’s moving to a new school, and her best friend urges her to seize the moment—with the help of the Ladder. Its rungs are relationships, and if Cara transforms into the perfect girlfriend for guys ever-higher on the tower, she’ll reach the ultimate Supreme Populazzi.

The Ladder seems like a lighthearted social experiment, a straight climb up, but it quickly becomes gnarled and twisted. And when everything goes wrong, only the most audacious act Cara can think of has a chance of setting things even a little bit right.

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Chick Lit, Realistic Fiction, Friendship, Contemporary Romance

405 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Lover of books, Disneyland, dogs, and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have read the blurb for Populazzi I think you will agree with me when I say that this is nothing new and that we’ve heard stories like that a thousand times before.

When I started reading I was immediately reminded of the movie
Mean Girls and now, after having finished the book, I have to say that this comparison is pretty accurate.

When 16-year-old Cara moves with her family to a new town and therefore has to attend a new High School her best friend Claudia sees this as THE chance for Cara to start over and reinvent herself and so she comes up with a plan for her. A plan with the ultimate goal of becoming part of the most popular clique at school, the so-called Populazzi.

I liked Cara, she’s a nice girl whom I could easily relate to, because, let’s face it, who hasn’t fantasized about transforming themselves at one point or another in their lives? To change in a way that will make others respect and admire you? To be at the top of the food chain for once? Or, to put it simply, just to show them all? Well, I certainly have and just like I think that most people have fantasized about such a transformation, I bet that most people have also learned that pretending to be someone you’re not or lying to make yourself more interesting doesn’t work and tends to backfire majorly. This is exactly what Cara has to learn in Populazzi. While she climbs the social ladder higher and higher the hole she digs for herself gets deeper and deeper. The message of the story is clear: If you have to jump through hoops to make somebody like you, he or she probably isn’t really your friend and lies will almost always come back to bite you.

I had fun reading Populazzi, it made me laugh, it made me cringe with embarrassment on Cara’s behalf and it made me swoon but even though I knew what I was getting myself into I was a bit bothered by the plot’s predictability. Towards the end I also had a hard time liking Cara seeing as she almost stopped at nothing to achieve her goal. Furthermore I was bothered by her parents’ behavior. It shocked me and I felt like it was a bit too unrealistic. I mean, I’m sure that there are families with similar problems but in the beginning I thought Cara’s mum and her stepdad Karl were pretty cool and then all of the sudden we got to see Karl’s real face and this change felt slightly unreal and overdone to me. I also wasn’t very fond of Cara’s best friend Claudia, who was the driving force behind Cara’s transformation.

As I already mentioned this book made me swoon and the sole reason for that was Archer. He is just adorable and I have to say that he’s definitely the best part of this book. He’s one of the good guys. Sweet, caring, funny and considerate...really, he is made of pure awesome.

Altogether a predictable but fun read.

Thanks to netGalley and Harcourt Children's Books for providing me with this ARC.

[Jillian Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually loved it at first. But around page 200 the book started to become boring and the character I loved, Archer, wasn't around as much. The main character could get on my nerve sometimes. The endings seemed like a stretch, to be honest. It was too sudden. Like the author was trying to make the ending too happy.

[Danny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so much fun! It was the perfect story from a girl that was always invisible, who hated High School and the social rules that makes some people the super popular ones while the other ones are the outcast nobody cares to notice.

When Cara moves to a new school, she and her friend Claudia plan to chance the invisibility for Cara and make her popular. This is their chance to start new, to finally be someone!
First, find a boyfriend who is down but not at the bottom of the High School hierarchy.
Second, find the next boyfriend a step higher. ....
Third, finally get a boyfriend from the Populazzi crowd that lifts you in the highest rank of popular kids.
Fourth: Become THE Supreme Girl at school!

Well, that's the plan and Cara starts right away when she meets Archer, a boy from the Theater Geek Group and the easily become friends. She hangs out with him and thy are getting closer and closer. Soon, Cara liked Archer not for the status he could provide her but for himself! It clicks, as simply as this - they work perfectly together. Archer is a wonderful character and the perfect counterpart for Cara. But Archer never makes a move to kiss her...

When it's not working with Archer romantically, she asks him to help to get a new boyfriend - one of the DangerZone. Nate is the perfect next target, he's absolutely sexy, hot and totally emo.

After Nate she's one step away from the super Populazzis!

Cara with her bouncy and carefree personality totally rocks the plot. I have to admire her to go through with all this, because it requires a lot of bravery from her. I loved her and I was anxious to see how this will all turn out for her, although I knew something bad will have to happen. Specially when she sees the downsides of her comet like climb in high school order. She's not herself anymore, but Claudia pushes her to go on with the plan even if it means leaving good friends behind?

What I hated were Cara's parents, her mom who was totally dependent from her husband who is Cara's stepdad. Both were super cruel, although in totally different ways. When Cara is not the perfect daughter they always assumed she was, Karl abandons her which is the epitome of cruelty! But although he mom tries to stand up for her she's not strong enough go through with it!

Populazzi tells the story of a normal girls that climbs the ladder of social order in High School, after she was always an invisible girl nobody cared about, about wanting badly to be something you are not. How far to go to be someone of the cool crowd? The book is a fast and entertaining page turner that shows the cruelty of High School in a ver fun way and a winked eye. I loved the easy writing style and they way all the typical High School kids are displayed in the order of things.

[~Tina~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can do this Cara," she said, leaning in close. " I know you can. And you won't be doing it just for yourself; you'll be doing it for me, too. For everyone who have ever felt like a misfit, everyone who was ever picked on, or laughed at, or treated like they weren't good enough. You can prove we're no different than the Supreme Populazzi by becoming one of them. And you can do it with the Ladder.

Populazzi is a amusing and entertaining read about Cara Leonard, who ever since has the "incident" in kindergarten as been a social leaper, but at least she has Claudia who's always been by her side since that day.
Since Cara is starting at a new school this year, Claudia devised a plan to finally get Cara on the social ladder and finally be someone.
Only, once she get everything she wants does she realize that it may not be what it seems and she doesn't know if this is who she want to be, after all....

It's true, we've all read stories like this one, but I still really enjoyed it. Cara is a good girl, but she's always been mistreated by her fellow students, so I can surly sympathize with wanting to feel on top for a change. It's not an excuse mind you, but still, when your young and a nobody, you want to feel proud and accepted even though it hurts people along the way. A lesson, Cara learns soon enough.
Archer, for me, really owned this book. He's the kind of guy you totally want around. Smart, funny, witty, easy going and down to earth, and funny, did I mention funny? A real sweetheart. I thought he and Cara were just to cute together.

Overall, this was a really good, realistic and well written book with a clean cut message to anyone who feels like they don't belong.
Be true to yourself no matter what. Keep the ones most loyal to you, close.
Screw everyone else;)

Well done!

(Arc provided by Netgalley)

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I have this problem with my TBR pile. Basically, it's so big, it could eat me. Usually it's this big pile on the floor of my bedroom or on my desk. One day, I was looking for a new book to read and picked up the first one I saw sitting on the top of my TBR pile. Populazzi. It looked all right, and I thought I might as well try it. So I did, and I loved it!

When Cara moves to a new school, she jumps (ok maybe, she gets a little push from her BFF) at the chance to start over. To get a fresh start and maybe try to become a little higher (ok, a lot) on the popularity charts. Slowly, and surely, she climbs up the popularity latter. But soon, Cara begins to feel like maybe something is just not right.

I loved this book more than I thought I would. The characters were so real and so were most of their experiences. The cliques and groups were unbelievably real as well. Elise Allen perfectly captures that time in life where you're trying to find out who you are and who you want to be. I also enjoyed figuring out what group I would probably be in.

Everyone will find themselves among the pages of this book. This book is tons of fun and I highly recommend it!

[Kate McMurry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humorous and poignant, young adult chick lit

Sixteen-year-old Cara Leonard and her best friend, Claudia, have always longed to be part of the most popular clique in high school, the Populazzi, the polished, charismatic, gorgeous teenagers at the top of what Claudia calls the “Popularity Tower.” But the Populazzi are as out of reach to Cara and Claudia as the stars since they became consigned to the lower reaches of the Tower forever from the day that Cara involuntarily wet her pants in kindergarten and Claudia voluntarily joined her by wetting hers, too. It was an act of solidarity that was social suicide for Claudia, but cemented a deep and lasting friendship extremely important to both girls.

Over the years, the two friends have worked out an entire system of classification for the tiers of the Popularity Tower, the social classes prevailing in high school. The “Happy Hopeless” are the “very basement of the Popularity Tower” who “are so socially out of it, they don’t even know the Tower exists.” The next level up are the “Cubby Crew.” They are “not all created equal.” Though “some barely rank above the Happy Hopeless,” there are others who “are only that little bit of cachet away from being Popularazzi.” Since kindergarten, Cara and Claudia have been “lower-echelon Cubby Crew.” There are many different types of Cubby Crew, including the “Theater Geeks” (self-explanatory), the “Cosmopolitans” (kids who smoke, drink lattes and wear avant-garde clothing), and the “Wasteoids” (androgynous dopers), as well as various unnamed duos, trios and quads—such as Claudia and Cara have been—who are “islands unto themselves.”

The tier above the Cubby Crew are the “DangerZones,” who are “dark, troubled and fascinating.” They don’t care about labels like “popular” and go their own way, but because they are coolly indifferent and morose—unlike the Happy Hopeless—teenagers on every Tower tier “feel honored” at any attention from a DangerZone.

During the summer before this story opens, just before Cara’s junior year in high school, her mother and step-father moved to a town an hour away from Cara’s former public school and placed Cara in a charter school called Chrysella Prep. Claudia decides this is a great opportunity for Cara to remake herself in a new, potentially very popular image. She can accomplish this, Claudia insists, by carrying out Claudia’s grand scheme for social success, a hundred-page handwritten treatise complete with illustrations called “The Ladder.” If Cara studies and follows this ambitious plan, with Claudia coaching her every step of the way and enjoying Cara’s success vicariously, she can rise through the ranks to the very top of the Popularity Tower.

At first Cara considers The Ladder a really cold blooded plan. It is against her warm, generous nature to calculatedly start with a low-ranked boyfriend and step by step progress to increasingly higher-tiered boyfriends until one of the Populazzi males picks her as his consort and catapults her into the stratosphere of Populazzidom. But finding her first boyfriend—not just the first rung of Claudia’s social experiment, but Cara's first boyfriend ever—turns out to be almost instantaneous. Cara literally falls at Archer Jain's feet her first day at Chrysella Prep.

Archer is an enormously talented, cute and adorable Theater Geek. He’s fun to be with, clearly likes Cara a lot, and immediately pulls her into the bosom of his group of zany theater friends. Cara is crazy about him and tells Claudia that if Archer decides he officially wants to make her his girlfriend, she refuses to throw him over on behalf of potential social success. Unfortunately, after six weeks of great times, things go terribly wrong with her relationship with Archer, and it is clear she is never going to be his girlfriend. Claudia convinces Cara that the best way to get over her broken heart is to put herself in Claudia’s hands and follow the steps of The Ladder by attempting a relationship with a DangerZone guy that Cara is physically attracted to. If Cara can become his girlfriend, she’ll make it clear to Archer, and herself, that she’s moved on. But even though the moody DangerZone musician is admired by every kid in school, by associating with him, Cara is drawn into his risky lifestyle and gets day by day farther away from the sensible, kind, well-adjusted teen she used to be before she began to follow the rules of The Ladder.

This book is a superb example of the chick lit genre. The writing is outstanding, and the wonderful plot alternates between scenes that are laugh-out-loud funny and extremely poignant. It is clear from the first that we hear of The Ladder that this plan is doomed to failure and will bring poor Cara to grief. In fact, she herself suspects that from the start. But Claudia is a hilarious Mephistopheles who tempts and cajoles Cara every step of the way along the dangerous path of The Ladder.

Cara is an extremely sympathetic and engaging heroine, and her ultimate antagonist, the Supreme Populazzi, Trista, rather than being a cardboard cutout, clichéd Beautiful Bitch (my term) is a wonderfully layered character. In fact, every one of the characters in this terrific book are fully drawn and fascinatingly complex.

There are few books I can say this about—because I am an extremely jaded reader—but I was riveted to this book, devouring every word. I was at times almost holding my breath, expecting the author to at some point drop the ball and fall into hackneyed writing that so many teen novels and movies with this type of plot are prone to. But she never did. Every scene is well constructed, crucial to the development of the story, and each scene builds on every other in a logical, inevitable, but never predictable way, until the surprising but very satisfying climax.

If you enjoyed the popular 2004 teen film Mean Girls, you will love this book. I highly recommend this book to readers who love a teen comedy with depth, and who like to shed a few tears mixed in with their belly laughs.

Parental guidance note: This book may be too mature for younger teens. Cara experiments with drugs and alcohol, and she and her friends engage in frank discussions of teen sexual activity. While the heroine herself never progresses beyond “making out,” many of her friends do, and it is only a situation beyond her control rather than her own good judgment that keeps her from “going all the way.” Mitigating these sensitive issues, however, is the fact that all of these common teen struggles are presented more as a comically compelling object lesson in the negative results of risky behavior, which makes Cara’s dangerous choices seem anything but the right thing to do. In addition, the author presents multiple teen characters who stress the importance of never driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

[Krystle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, jaysus. If my high school life was even half as dramatic as this girl’s one was I think I’d be raving psychopath. Because that’s what this book is – drama, and more drama, and then even more drama. It’s got more drama than a Korean drama!

This book is heinously long. Do we really need four hundred pages of this tripe? Don’t think so. Yeah, anyway, on to the review. Every stereotype, cliché, and overblown tropes about high school and their respective cliques and the hierarchy distinction between the popular and the not are magnified to a thousand in this story. The depictions of each designated “group” are shallow and superficial. In fact, most of the girls are catty bitches whose only purpose in life is fashion, reigning control over the others, and their perceived image within the populace and how to upkeep it.

I hated how the moody, emo, gothic boy was seen as some crazy lunatic who is some boozed up druggie and is just so totally into his emotions that he’s always playing with his guitar. And then when Cara dumps him goes into some whacked out hysterics because she had oh so broken his heart and that he can only express in these deep, meaningful ways. Whatever! Not all emo people are like that, nor do they all want to cut themselves to seem “cool”.

And also I totally hate how drugs seem to be passed about so lately in this book, almost as if it’s glorified. Not to mention the casual sex and how much a girl HAS to lose it or has to have a steady amount of it to be cool. Uh huh, go screw yourself. But let’s not forget about the popular girls who are vindictive bitches and will do anything to one up the other if they find a weakness. Seriously, they were so annoying. I don’t even know why I put up with this book for so long.

The characterization of Cara’s parents were super unrealistic! Cara’s father is a manipulative and emotionally abusive bastard. I don’t see how because your supposed step-daughter does something you don’t like that therefore enables you to take away ALL of her things, rifle through and read her personal objects, and threaten to kick out you and your mother. WTF. That is just INSANE. I can’t believe the mother put up with this shit and goes along with it too. Ugh, disgusting. This is not an example of good parenting. No siree.

Cara’s friend? What was her name? Some shit? Well, whatever it was I don’t remember but I hate her too! She was just as much of an annoying, manipulative prick. She always pushed Cara to move up the popularity chain all so she can live vicariously through her and live out their greatest fantasies of being the most wanted females in school. Yuck. I hated how she kept pushing Cara to stick with the plan and to jump around between boys even though her friend had already given her doubts about the idea. And her advice sucked balls too – hairy ones. Ugh.

Cara was one damn annoying piece of work. I really wanted to scream at her because she made some of the DUMBEST decisions. And when everything got fucked up for her at the end and she got into oh shitsville and was outcasted I had a hard time drudging up any sympathy for her because she put herself there in the first place. I hate how she didn’t actually think how her decisions would hurt some of the friends she already made and how she tossed them away just for the sake of popularity.

But there is one very good bright part about this book. I actually loved the real core romance angle of the story. The person Cara ultimately ends up with is very sweet and feels like a natural, realistic teenage boy. Their interactions are great as they get to know each other, bond over things, and gradually grow from friendship to romantic feelings. And when they both end up liking each other they make mistakes and have awkward moments which everyone experiences.

I don’t know if I would have forgiven but I’m glad he did in the story to make the ending sweet and fluffy. At least this book proves that Elise Allen can write better than her previous entry (Elixir) and have a healthy relationship in her story.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun, funny book that touches on the universal and relatable theme of acceptance and fitting in! Yes, there are a lot of books out there similar to this one. Yes, Populazzi is a lot like Mean Girls. But it's also hilarious and poignant and one of my favorite contemporary reads to-date.

Elise Allen is the often-overlooked writer that helped Hilary Duff with Elixir, and she's also the author of several children's books. I was really surprised at how much I loved her first solo YA project. From the cover, I wasn't expecting much, but this book held me captive from the first chapter.

What's so great about this book is the humor - it's hilarious. I found myself literally laughing out loud a dozen times, even when I was reading it at the gym and people were giving me weird looks. Cara has such a great voice, and her outlook on life and all the situations she gets herself into was hysterical.

The book could be separated into three parts: (1) pre-"The Ladder," (2) with first-boyfriend Nate, and (3) member of the Populazzi. I've got to say part #2 was my favorite, as it showcased Cara's main choices that showcased how much she was willing to sacrifice to be popular. By part #3, she had already totally committed to Populazzi-at-any-cost.

I also found Nate a really interesting character. He's what Claudia and Cara call a "Danger Zone," someone not a member of any clique but is cool enough on his own to not need one. He's a drug addict, boozer, and emo musician, but he's also really troubled. And his reaction after Cara breaks up with him is priceless. Seriously, I laughed my face off when I read the lyrics to the song he wrote her!

Honestly, I just couldn't put this book down. Cara is adorable, her best friend Claudia is uber funny, and the cast of other supporting characters were really well-developed. This isn't really a "romance" per se, though there's definitely an undercurrent that runs throughout the story. It's more chick lit - a girl's journey from being popularity-obsessed to comfortable in her own skin, and all the hilarity in between.

[Alex Bennett]

Elise Allen won me over with her novel Elixir, which she co-wrote, and I was so eager to read more of her work after reading that book. So when I found out about Populazzi, I was more than excited. Though it is different than what I am used to reading, Populazzi confirmed my love for Elise Allen’s writing, and made me more eager to read more of her work than ever.

The story of Populazzi may seem like chick-lit, and it kind of is. I mean, it is about the new girl in school doing whatever it takes to become popular in the caste-like society of Chrysella High. But it had a lot of depth and really explored some unexpected things. The story was endearing and even emotional in some parts. There was literally a point towards the end that nearly made me burst into tears. And yet, there were parts of the book that made me laugh out loud.

Elise Allen totally captured the teen voice and wrote a very believable young adult novel set in a contemporary high school setting. Her writing flows very well, and I never wanted to set the book aside. There may have been a little something off with the pacing, but I can’t quite put my finger on what it is.

Cara is a great main character. And though she does things a lot of readers won’t agree with, she is relatable and very easy to connect with. I loved her even though she made some not-so-smart decisions. There are tons of other characters in this book, and they were all written very well and had a depth and realism to them that some writers can’t capture in their characters, but Allen does it perfectly.

If you are looking for a fun, light read that will make you think, laugh, and cry, Populazzi is definitely a book I would recommend. Even if it isn’t what you usually like, still give it a shot because I think there is something in this book that almost everyone will like.

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was such a fun story to read. Elise does an excellent job depicting a realistic and genuine teen voice. Cara was a one of a kind character, and I simply enjoyed experiencing her story with her.

It's easy to get caught up in this story. I know, personally, that I remember all to well craving that feeling of acceptance from my peers and classmates. I didn't necessarily want to be the Supreme Populazzi, although I'd be lying if I didn't day-dream about being the most popular girl in school, but I just wanted to be able to be me, and have people like me for it. Cara's experience in Populazzi is so much like that.

I absolutely HATED Cara's parents. I'll be surprised if this girl doesn't have some serious issues when she grows up... yes I realize she's a fictional character, but still. Her parents ugh. I don't care what I did, nothing would be bad enough for my parents to "wash their hands" of me... or say they never want to see me again. I was so enraged with her parents, that I was cheering for Cara to stick it to them!

This book is FUNNY too! I was laughing-out-loud and giggling through-out this entire novel. That being said there are some serious issues that are dealt with, but Elise does an excellent job handling them in a non-condescending manner. Teens are smart, they don't need to be talked down to in the books they read, and I'm glad I didn't see that happening here.

You are going to love this story. Great characters and a great lesson! Find out who you are and love yourself for it! (I wish I would have taken those words to heart when I was in high school.)

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Populazzi by Elise Allen
Harcourt Children's Books, 2011
390 pages
YA; Contemporary
4/5 stars

Source: Received a free e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'll admit that I didn't have the highest hopes for this book given that I had zero interest in being popular in high school (do popular kids get to sit and read at lunch? No; they have to socialize. Do popular kids get to stay at home and laugh hysterically with their family and read on the weekends? No; they have to go shopping at the mall and go to crazy parties. I mean, I had friends (who also loved to read) so I wasn't lonely but I was by no means popular). According to the vocabulary of this book, I think I would be a "Happy Hopeless," so far below the social ladder and without any aspirations to climb it ever...but I'd be happy as our introduction to that group comes from Robert Schwarner, a Star Wars nerd who I adored. But he only makes brief appearances because our main character is Cara Leonard.

Cara has just transferred to a new school in time for junior year with the intention of climbing the social ladder (as outlined and described by her best friend Claudia) because no one has any preconceptions about her. She will start dating a boy with a lower status and eventually work her way up through relationships. That first boy is Archer and the plan almost goes off the rails as Cara falls hard for him. After an embarrassing encounter though, she is back on track and quickly rises before her inevitable fall.

I really liked Cara's friendship with Claudia which is heavily spotlighted in the beginning but falters as Cara draws away in favor of hanging out with the Populazzi. There friendship had real depth and differed from some of the other popularity books I've read because Claudia was involved in Cara's rise to the top. The other characters were pretty funny including one ex-boyfriend who writes a HILARIOUS song about Cara and the popular girls who did not seem as vapid as in other books.

Besides the popularity plot, there were a lot of issues dealt with in this book: in no particular order, with some receiving more attention, bulimia, sexual pressure, drugs, drinking, irresponsibility, homophobia, and most startlingly for me was Cara's family situation.

Cara lives with her mother and stepfather Karl with her father and his new wife the Bar Wench living about twenty minutes away but estranged. Karl has very high expectations for Cara; perfect grades leading to acceptance to Northwestern, his alma mater. But he also has a very loose grasp on his temper as demonstrated in several instances. I would classify his behavior as bordering on abusive. He *disowns* Cara and gives her the silent treatment after she messes up. He says that he washes his hands clean of her and says that it is now all up to her mother. In turn, the mother is afraid to leave because she doesn't work and is afraid she'll never be able to find someone else. The way to get back into Karl's good graces is to do everything he says and cater to his every need when he's home. I'm not sure I know enough but I was very uneasy about the home situation and I thought it needed more treatment.

Overall: A very well-written amusing take on the themes of popularity and cliques in high school.


Cover: Cara does have wild, curly hair and the yellow fits with her generally sunny disposition; however the cover doesn't really grab me.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cara has always dreamed of being popular. When her family moves to a new town, Cara jumps at the chance to reinvent herself and have the high school social life she’s always dreamed of. Cara’s best friend Claudia jumps into action with a plan to help Cara move up “The Ladder” to become part of the extreme populazzi at her new school.

The plan involves starting near the bottom of the social ladder and dating her way up. Claudia encourages Cara to find a guy to date, meet anyone she can in his social circle, and then move on and up the ladder to a more popular guy until she reaches the very top.

Cara goes on an adventure dating a theater geek, an emo rocker and of course, one of the most popular guys in school. Throughout the story, she becomes more and more popular, eventually falling trap to forgetting where she came from and why she wanted to even be popular in the first place.

I absolutely loved the premise of this story. It tackled the same plot that so many great books before have tackled- girl wants to be popular, etc. but this book took that storyline in a completely new direction. One that was fun and fresh and definitely kept my attention.

I adored Cara, as a main character. I rooted for her because I wanted her to get what she wanted, but I also found myself conflicted and judging her as she fell deeper and deeper into losing herself and becoming just like everyone else. I think that’s a sign of a great book- when you feel that sense of conflict over whether you should even like the character or not. Allen did a great job in the beginning of the book making me relate to Cara so that when she started her downward spiral, I still was rooting for her. And of course, Cara grew throughout the novel which made me love her even more.

One thing that kind of threw me off about POPULAZZI was that at times, I felt like I was reading three seperate books. Each time Cara finds a new guy to help her climb the rungs of The Ladder, she completely changed her looks and personality. Each new guy and new personality felt a little stilted to me; the transitions between each didn’t flow the way I had hoped. However, to be fair, I did read this book over a period of about a month since I was reading bits and pieces every time I went to the gym, so perhaps it was my own fault that I felt like I was reading different books. And even though this did throw me off a bit, it didn’t stop me from enjoying the book. When I got to thinking about it more, I even realized that if this book were ever to be turned into a movie, Cara’s many transitions would probably translate quite well to the big screen.

And then of course, there’s the men in this story. It was definitely interesting to read all about Cara’s three different boys throughout the book and how she shifted and changed her personality for each- well, except for one. And that one person, I certainly was swooning over! You’ll be rooting for him until the very end too.

Allen definitely gets creative in describing the social hierarchy of high school. I love the language she uses to describe each group from the happy hopeless to the supreme populazzi. When Cara finally joins the populazzi, it was fun to read about all of the abbreviations and terminology the popular girls use; it’s like they speak a completely different language all of their own. Very fun.

I would definitely recommend this book to someone looking for a fun read with a lot of heart. This book will both entertain AND make you think

[Clementine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cara Leonard has never been one of the girls who embodies self-confidence and poise. Those girls reign supreme over their schools. Those girls–the Populazzi–are the ones whom other girls look to for all things. When her parents announce a move to a new school, Cara’s best friend Claudia urges her to start over and climb her way up the social stratosphere with the help of the Ladder. The Ladder uses relationships as its rungs, and if Cara does everything right, Claudia thinks she can reach the top and become the supreme Populazzi. However, it isn’t long before Cara realizes that using the Ladder is more complicated than originally imagined, and if she continues to work the system, she might just lose everything that’s important to her.

Elise Allen’s novel about a sixteen-year-old social climber is often funny and (very) occasionally poignant, but it certainly doesn’t re-invent the wheel in any way. All the elements of a Cinderella-style story are here, and there’s very little derivation from what is expected. Indeed, Allen’s novel suffers from being a little too predictable: there’s never any point where the reader doesn’t know how the story will play out. Cara will rise to the top, lose it all, and have that moment of realization about what she’s done wrong and who she’s done it to.

That’s not to say that the novel doesn’t have positive aspects to it. Allen’s story is often funny. Cara’s relationship with Claudia is especially well-done, and the two girls have a believable chemistry between them that lends credence to their years-long friendship. In addition to the female friendship, Cara herself is often funny, smart, and observant about the people around her. However, many of the secondary and tertiary characters seem like stock cut-outs and add very little dimension to to the tale that Allen is trying to weave.

One of the major issues that this reader had with the book was the issue of Cara’s stepfather Dan. Readers are treated to some basic hints about what a total douche bag he is, but it’s never dealt with in any satisfying way. Indeed, Cara’s interactions with her family were some of the most interesting aspects of the story, and yet they were often glossed over in favor of the blander, more shallow interactions with Cara’s schoolmates. There’s never any conclusion to the fact that Dan is emotionally manipulative and possibly emotionally abusive. While this reader doesn’t require a neatly tied-up little bow, some acknowledgment of what was set forth in the first half of the book would be appreciated in the conclusion.

This book will find fans. There’s a readership out there for a book like this: a tamer version of Mean Girls, where readers are treated to a story about a nobody becoming a somebody and gaining access to the elite upper-crusters. The problem is that there’s so little else going for the story that many readers will forget the story as soon as they finish it. Those looking for a fun read have found a good match in Populazzi. Those looking for depth and striking social commentary should keep searching.

Recommended for fans of YA that focuses on the glittery surface of popularity, and for fans of Hilary Duff’s Elixir, because Allen co-wrote it with Duff.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really on the fence about how I feel in regard to Populazzi. It's not a bad book, but it's not one I can say I thoroughly enjoyed either. High School can be an extremely tough place, and I think Elise did a good job capturing that in her book. You will run into some really tough issues in this book, such as eating disorders for example. I really disliked that part of the book, I don't mind it in books and I do think it is something that should be talked about but I just didn't care for how the particular scenes in this book dealing with it were written. Apart from that, Elise did a wonderful job writing this book.

The story was a little difficult to connect with. While Elise does a great job of trying to create that High School atmosphere I felt like she went a little overboard in some cases. Sure, it's fiction so that is fine in some cases. But I do like to see somewhat of a realistic aspect to contemporary books I read just because it allows you to build better connections with the story. Cara goes through so much though, and I honestly did find myself feeling bad for her throughout the book even though I really wasn't able to connect with her, nor did I agree with a lot of the choices she made.

You will run into a wide variety of characters in Populazzi. There were a few characters I enjoyed, but many more I just didn't care for. I was really looking for more in Cara, Nate and some of the other more prominent characters. Just felt like quite a bit was lacking. And I wasn't impressed at all with Cara's parents, especially her step dad that has some real trust issues. I can't even begin to explain how annoyed I was with one scene in particular where he decided to go a little overboard after Cara had lied about something. I honestly don't know what I would have liked to have seen in the characters, I just know that it felt like there was something missing and I found myself trying to search for a way to actually be able to connect with them.

Populazzi just wasn't the book for me. As I mentioned at the start, it wasn't all bad. The book does have some pretty good elements, and some good writing by Elise. I just feel like she kind of missed the mark on a few things, and it could of been a little better than it was. Do I regret reading the book? No, I don't regret it I just really wish it would of been a little more immersive and enjoyable than it was.

I do feel like some readers will be able to enjoy Populazzi, just wish I had been one of them. If it sounds like a book you might be interested in, then I would encourage you to read it. I wasn't disappointed enough to the point that I wouldn't recommend reading it, I would just say to make sure that it really sounds like something you might like and go into it with an open mind. Everyone's opinions are different, so just because it wasn't the book for me doesn't mean that when you read it that you won't like it either.

[Jim Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note - I read this book via NetGalley. Thanks to the publishers Harcourt children's Books for providing it to me in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Cara Leonard has always wanted to be one of the in crowd. One of the Populazzi. But when people remember you wetting your pants on the first day of kindergarten, it's hard to reinvent yourself. At least until you move across the city of Philadelphia. With a clean slate, and help from her oldest friend Claudia, Cara sets out to climb to the top of her new school's social ladder. Who cares if it means stepping on some boys' hearts as she moves up? It sounds like it's going to be so easy... but you know that it won't all go according to plan.

Let's face it, if you're reading a book with this premise, you're not expecting great literature. You're expecting bitchy girls, hot boys, and catty cliques. Populazzi absolutely has all of that in spades. The characters are larger than life but generally entertaining - with the exception of Cara's stepfather, who's just TOO horrific for me not to conclude that her mother is a grade A cow for not divorcing him years ago. In fact, when we first got to find out about his nastier side, I was half expecting this to turn into a very different book and was glad it didn't.

But while the parts about Cara's home life didn't ring true to me, everything else - the majority of the book - certainly did. I loved the way she tried to manipulate people even though it clearly wasn't part of her normal personality, I loved the social structure of the school, which author Elise Allen got completely spot on. I loved the way that just when I was thinking it was a predictable read there were a few curveballs thrown in to keep things fresh. And I loved the ending which was sweet but certainly didn't wave away all of Cara's problems.

Despite being reasonably long, this was a quick read for me because it was so pacy, things kept happening and I was glued to finding out how Cara got on in her quest for social success. Oh, and because I kept hoping minor character Robert, a fanatical Star Wars geek, would pop up again - and thankfully I wasn't disappointed!

[ephrielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best thing this book has going for it is the message that you will be happiest where you naturally fit in. Those upper levels are not what they seem to be. I must admit that with the introduction of Archer the story really starts to get interesting. My favorite part is really the horror movie fiasco. How awesome is that? So anyway there were times that this book dragged and you really had to wonder what Cara is thinking. What made this such a great idea? The mixed signals in this book are quiet baffling and are often what pulls you through the dull moments. The ending was a bit odd but pretty satisfying. I guess I was hoping for a bit more drama or something.


Drawbacks to this book are seriously a lack of self respect. Why in the world would you value yourself not at all? Cara really does some inappropriate stuff in her search for popularity. I understand that way of thinking and it rings true to the pressures of that age. Here, is to hoping that more of the future generations will have more respect for themselves and not sell out for empty promises.


As for recommendations, well if you like these sort of books jump right in. Otherwise, pass this one by in favor of your preferred niche in the YA world.

[Arllie · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all, I’d like to apologise to the author because I’m about to tear this book apart in a few seconds.

The stereotypes and the cliques and these labels are REAAAL in this book, oh my goodness. The ‘theatre-geeks’, ‘cubby crew’, ‘happy hopeless’, ‘the populazzi’ (the major cringe one lmao). This bothered me because no person fits into a category like this in the real world. It just seemed one dimensional. Almost like—GASP—a Wattpad book with all the tropes mushed together!

Seriously though, it was lame.

Anyway, surprisingly I actually enjoyed this book up until Cara decided to…literally go insane?



Like, idk how she ended up being all over Archer, playing ping-pong and just being a regular high schooler, to suddenly falling for Nate, smoking pot and trying to ‘fix’ him, to exposing him to the populazzi’s and becoming famous and thinking they’re her friends (they’re NOT btw). Inappropriately, I died laughing cos I was so confused. It was like I was reading a series? But in one book.

At Eddie’s party, Nate goes unhinged like a male-emo-fictional Taylor Swift (no offence cos I love her), crying and wailing and writing love songs about her which was SO uncharacteristic and so out of the blue that it was actually funny? And Eddie’s description of him: ‘he’s an EMOOO. He feels things deeper than the rest of us’ was so random. And it made no sense. I mean, what in the heck is that even supposed to mean?!

All the Populazzi characters are flat. One dimensional. They all think they matter and that the real world is like high school and at one point one of the characters even says it is like…what? In the real world, no one cares about your daddy issues…which all of these characters seem to have. Very exhausting to read. Trista, besides Cara, is the worst of them all. Calling Cara a whore when she’s literally the one banging guys left, right and centre (I exaggerate lol) despite having a boyfriend seemed extremely hypocritical. And I stg, I still don’t understand why Cara didn’t expose them. It’s supposed to be this whole ‘I’m a bigger and better person than you’ thing but are you serious? They’re just going to continue being absolutely horrendous human beings and if it’s not Cara, it’s the next person. If she had done that, I really think this book would have redeemed itself. It would have been a really good lesson for those kids that the world didn’t revolve around them. But nope. She decided to go the Good Girl route and let them off with no consequences. 'Cause, you know, that's plausible.

The girls, all they seemed to care about was boys, alcohol and sex. Oh, and if you’re a virgin, it’s apparently bad. And if you’re single, hell, that’s the end of the world! This is a toxic af message to give teens out there. People call authors out on tropes where the MC is always a virgin but in books where every other character isn’t, bullying the virgin, that’s supposedly okay?
And call me crazy, but when I was sixteen, my mates and I were more focused on school, finding ourselves, and making new friends. Sure, we liked boys and all, but it wasn’t to the point where that’s the only thing our lives revolved around. But hey, maybe that was just us.

Oh and the whole Eddie is gay thing? WAY AHEAD OF YOU AUTHOR. As soon as he started ‘showing interest in her’ (which he really didn’t), my gut feeling told me he was gay. I literally predicted it right off the bat so much so that every interaction with them kissing was PAAAAAINFUL. Also, he’s a hypocrite. He accuses Cara of being a ‘climber’ and is super condescending yet this guy is doing the same thing. Get over yourself dude. This would be the kind of flat twist in a thriller movie, really.

On a completely random side note, I also hated her stepdad. He was a pathetic role model and should have never been created. Period.

Another random thing that popped out at me that I HAD to include:

“My mom didn't do anything wrong. She wasn't the married one.”

I hate when people say this. It takes TWO people to tango. I’m not saying the dad wasn’t in the wrong (obviously he is) but so is she. Like I’m sorry but if the mom knew he was married a simple no can make all the difference. A slap would work too. If she wasn’t aware, well, that’s a different story. But blaming one person doesn’t make things any better and for the characters to make it seem as if the person who helps cheat is never in the wrong (not just in this book, I’ve seen this multiple times) is plain pathetic.

Cara is—what is soo common in the book world—a dummy-dumb-dumb. She drinks dumb bimbo juice. She literally makes the stupidest decisions and I’m supposed to root for her?

She ditches everyone who actually cared about her, like genuinely good people like Robert (who she doesn't want to be friends with because he's 'lame' since he quotes Star Wars or whatever) and Archer (she uses him to become popular and drops him as a friend and then when he tells her to stop acting like a brat and dating people she would never date, she tells him to mind his own business. But she then proceeds to get jealous that he's with someone else? Like. Ok.) and even her BFF whom she literally betrayed by spilling her secrets to everyone. At this point, I gave up on Cara. I hated her fictional guts. I know the MC is supposed to go on this journey to change and become a better person but I just didn’t see enough redeeming qualities in Cara.



I absolutely loved Archer and Robert. Gimme a book from their point of view and I shall devour it. But everyone else….boy, they melted the few brain cells I had left.

This seems like the first YA book that the author wrote and while her writing is great and I applaud her venturing out, I think she should stick to children’s books. The plot for this book fell flat and it was sooo far fetched to me cos it was like random storylines and tropes meshed into one book.

This book was a three-star bordering on a four originally cos I was really enjoying it at the start. Sadly it went downhill and kept going and nothing could save it from crashing and burning.

Two out of five for me (not a one ONLY because of two characters’ existence I didn’t completely hate).

[Stacey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely a little more Mean Girls than the movie let on, "Populazzi" is engrossing enough to keep you reading well past the point where the pettiness and predictability would have made you normally stop. A few things made this book rate a little lower for me:



* 'Populazzi' is not going to happen. Stop trying to make it happen! (The word, presumably a mash-up of "popular" and "paparazzi" is just awkward and used on nearly every single page.)

* There are several points in the book, mostly dealing with main character Cara's stepfather, Karl, where I was reading and I had to stop because of the intensity this man had as well as his complete overreaction. I was staring at the book saying to myself, "No one else realizes this guy is a complete jerk?! How is this possible?!" (He comes off a LOT like Gabe from the Percy Jackson books, but so, so, so much worse.)



On the plus side, while the main story arc was predictable, many of the minor ones were surprisingly not (i.e. Cara's Penultimate Paparazzi 'boyfriend,' Archer's quite correct reaction to her stepfather, Trista's problem and ultimate actions.)

[Laura Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

To me Populazzi felt like a Disney movie with it's cliche plots of love, friendship and drama. I had very different expectations of the book. I did like some of the funny conversations between the characters, but overall it was like watching another version of Mean Girls.

I really liked how Cara was in the first couple of chapters, but she changed to much and to many times for my liking. My fave character was definitely Archer, who's the sweet, funny and down to earth guy we all love to love.

Claudia, Cara's best friend, is a quirky girl who comes across as someone who has not a lot of other stuff to do than to "push" her friend into doing things she doesn't actually want to do.

Cara's parents, especially her stepfather Karl, are not doing a really good job in my opinion. The way they shut her out near the end is heartbreaking and unrealistic. Of course they should be angry with their daughter for what she did, but parents are supposed to love and support their children unconditionally.

It's not a bad book, but it's not one I'd rec to someone else.

[Leyla · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I started reading Populazzi, I didn't expect it to be so entertaining, nor so addictive. In fact it was such a surprise that I couldn't literally stop reading until the very end.

One of the best thing about Populazzi is that the main character, Cara, far from being perfect, was shown for who she really was, with all her flaws as well as her qualities, and not as a poor victim of the high-school popularity tower.

Cara's story was very fun to follow, and the more serious parts were as enjoyable as the funny ones, and the result was a very nice summer read.

My biggest complain is for the lack of Archer's presence for the second half of the book - he was the best character in the whole book and I would have really liked to know more about him, his relationship with Sue and the development of his feelings for Cara.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

All in all, this story was a darker, more upsetting and, honestly, stretched-out than I anticipated, but the light, flirty goodness at the beginning between Cara & Archer guaranteed I’d stick around for the a payoff. Allen lost me for a bit, but she really did nail that part. I’d definitely read more of her books.

Full review to come on AnnaReads.com.

[Maryarita · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I first read this book sometime in high school after picking it up from the bargain section at a local bookstore. I remember thinking it was fun but nothing extraordinary.

This was fun, at times. The early part of Cara and Archer’s friendship was super cute, and the whole Ladder concept could’ve been interesting. But there were so many things about this book that annoyed me to no end.

First, Claudia was just an insufferable character. Her obsession with Cara following the Ladder was irritating, and she showed a stunning lack of self-awareness. Cara was also not my favorite, but at least she was complicated at times. Her arc was very Mean Girls, so it felt quite derivative, but she was somehow worse by the end when she basically assaulted Eddie and then seriously thought about outing him. Gross.

Also: Karl. I hate Karl. This man’s fatherly love was so alarmingly conditional it made me sick. He is a controlling, manipulative, wildly insecure manchild who apparently needs constant appreciation and affirmation to keep from lashing out. The way Cara’s mom justified his actions was gross, and though there was a bit where Archer assured Cara her parents were in the wrong for overreacting, it felt like the author, by writing from the POV of an angsty, rebellious teenager, ended up justifying her parents’ anger as righteous in the end. Karl sucks.

Another qualm was how the author dealt with Trista’s eating disorder. It felt very disingenuous and problematic. There was a real opportunity to actually make Trista and Cara realize they had more things in common than differences, to have an enemies-to-friends moment, to have nuance, but no, Trista was just an evil genius the entire time.

Cara and Archer should not have gotten together in the end, not after Cara’s complete character assassination. She did not do enough to earn her redemption. The ending was so extremely rushed it was laughable.

In the end, this was a book that had potential but just ended up rubbing me the wrong way too many times to count.

[Amara Luciano · Rating 3 out of 5]

An all around fun read, I don't think I've laughed quite this much in a long, long time. Populazzi has a side-splitting humor at many points throughout so much so that I think the comedy will be the aspect that stays with me the most, making me smile every time I pass by this book. Cara, Claudia, and others in the book nearly had me choking because I couldn't seem to stop cracking up.

Cara and Claudia--these best friends made this book for me! I can't even totally consider Cara as the star of the show because Claudia was such an active and prominent part of the story. The things these two would say, think, or do... really just reminded me of my own experiences these past few years in high school. The stupid or girly things I push my friends to do with me, the overanalyzing me and my girlfriends do when it comes to boys, poring over the most natural encounters for signs of what the opposite sex involved is thinking. Allen must have a very clear, sharp image of what it was like in high school because she nailed it right on the head with her accuracy. And even though these two girls felt like me and my friends, interchangeable, they were still completely unique. I favor Claudia of the two to be honest, just because of her dramatic (and terribly hilarious), unconscious integration of Shakespearean works into her everyday life. But, don't get me wrong, Cara appealed to me, too. She was my former self--shy, nervous, and incredibly book-smart, afraid to step out of her shell, longing to belong. And because I recognized an intimate piece of myself in her, I relished her transformation by the end of the book.

And their tongue-in-cheek descriptions and classifications of the different "tiers" in the social hierarchy that make up high school was downright hysterical! Watching Cara navigate the tricky halls of high school while trying to accommodate Claudia's Populazzi plan had its funny and awkward moments that roused a number of different reactions ranging from head-desk to embarrassed giggles to bright blushing to goofy smiles. The kind of expressions that take over during my own high school experiences. And Cara taking on boys is a sight to behold, let me tell you. It helped me recall all the stupid things I did to get myself noticed and liked by guys.

Lucky for Cara, though, she managed to find one that was right for her all along. Of course, this book would not be complete without romance. Although Cara interacted with a few boys on this level, there really was only one boy that actually mattered. When it came to these two, Archer and Cara, I can't tell you how many times I wanted to put their heads through the wall. I forgot anxiety-ridden these romantic comedyish novels can be. It was no picnic for someone like me, who gets way TOO EMOTIONALLY INVESTED.

I was forced to skip over certain scenes, mostly because I couldn't take Cara's changing toward the end before the good started cropping up. I felt like I was in Claudia's shoes and I was the one being betrayed, so I couldn't even read it. Oh, and this book actually made me cry! Yup, I know, crazy. But, those tears were a mixture of frustration and hurt on Cara's behalf. I HATED HER PARENTS. Not the I Hate You While I Love You hate that only teenagers or married couples are acquainted with. No, this was pure rage and fury and raw loathing. Her parents, particularly her stepfather, were probably the most ill-suited, selfish, insecure, cowardly, and self-absorbed parents I'd ever had the displeasure of "encountering." I'd hate to be Cara in that respect.

I didn't expect Populazzi to play on my emotions so well or Elise Allen to so skillfully pull them out of me and direct them toward the characters in the story. From the authenticity of the high school experience to the flawed, lovable, TEENAGE characters (hated parents swept aside) to the adorable romance that ended up coming together at the end, concluding the book perfectly, I love to say it: Populazzi was a funderful, hilarious read that I couldn't put down and was so caught up in that when all the funny parts came up I turned heads (I imagine bursting out in random fits of giggles didn't go over so well with people--who, incidentally, MUST've been nonreaders, otherwise they wouldn't've looked so appalled). A perfect summer read and an overall fantastic debut!
---------------------------------------------------

"Come on, kids, this is the good stuff. This is Junior English. This is T.S. Eliot. Let's dive into this! What is Eliot doing with his images? Anyone: shout it out!"
I almost giggled when I realized I could now say this twice in one hour. "Um..." I began, "he's making them stand erect?"
"Yes!" roared Mr. Woodward, and this time Archer didn't hide his smirk. "You've almost redeemed yourself for being late..."
"Cara," I said.
"Cara," he repeated. "So each time, Cara, when his images are at the peak of their 'erection,' if you will, what does Eliot do to them?"
There was only one answer, and I wished I could say it without blushing. Still, I didn't hesitate. "He lets the images go flaccid."

I fell asleep counting not sheep but possible opening lines. Claudia must have done the same--I woke up to an email from her with a huge list of options.
"Really, Claude? 'Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much?"
I had her on speakerphone as I drove to school...
"It worked for Juliet," Claudia said. "Romeo fell head over heels for her."
"You are aware that they both die at the end, yes?"
"Did you seriously just ask me that question?"
"Did I seriously ask it, or did I seriously think you didn't know they died at the end?"
"Fine. Forget Romeo and Juliet. Forget the centuries-old benchmark of true romance. How did you want to start?"
I took a breath, then offered up the best of my bunch. "Hey! Do you play Scrabble! 'Cause I had the best triple-word score last night!"
Claudia's silence was deafening. I couldn't blame her. Maybe I'd go with the good pilgrim thing after all.

When Archer and I went to the mall that day, I didn't even mention the weekend. I said neither the words "week" nor "end." I simply channeled all my concentration into the words "invite me," then shot them toward Archer in a continuous beam of psychic energy.
"Cara?" he finally asked.
Success!
"Yes?" I batted my eyes. No, really, I did.
"Are you okay? You're holding your head and your face is all scrunched up. Do you have a headache or something?"
"Oh. No. I just... precalc. Hard problem. I'm having tangent issues."
So much for psychic energy.

Originally posted on my blog, Paranormal Indulgence.

[Giulia Frost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Resenha de 2010:
Populazzi é uma leitura simples e leve, na qual você começa a ler e não para mais.

Cara é estimulada pela sua melhor amiga à subir a “escada” da popularidade e a chave para fazer isso são os relacionamentos… Cara no começo não acredita muito na idéia, mais depois começa a seguir o plano…

O plano dá uma deixa para milhares de situações engraçadas, drama e até mesmo um sweet romance…

Eu amei a idéia e eu amei a Cara… ela é gentil, engraçada e original… só não gostei do que ela se tornou e como ela se perde quando ela começa a ganhar popularidade, mas no fim, apesar de tudo, ela acaba crescendo muitoooo e decide ser verdadeira a si mesma… amei sério!

Gostei da forma que a Elise Allen retratou o mundo adolescente e como ela abordou os temas de droga e sexualidade… foi tudo muito verdadeiro, ela não criou um mundinho perfeito onde se passa a história… não, ela mostrou como as coisas são na vida real..

Amei a relação da Cara e do Archer… desde o começo dá para ver que eles foram feitos um para o outro *—* tão bonitinho *–*

Mas acho que o personagem que eu mais gostei mesmoo foi o Robert! Ele sempre me fazia rir e ele foi praticamente um mentor para a Cara ;D

Populazzi é um ótimo chick-lit que mostra que você tem que se aceitar do jeito que você é, que mostra tudo o que nós somos capaz de fazer para sermos aceitos e mostra que devemos ter cuidado com o que desejamos…

Eu definitivamente vou ficar de olho nos próximos livros da Elise… porque Populazzi foi uma ótima estréia *-*

[Jordyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Cara starts at a new school, her best friend Claudia presents her with The Ladder -- a foolproof plan for her to become the Supreme Populazzi (the most popular girl in school) -- that involves dating her way up the social tiers of high school. For some reason this premise, despite my belief that such divisive high school cliques are a thing of fiction -- really interested me. I've read plenty of loser-girl-tries-to-become-popular novels, but this was the first one that presented an actual plan, complete with binders full of research done by Cara's best friend. I was more than a little intrigued.

In spite of that, by all accounts I should have seriously disliked this novel, if not hated it. There was too much sex, too much drug use, and most of the characters had a way-too-cynical world view. The adults, while not nonexistent, were pretty awful, and Cara's social climbing is the sort of thing I really can't stand.

And yet. And yet I really really enjoyed this novel. The curly-haired, bubbly Cara is a character I was cheering for the entire time, even when she was making the most stupid decisions. Her personality is a little dorky and a little happy, but in order to climb the rungs of The Ladder, she has to squash her unique spirit and take on other personas -- the emo-girl, for instance -- and she does it, not because she especially wants to, but because her best friend is so gung-ho about the whole idea and because she believes the end will be worth it. When Cara's the Supreme Populazzi, things will change: she won't ignore the less-popular or make them feel invisible. Plus, she'll be noticed for once in her school years. After a scarring incident in kindergarten, her and Claudia have been branded losers forever, but nobody knows about that at Cara's new school. The incident in question is part of the overwhelming unbelievability of this book: the fact that not only would her classmates remember such a silly thing, but that it would be the way they still think of her after so many years rang completely false to me. So she peed her pants once when she was five, so what? In order to enjoy this book, you really have to let go and accept the preposterousness of certain things. And though I found Cara easy to root for, I also found her difficult to take at times. The Ladder isn't something she really wants to do at first, especially when she finds a Theater Geek boy she really likes and is able to be herself with -- but after he rejects her, she figures she has nothing left to lose and picks up right where she left off in pursuit of Nate, a soulful DangerZone bad boy that she thinks she can change. At first the fact that, yes, Cara honestly believed she could be the one to change Nate really grated on me. However, this starts to make sense later in the book as we learn more about Cara's home life and parents.

Up until now, Cara's life has been, as she explains it, painfully boring -- a fact that her mother and stepdad know, which seems to be a lot of the reason they trust her so much and why she's able to get away with so much in this book. What starts as some pretty innocent social-climbing quickly turns into Cara living a double life, morphing into an emo-girl, and doing things she never would have imagined with her new DangerZone boyfriend. All in the name of becoming one of the Populazzi. There's a lot of deception and manipulation going on here, but it's not only on the part of Cara. Her best friend seems to be even more invested in The Ladder than she is, which is a big part of the reason Cara continues to follow through with it, and when she does finally find her way into the coveted group, she finds girls and guys even more deceptive and manipulative than herself. But it's all worth it, she figures, to have a solid group of friends that are like sisters to her, and a hot Populazzi boyfriend. While all of this did bother me, the book and Cara's upward-and-downward spiral were insanely entertaining and surprisingly well-crafted. While the characters are labeled (Populazzi, Happy Hopeless, etc.) many of them have more depth than I'd expect. Each character -- from one guy who smokes pot to a girl who absolutely hates feeling so invisible -- has something in their history to help explain or make understandable their behavior and outlook.

At this point I have to mention the adults in the book. Cara's parents sort of disappear mysteriously near the end of the book, but up until that point they were an active force in her life. Usually this would be great, except for the fact that nearly every adult in this book is kind of awful. There's no wonder Cara and her peers are so messed up when these are their parents. It sounds harsh and I really don't want to spoil anything, but the tamest thing many of these parents do is enable teenage drunkenness. Cara's stepdad Karl is especially horrible -- in the oh-my-god-this-isn't-happening-nobody-actually-thinks-like-that sort of way, and his reactions and personality go a long way toward understanding why Cara does many of the things she does. The Cara we meet at the beginning of the book is not the girl who's there at the halfway point and it's this fall from grace that both irritated me and kept me reading -- as much as I didn't agree with anything she did and as much as I didn't buy many of the plot points in the novel, I keep rooting for Cara to find her way home, so to speak. She's a protagonist that, despite being incredibly flawed, is good at heart and worth rooting for.

[Sanaa Mason · Rating 2 out of 5]

The 15 year old in me would’ve loved this book but now as I’ve grown, I found it a bit odd. Cara quite literally changes herself, gets barely any repercussions at the end and then “turns back to herself” and gets the guy she had at the beginning. It’s awful “Mean Girls” typical as well as the only character I actually liked was Archer. I think her parents were harsh and I think overall her character development was one that I disliked. Overall, just watch Mean Girls, it’s a lot shorter than reading this book about a social climber who only starts following it because her best friend says so.

[Emmalyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

i liked this book because this book kinda relates to me because when i entered a new school i didn't know anyone and i wouldn't fit in any gropes of the other people i dont really like these type of girly books but this one was some what interesting like i actually wanted to keep reading it .and i can also relate because when i moved to a new school and made a best friend and till this day we are still best friend

[Jill Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the beginning of the book very much. I fell in love with Archer the first instant. At first it was fun to see her pretend to be someone else in order to go up the chain. But after a while it became a bit of a routine and there just wasn't anything new to like about the book. The ending was wayyyy too sudden. I felt that she needed to win Archer back, but she didn't even have to try. He deserves better.

[Mariahmoore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has definitely taught me a few lessons on High School. I loved every single page and would always die to read the next one. It was super intriguing, I never lost interest through out this whole novel. For every teen girl that ever reads this, I would say they could for sure relate on some of the topics being spoken about. I gave it a four stars just because some of the parts in the book were kind of cliche and predictable but other then that this was a really good book.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

picked this up at a library book sale and assumed it would be really stupid and stuff because of the cover, but it was completely different than what i thought it would be. i didn’t really like the ending and stuff but i’d say overall it was pretty good and i’d read it again