The Poison Apples

by Lily Archer

We all know the stories of Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel. But have you ever heard of Alice Bingley-Beckerman, Reena Paruchuri, or Molly Miller? Of course you haven’t. Not yet. What these girls have in common with their fairy tale sisters is they are the stepdaughters of three very evil stepmothers. And they’re not happy about it. They think they are alone in their unhappiness until they arrive at Putnam Mount McKinsey, a posh boarding school located in lovely rural Massachusetts. Here is where they will plot their revenge. But first they have to meet.

In her first novel, Lily Archer tells a knowing, wickedly funny story about how friendship just may turn out to be more happily-ever-after than family.

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Fiction, Teen, Fairy Tales, Romance, Retellings

276 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Lily Archer lives in New York City, where she reads the dictionary for fun and secretly hankers for a pet penguin. She has known many stepmothers; some kind, others wicked.

Reviews

[Paige Bookdragon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Poison Apples is not a fairy tale book. It's a story about three girls who has one thing in common.







Answer: EVIL STEPMOTHERS

Now now, I know that not all stepmoms are awful but in this story, three different girls who were brought together in a boarding school have evil stepmothers.

Sounds like a weepy,oh-woe-is-me story?

Nah. Far from it actually. The Poison Apples is a wonderful book. I love that this book is not set as a fantasy book although I know that even though it will be written as a fantasy, I'll still enjoy reading it.

Here's the beauty of The Poison Apples.

1. The powerpuff girls .

I love how the main characters were so different from each other.They have different backgrounds, different family types and different characteristics. .They are also far from perfect. The author shows us that even though they're the victim in this story, they're not flawless.

2. Evil mojo

It's kinda shocking to see a variety of stepmothers in this story. You can't help but be indignant with these evil persons. And what I love about it is that, these kind of stories are actually happening in real life.



3. Lessons and churvas

Though this may be a humorous story, Lily Archer didn't fail to tell us something beautiful. The ending is perfect. I can't help but have a warm feeling after reading this book.



So if you like light funny books that will leave you a warm glow after reading it, then try reading The Poison Apples. It's wicked, it's funny and it has a happily ever after.

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, this is NOT a fairy-tale retelling, so don't pick it up expecting fantasy. It is friendship story about three girls who meet in boarding school and, after some initial friction, bond after discovering that they all have horrible stepmothers. The blurb on mine implied that they join forces to get revenge, which is initially true but not really the focus of the story, which is about becoming a better friend and supporting one another. I liked that the girls have different personalities and backgrounds which sometimes leads to misunderstandings. It is good for teens to see that the person who seemed to ignore or diss them is not necessarily trying to hurt you and doesn't need to be their enemy for life.

[Kricket · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd call this a tween book because it involves 15 year olds at a boarding school in the mountains, but nothing particularly mature happens. Alice, Reena, and Molly all start their first semester of boarding school with one thing in common: their fathers have all just married horrible women. Eventually, after attempting to hide their freaky families from each other, they discover their common thread and form a club called the Poison Apples in which to commiserate and plot revenge.

The storyline is enjoyable, but the characters behave...bizarrely. There were so many instances where I furrowed my brow and said "would s/he really do that?" The other strange thing is that the evil stepmothers get all the blame, but none of the girls' fathers are behaving the way fathers ought to either, even though its clear that before the stepmothers came along all three had good relationships with their dads. Why not start there?

On an unrelated note, I really enjoyed the cover, and the fact that the page edges were red.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The element of the ridiculous--not the fantastic, which the fairy-tale title suggests, but the ridiculous--is used really well here. On the surface this tells the story of Alice, Reena, and Molly, all of whom are saddled with newly acquired stepmothers and consequently enroll at Putnam Mount McKinsey boarding school. While initial first impressions cause a few issues, they eventually bond and form a group called the poison apples, vowing to take revenge on their evil stepmothers. Although each main character's problems are taken seriously--and for the most part, being serious problems, they should be--a deftly balanced sense of farce and underlying humor makes the necessary melodrama of teenage life not just bearable, but actually...good. It's funny! It's well done! It's light and fast! And yet the book is not shallow (though I'm not going to claim it's deep), the story is interesting, and the characters are reasonably believable. This is a difficult task to accomplish. Four stars.

[Delaney (flairforfiction) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this book in middle school and just never got around to reading it so I feel like my middle school self would've appreciated this much more than my adult self. This book was...really bad. There was basically nothing redeemable about this story and I can honestly only recall one thing in the whole story that made me enjoy it even slightly.

So this story follows three modern day teenage girls who all end up with "evil" stepmothers and they all start attending the same boarding school and bonding over their stepmother situations. I really like fairy tale retellings when they're done well but I guess one of the biggest issues I have with this book is that it didn't really have any fairy tale aspects aside from the evil stepmother part. Which wouldn't be an issue but the rest of the story wasn't good enough to make up for that.

The characters were all really annoying. This was one of those stories where it felt like the author either forgot what it was like to be a teenager or just somehow only knew the really obnoxious kind when she was one because they all felt like stereotypical teenagers. I hated that. I couldn't connect with any of them and they all just felt like cutouts. I could sympathize with them when I first got their backstories but their personalities ruined it for me after we got to know them more. I just didn't care how their stories got resolved after that.

The plot is also lacking. The part about them finding each other and joining forces against their stepmothers is such a small part of the story. The main focus is on them trying to find their way through their first few weeks at the boarding school and I just couldn't stand it because of how they treated each other and themselves. They were so mean and petty and ridiculous that I couldn't care about whether they actually got comfortable at the school. And the part about them getting revenge on their stepmothers was so small and their plans were so childish and immature that I couldn't handle it. Plus it got resolved in basically one chapter and I don't like that kind of lackluster ending. And even when it was resolved it wasn't really resolved for 2 of the 3 characters and that made me mad.

Overall this book was just so poorly written and had a really bad plot and terrible characters. The only thing I liked was the obvious cultural appropriation and the author's negative view on it. I kind of liked the romance too but it came from out of nowhere and didn't really make sense. It just kind of felt like the author thought this book needed some kind of traditional fairy tale ending but it lacked build up and thus didn't really hit me the way it was supposed to. This book was just poorly executed all around.

[Lenore Appelhans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raise your hand if you have an evil stepmother. Alice, Reena and Molly all do. For various reasons, each girl finds herself at a posh boarding school in rural Massachusetts and each tries her best to pretend she doesn’t come from a messed-up, broken family. When they find each other, they discover they no longer have to suffer alone or in silence, and the Poison Apples are born.

The book is narrated by all three teens in alternating chapters and divided roughly into three sections: the introduction of the characters and their stepmothers, arrival at boarding school, and the revenge plot over Thanksgiving break.

I loved the first section and Alice’s situation was pretty familiar. Her mother died of cancer and then she spent a couple of years moping around with her father. When her father meets someone new, she sincerely wants him to be happy. But when they announce they are getting married, Alice is shell-shocked. Stepmother-to-be R. convinces Alice’s father to sell his house and move into their own place – and Alice isn’t welcome. Instead, her father breaks the news that she’s to be sent to boarding school:

“Alice,” Dad said suddenly. “You’re not going to live with me and R. It doesn’t make sense.”

I stared into Dad’s eyes. Dad, I tried to silently implore him. I don’t want to freak out right now. I don’t want to give R. another reason to hate me. I don’t want you to think I’m a bad daughter. Just. Please. Don’t. Make. Me. Go.

The weird thing was, I could tell Dad was also trying to tell me something with his eyes. He was silently begging me to be okay with this. To not make him guilty. To not make him feel like he was marrying a psychopath who wanted him to send his daughter away… (p. 17-18)

Reena and Molly’s evil stepmothers come courtesy of divorce: Reena’s story is outrageously hilarious (it involves yoga and a penguin) and Molly’s is unfair and sad (it involves a lot of unpaid babysitting and a mental institution).

The boarding school section is peppered with fun wicked stepmother anecdotes and appearances but drags a bit when it veers off to explore other topics such as Reena’s crush on the English teacher.

And the end. Well, the end may surprise you! I highly recommend this book to anyone who has a stepmother or is a stepmother. Or anyone who just likes reading about stepmothers for that matter.

[Leanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was alright, but I didn't really realize it was a bit on the younger-aged YA spectrum for me. I think I'd have liked it more had I read it while I was 13 or 14... as it is, it kept me busy for half a day reading on the dock at the cottage.

The premise of this book-- three step-daughters with evil stepmothers want to plot revenge and reclaim their lives-- was good. There were funny parts. But the actual revenge and the Poison Apples society itself doesn't even come about until about the last quarter of the book. The rest of the book was all just leading up to that point. So, I guess what I thought was- if the book wasn't actually about the Poison Apples group, since the girls didn't even meet each other until most of the book was over, maybe it should have had a different description on the back. It was more of a book about individual girls and their families. With a reallllly light amount of revenge snuck in at the very end.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this novel! A great YA book of three 15 year old girls sent to boarding schools after their fathers hook up with the step mothers from hell. Molly is a dictionary nerd, Alice is depressed from her mother's death and the beautiful Reena is struggling to understand how her father wound up with a Yoga instructor half his age.

Lily Archer nailed the adolescent experience of young girls becoming women while their parents descend into adolescence. Highly recommended.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had read several rave reviews of this book, so I really couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Unfortunately, it didn't deliver. While the beginning was witty and funny, the end fell flat, neatly wrapping everything up in a pretty little bow, which, I guess, some people enjoy, but I was left disappointed.

[Em theglitterybookworm_ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into this thinking it was going to be a retelling. I was wrong.

[gab · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

i finished this book in 2 days and it was so good! i like how the characters are written and they all have their own strengths and weaknesses. their personalities are different but not so different that they don’t have anything in common. for example: their evil stepmothers.

*spoilers*
i like how at the end they all realized that their stepmothers were going through things too and that they weren’t perfect and i feel like that added so much to the characters. i also like how not all of them got the guy that they liked because life isn’t like a lot of books and movies where they always get with the person they like.

the only thing stopping this book from getting 5 stars instead of 4.5 is because it’s not a series (that i know of) and it’s not as good as some of the other books i’ve read. (but still very good)

[Kristen · Rating 1 out of 5]

You can read this review and others on my blog at http://awriterswife-bcray.blogspot.co...

So, this book is called the Poison Apples and there is a blurb on the cover that says “Evil Stepmothers, BEWARE” and on the back of the book it says they make a cunning plan to exact their revenge. So I was excited to read a fun semi-considered fairytale twist about these girls who have a grand plan for revenge against their evil stepmothers. I expected the plot to be about the revenge plan and then of course the girls realizing that revenge is not satisfying.

BUT that is not what this story is about AT ALL. I actually feel lied to. Even the thought of revenge didn’t enter in to the book until 80% finished. Then there is one chapter where they plan; and it’s not even a good plan. They didn’t even have specific details as to how to exact this revenge. How is that a “cunning plan”? The each girl had ONE chapter, ONE, in which they were supposed to exact their revenge. And one wrap up chapter. That’s it.

The rest of the book was actually about the girls backstories, and then them meeting and hating each other and then finally becoming friends. So this book is really just a story about girls dealing with life and making new friends. There was really no need for those last 5 chapters. I think it was just the way that the author chose to semi-fix the characters family lives.

I didn’t feel that the characters sounded different enough. I couldn’t keep straight which back story applied to which girl. The only one I could sort of keep straight was Reena, since she was Indian and had Shanti Shruti for her step-mom. And I generally didn’t know which girl was speaking.

I didn’t particularly care for certain aspects of the book either – such as smoking being cool, a girl complaining she was experienced enough in sex, hitting on a teacher, etc.

I realized about halfway through that I think I have a British version of the novel. My first instinct was the fact that smoking was cool. But there were just several words or phrases here or there that were weird to me. I confirmed that it was printed in the UK.

I also didn’t believe the evilness of the stepmothers. Most of what they did really wasn’t that bad. And honestly, what they should have been really upset about is the fact that their dad’s didn’t stand up for them. They need to fix their relationship with their father rather than take everything out on the stepmother.

While this was a quick read, I still feel like I wasted a lot of time reading it, and I don’t like feeling like I was lied to. There was absolutely no reason it should have been called the Poison Apples Club (it was only part of 15% of the entire story – how is that the title?!!!).

I wouldn’t waste my time on this. There are many other good books that would be a better use of your time.

[Arminzerella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alice, Reena, and Molly all wind up at an exclusive boarding school where they discover they have at least one thing in common – evil stepmothers Who Must Be Taught a Lesson. So they form a secret club – the Poison Apples – to commiserate over the changes these horrible women have wrought in their lives and to find a way to exact revenge. Alice’s stepmother, R., is a prominent actress who has never forgiven Alice for not being thrilled over her marriage to Alice’s father. Reena’s stepmother, Shanti Shruti, is a blonde white-girl yoga instructor who wants to be Indian. She’s also half Reena’s father’s age. She caused Reena’s parents’ divorce and is running through the family fortune redecorating the house and creating a state of the art habitat for her pet penguin, Ganesh. Molly’s stepmother, Candy, also broke up her parents’ marriage, and caused her mother so much psychological trauma that she checked herself into a mental hospital. Unlike the other girls, Molly has always wanted something different from life and from her school; she’s actually excited about going away to boarding school. But school isn’t all about revenge – there’s still plenty of time for normal teenage girl stuff, like crushing on various hot guys.

The girls take turns narrating, so you get each of their personal stories – of how their stepmothers entered (and ruined) their lives, and how they ended up at the boarding school. Some of the introductory material is rather long and involved – the book is nearly over by the time the girls finally find a way to act out their frustration against their evil stepmothers. And then it’s over too quickly. At least two of the stepmothers really do seem to be evil – Candy wants to keep Molly at home to help around the house (Cinderella, anyone?) and doesn’t seem to care about her welfare or education, and R. wants Alice as far away from her and her new husband as possible (thus boarding school). It’s clear she’d rather not be reminded that she even has a stepdaughter. The girls each come to a better understanding of their stepmothers at the very end (after their plans for revenge fail), but it’s not entirely clear whether that understanding is mutual (the stepmoms revert to their old evil behavior almost immediately). This seems like it could or should have a sequel – so readers can find out whether things get/got better. Plus, there’s the possibility that Kristen (Molly’s roommate) may have an evil stepfather in the near future (can/should she be included in the Poison Apples?). Not the tightest written story, but still enjoyable. Fans of chick-lit should enjoy this.

[Beck · Rating 3 out of 5]

What first attracted me to The Poison Apples when I saw it sitting on a table in a discount book store, was the book’s design. The cover is gorgeous and eye-catching, the title is great, and the edges of the pages are a bright red. After the reading the synopsis and discovering that this was a loose fairytale retelling (very, very loose with no particular tale in mind), I knew I had to have it. The Poison Apples was a lot of fun and definitely worth the read, but didn’t wow me like I wanted it to.

The Poison Apples is told from three different perspectives: Alice, Reena, and Molly, all unlucky girls with evil stepmothers. This, I think, is truly the book’s downfall. Don’t get me wrong, though. The voices for each girl were executed very well and they all sounded very different. But with such a short book and such heavy subject matter, I think the story would have been stronger if Archer had picked just one girl to narrate the book. That way, more development of character and plot could have been devoted to her and I wouldn’t have felt so underwhelmed by the ending.

The book follows the girls’ first semester at a New England boarding school. Alice and Reena were sent away from their homes by their stepmothers, and Molly got in on a scholarship and decided to enroll so she could get away from her own crazy family. Nothing particularly mature happens, but there were a lot of cringe-worthy, I-am-embarassed-for-you scenes, and hilarious one-liners. For such a quick, small book, The Poison Apples does explore a lot of territory: loss of a parent to cancer, bullying, racism, friendship, forgiveness, mental illness, and even inappropriate teacher-student relationships. Of course, I felt like more attention could have been given to all of it, but with the way the author decided to write her novel, that would have been impossible.

The Poison Apples was obviously not the perfect book. It was lacking in some areas, but with a delicious voice, laugh-out-loud scenes, and quirky characters, it is definitely worth the read.

[Sasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, so I finished this book in one sitting. It's obviously a story aimed at younger readers. That said, I found it rather mediocre.

The story is about three 15-year-old girls who have one thing in common - they all have a new, disliked stepmother. The plot follows them meeting each other at boarding school and forming close friendships and bonding with each other.

I liked the fact that there was some diversity in the character cast - it was really nice to see an Indian main character and a African American guy as one of the love interests. The writing was decent as well - it kept the story going at a good pace throughout.

My problem was how immature (and sometimes unreasonable) the main characters acted. They're only 15, sure, but...take for example Reena, who develops a crush on her English teacher.

Reena's evil stepmother is 28, while her father is 53, something that is roundly criticized both by Reena and her brother. Yet she has no qualms about not only admitting that she has a crush on her 32-year-old teacher, but actually goes so far as to put on a "sexy" nightgown and goes to proposition said teacher? Even though she is a fucking 15 year old? (This scene made me so uncomfortable omigod. Wtf?)

In the latter part of the book, the girls also attempt getting "revenge" on their stepmothers by taking away what's dearest to them. This means sabotaging the mothers' relationships, pride, even their freaking CAREERS. Like Jesus Christ, children, can't you just aim for getting the parents to divorce and be happy with that? There's no need to destroy a person's entire life just because they happen to act like self entitled bitches.

All in all, not a horrible book, but not a good one either. 2,5 stars.

[Lisa Rathbun · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the first half of the book. Each of the girls was distinctive, and I felt for each one as her world was turned upside down as her father remarried a "wicked stepmother." One of the most poignant things I read was where one girl was homesick, but realized she had no home to miss as her father had sold their former home to move in with his new wife. Another girl wrote how she missed her dad, although he was in the same room with her! So sad. So heart-breaking, especially because I know this happens to real children not just characters in books. I like how each girl misunderstands the others: Reena and Alice both think the other is snobby, confident, and has a perfect life. Molly sees herself as misunderstood and misplaced, but others see her as unaware and lacking in social graces.



I found the second half not as compelling: Alice's romance developed too quickly to be believable, and their various plots were vague and too quickly gone through. (Objectionable elements: some bad words, although not many for a YA novel; a girl mentions she'd had sex four times; a step-mother claims her passion is sex. Nothing graphically described though. One girl mentions she prayed but didn't know to whom she was praying.)



I think I'll give this to my daughter to read in a few years. I think it has value in showing how what we show to the world doesn't always match up with how we feel inside. It might help her look on others with eyes of compassion, not judging them or feeling inferior to them, but realizing they have issues and sorrows of their own.

[Rebecca Gatzlaff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Genre: Contemporary
Format: Paperback
Pages: 276
Published September 18,2007
You are Invited to the first meeting of The Poison Apples To Be Held on the Roof of Middleton Dorm October 17th, Midnight Invitation Only 
This story is about three girls named Alice Bingley- Beckerman, Reena Paruchuri and Molly Miller and they have one thing in common: Stepmothers. Evil Stepmothers. They arrive at Putnam Mount McKinsey a private school and meet. The form the club: The Poison Apples and plan to seek revenge on there stepmothers. I thought this book would focus on the revenge plot instead it focused on how each of the girls coped with school and friends. I didn't really like this book. The girls were not protrayed realistaly. For example Reena had a crush on one of the teachers and she dressed in a nightgown and visited the teacher in his room. WOW! I never did that as a kid. The only character I did like was Pradeep. He was really funny and more mature. I also picked this book up because I thought it was a fairy tale retelling. Boy was I wrong about that. I might have liked this book in elemenary school. I rated it a 3 out of 5 stars

[Katelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty good. Surprisingly good, actually. The writing was good, the characters were written well, and the girls were relatable to, if not, real life. It was a nice read and was a bit awkward at times. Not the writing was awkward but what the character(s) did in the book. Once in a while they would make me want to slap my forehead against the wall of embarrassment for them even though I know it's all fake. :) One thing that did bother me though was that I felt like the author was more focused on building the girls' friendship and getting over themselves, which was good, but the book description described the girls plotting against their step-mothers. I like that the girls all had a strong bing but that took up nearly 2/3 of the book. Only a third of the book was spent on plotting something against the step-mothers. I have to say, though, the book was good, interesting, and a fun read.

[milana waller · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know how after you've had a book for a while you kind of start to expect a certain hmmm I don't know how to put this... vibe from the book? Well and after a while you kind of think you know how the book will be? Well this book isn't what I expected but that's actually a really good thing! ( I expected it to be just ok) Since , as you know, I was necessarily anticipating this book but I wasn't dreading it either.. so ... anyways I was having a difficult time picking a a book to read so I started at the end of my teen shelf and started reading a few pages of each book (I hadn't read hear books before btw) and then I picked up THIS book. And I couldn't put it down! I loved it! ( and it's red pages❤️❤️❤️)

[Kasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in one sitting on a Sunday afternoon. For some reason I expected it to be paranormal fiction of some sort, but it's not. It's reasonably entertaining realistic fiction about 3 girls at boarding school who bond over the fact that they have crazy stepmothers and screwed up families. I think it suffers a bit from lack of character development from focusing on three main characters, and it lags a bit after a good beginning. So, it's not great but it is a quick, mostly fun read that I think will be a hit with teen girls.

[Roberta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tre ragazze molto diverse tra loro si trovano a studiare nella stessa scuola e si trovano unite da un particolare comune: una "matrigna cattiva". E' così che istituiscono il Club delle Mele Avvelenate per rendere pan per focaccia alle proprie vessatrici.
Il romanzo è carino e si legge volentieri (non per niente l'ho iniziato e terminato in una stessa serata) ma le due stelline sono dovute ai personaggi un po' tagliati con l'accetta (specie quelli di contorno). L'ambientazione però è molto suggestiva e alcuni particolari sono veramente divertenti.

[Megan ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book was enjoyable, I feel as though Molly, Reena and Alice were kind of pathetic in that their step mothers weren't really that bad. I mean, sure, they got sent to boarding school but what's so bad about that? Persnally, I've always wanted to go to boarding school. And anyways, how old were they? They seemed like little kids but they can't have been seeing as they did a lot of very dodgy things which kids should not do. It was quite funny at times though which is why I'm giving it a three star rating rather than a two star.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was...cutesy. It wasn't a great piece of literature. It wasn't even a book that made me think. Frankly, I was almost embarrassed to read some parts because they were just so... bad. It was an okay read, despite the fact that I noticed a few errors that editors should have caught before publishing (no, I didn't have an ARC). I will not be reading this again, but might recommend it to middle schoolers who don't like their stepmoms.

[Juli · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has a great concept, but the changing point of view and "teenage banter" quickly become annoying. Three girls, who are ethnically and economically different, are all sent to a boarding school by their Evil Step-Mothers. The premise is formulaic, and the book becomes boring in the middle. The ending wasn't thought out and leaves the reader wondering why they started the story.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, but probably not memorable.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why do I empathize so much with characters who have awful parents/stepparents? Mine have been happily married for almost 30 years...

[Yuiko · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was alright.the dialog was witty and interesting i think thats why i mostly read it :)

[LobsterQuadrille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not having read The Poison Apples for years, I expected to find it a bit too juvenile for me, but instead it really grabbed my interest and I finished it in a single day. The writing in all three character voices feels genuine and distinctive. Alice, Reena, and Molly are all easy to like and empathize with on some level, and they avoid most of the character cliches associated with teen books. I especially loved that Molly never tried to make herself seem more glamorous or conventional. She stayed true to her down-to-earth, dictionary-reading self instead of trying to fit the mold of the in-crowd to be more easily accepted.

There are a couple of subplots that didn't add much to the story(Alice's crush on Jamal, and Reena's ill-fated crush on the English teacher), but they weren't awful. The word "like" is used in some awkward spots where probably even the most stereotypical Valley Girl wouldn't use it, but these bits are easy enough to ignore when the narration has a good balance between believable speech and engaging storytelling.

The Poison Apples hits the right notes of humor, believability, and heart. There were some loose ends(I'm strangely invested in knowing what became of "Palmy"), but there is nuance and realism in the not-quite-happily-ever-after aspects. It's neither too heavy nor too frivolous, but a very well-balanced story and a fun lighter read for a lazy day!

[Chaos · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I would have enjoyed the story more when I was younger. It's very childish in the way it was written, which is fine for tweens and teenagers. There were so funny parts and things that confused me. I definitely think this is great for younger kids as it has a lot about being a good friend regardless of background. You can always find a common ground

[Ilka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Habe das Buch als Jugendliche geliebt. Die Darstellung von Freundschaften als Familienersatz ist total wertvoll und die Freundschaft der drei Protagonistinnen ist echt wholesome. Außerdem ist das Buch wirklich unproblematisch, was für das Erscheinungsdatum (2007) auch nicht selbstverständlich ist.

Ich lese das Buch alle paar Jahre sehr gerne.