Moi et Becca

by Paige Harbison

La nouvelle, l’intruse — voilà tout ce que je suis pour les élèves de Manderley. On ne me pardonne pas d’avoir pris la place libérée par Becca. La belle, la parfaite, l’irremplaçable Becca ! Un véritable fantôme accroché à mes basques, auquel tout le monde me compare sans cesse. Il faut dire que Becca n’a pas vraiment « quitté » Manderley : un soir, elle a mystérieusement disparu. Et je crois bien que, si je veux qu’on m’accepte, il va falloir que je découvre ce qui lui est arrivé…

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery, Romance, Retellings, Boarding School, Fiction

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

A little bit about me...

I grew up in the Washington D.C. area, raised by a musician and a writer. I graduated high school early, and went to college in St. Augustine, FL. Then, between Freshman and Sophomore year, I wrote my first novel. Everything in my life changed when, the following semester, I signed my first contract at age nineteen.

I transferred schools three times for fun, and changed my major from Theatre to Painting in order to accommodate my new career. I graduated early from Towson University and continued to work on my first three published novels, all YA: Here Lies Bridget, New Girl, and Anything to Have You.

Throughout the next decade I worked as a bartender and ghostwriter, traveling as much as I could, living it up in the name of book inspo.

At the start of the pandemic, I moved with my family to Palm Springs, CA and finally slowed down enough to start thinking about my own next chapter, which led me to leave the service industry, take some opportunities in film and TV, and start work on my next book.

I am now based in Los Angeles, California, where I live with my dog, Tarot, my partner, Richie, and the 12-9000 uninvited spiders that live in and around our home.

Reviews

[Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a retelling of Rebecca, which was my first favorite book. I read it when I was 13; it was my first foray into an "adult romance," and the dark, gothic feel of it set the standards, as well as opened up a whole genre of literature my young teenaged self had never experienced. The rest, you could say, is history.

Therefore, you can understand why Rebecca holds a most dear spot in my heart. I've read the "sequels," I've read the rewritings, and honestly, retellings don't even have to be that good, because I'm hungry for anything remotely close to Rebecca. This book started off so promisingly, but it failed in one way: "Becca" is a bitch.

I should clarify. I liked the writing. I liked the main character, who had more personality in her than "I" in the original Rebecca ever did. But the book fucked up the character of Rebecca, and that I cannot forgive.

Rebecca is a woman of mystery. In the original book, she was never present, but she was so present. Her ghost, her memory, all of it was pervasive, because her character was so strong, so utterly fascinating. So memorable, so remarkable, she evoked the strongest of emotions, good and bad, within everyone whose life she touched. She is a whisper in the night, a shadow in the hall, there, but never there. Rebecca's air of mystery, her seductiveness - to both men and women, her elegance, her beauty, and the memory of such made her a character immemorial.

The "Becca" in this book is a huge bitch. A huge - dare I say it - slut. The author wrote her to be a promiscuous character for the sake of slut-shaming her and making her despicable, and I can't forgive that. She is a Mean Girl. She is a jerk. She's the equivalent of Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian - and with all due respect, those women hold no fascination for me.

I don't hate this book. I am disappointed by it.

[Vinaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rarely has a book has left me as confused and conflicted as New Girl. When I started the first chapter, I was very, very sure I was going to hate it, but I just couldn't. This book was like the little girl in the nursery rhyme... when it was good, it was very, very good, but when it was bad it was horrid.

Let's start with the good bits. I think New Girl might quite possibly be my favourite retelling this year. Paige Harbison got it just right - the story can stand alone as a well-plotted contemporary YA novel, but still manages to pay tribute to the much-beloved DuMaurier classic, Rebecca. Without veering too far from the original story, Harbison still manages to put her own individual stamp on things. And most refreshingly, this is not a retelling of a myth about super-special supernatural creatures on whose shoulders the fate of the world rests - it's a story about (mostly) real people and interpersonal relationships and handling everyday life.

I really, really liked the new girl. Although, unlike in Rebecca, we do find out her name eventually, Paige Harbison manages to skilfully keep the narrator's name out of the book without seeming like she was forcibly withholding it. And although I have only a faint memory of Rebecca (it is far from being my favourite DuMaurier) I think the characterization of the new girl is infinitely stronger and more likeable than the trembling, tentative second Mrs. de Winter. The new girl in this story isn't afraid to stand up for herself - although much of her life at her new boarding school, Manderly, is lived under the shadow of the missing yet vibrantly alive presence of Becca, she is far from being a shrinking wallflower. Although she has several instances of self doubt and insecurity, it is justified by her life at Manderly and the circumstances surrounding it. And she does have moments of self-awareness and a fair idea of her own value, which ups my respect for her by a hundred points, easy.

The pacing, however, was what really made this book for me. It's not a super-fast, action-loaded story, but it moves along at just the right pace to keep you turning the pages, eager to see what comes next. Harbison's writing is not perfect, but she manages to hold on to her audience, nonetheless, and her characterizations are, for the most part, interesting as all hell. The story is not so much creepy as it is chilling, a train building up to a wreck with each successive page, making sure you just can't look away. I also liked the dual perspective of the new girl and Becca, a seamless transition for the most part, although I do think the author could have done way, way better on the characterization of Becca.

Which brings me to the reason why this was a 3-star read for me instead of a 4-star one. Firstly, the book starts off on the lamest premise ever. The new girl is headed off to Manderly, a prestigious boarding school in New Hampshire, leaving behind her friends and family. She is not very happy about this development because, according to her, when she was thirteen , she tried to get into Manderly, failed, and got very upset about it. So unbeknownst to her, her loving parents kept trying to get her in, and four years later, when she's forgotten all about her fleeting desire to go to boarding school, her parents present her with an opportunity to finish up her senior year in a new place, far from home, away from the friends she has had her whole life, out of their overwhelming love for her.

I'm sorry, but I'm calling bullshit.

No parent in their right mind would think that a thirteen-year-old's desires would continue on through four years of teenagehood, especially when the narrator makes it very clear that she has forgotten all about wanting to go to Manderly. Secondly, no parent in their right mind would think it a good idea to uproot their child in the last year of school, at a place where she is happy and healthy and doing well, simply to send her off far, far away from everything she's ever known, and for no pressing reason. And thirdly, no teenager in her right mind would willingly and self-sacrificingly accept the situation without making the least push to tell her parents that she has changed her mind and would like to stay at home until she goes off to college the next year.

This entire story arc was less of a plot hole and more of a giant sinkhole, and coming in the first few pages, made me want to throw the book away. Why would you present your readers with such a blatantly stupid, made-up situation when there are a million others that would work better? Maybe her dad got transferred to Saudi Arabia. Maybe she still wanted to go to Manderly. Maybe her boyfriend mistreated her and she wanted to get the hell away from her surroundings. There are at least ten scenarios I could come up with right now that would be more convincing.

I do understand why Harbison took the route she did. The book is, in part, about finding strength and belief in yourself when you are far from familiar faces and comfortable surroundings. But I still think it could have been handled better.

My second big problem was with the characterization of Becca. We are all made very aware, from the very first page of Becca's viewpoint, that she is pretty much a sociopath. She is incapable of thinking of anyone but herself, and has no compunctions about hurting other people to get what she wants. She has no deep feelings towards her friends, and tends to use them mostly as pawns in her power plays. But instead of letting the reader find this out gradually, Harbison bluntly hammers home the point on page 10 and then relentlessly keeps drilling it in. Becca has no complexity, her personality is revealed not through her actions but through the very obvious thoughts in her head that the third person omniscient narrator tells us about. Becca could have been an interesting character, complex and complicated and compelling, but in the end, she is so obviously the mentally disturbed bad guy who appears in a horribly contrived final scene to make good her sins, that she loses all colour. This is one of the few times I wish I could have gotten my hands on a draft of this book before it went to the publisher - with a little more work, it could have gone from interesting-but-annoying to abso-fucking-lutely awesome.

The new girl's relationship with Max was another thing that was very hit-and-miss for me. The reason why Max de Winter stayed with Rebecca was very clear - social norms and peer pressure and status all combined to trap him in a relationship he couldn't get out of. And taking the comparison to an even older book along the same lines, Edward Rochester's fascination with his first wife had a basis in her beauty and his lust for her and his ambition. But here, I could see no reason why Max was sticking around Becca. At no point do you ever get the feeling that he felt deeply about her. He makes out with her, sure, because she is convenient, but he never feels a connection to her, or any deep desire to see her happy. Why would a regular teenage boy get all tortured and emo about a girl he doesn't even like very much? There is no chemistry, no sense of the dark fascination Becca supposedly asserts over people, nothing that could justify his acting the way he did. And the way he keeps jerking the new girl around, and how she keeps coming back for more? Not cool. This was possibly the part that annoyed me the most in the book, that despite the occasional flashes of rebellion and I'm-worth-more-than-this pep talks, the new girl never quite manages to shrug off Max and his assholish behaviour.

Speaking of which, I forgot to mention the hysterical, over-the-top Dana Veers, off her rocker and crushed by the disappearance of her friend, jealous and paranoid that the new girl is trying to take over Becca's life. Dana was quite possibly the best character in the book for me, mainly because Harbison let her have her say without trying to tell the reader how they should be viewing Dana, and what motivates her frenzy.

All in all, this book was an interesting experience, and I do think I would recommend it to most people. Unlike most of Harlequin Teen's tripe, this book actually has some substance, and like I said before, when Harbison is good, she is very, very good. Definitely worth a read, and I can't wait for someone to read it and tell me what they think! I'm so conflicted, I could use a second opinion!

A copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers via Net Galley.

[Bren fall in love with the sea. · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Would they wait for me to dance and entertain them, or would they expect me to walk right across the stage and back out of sight?"

New Girl by Paige Harbison



This is a campus novel and a modern retelling of the Gothic tale "Rebecca". I was mixed on this one. There were certain things I liked about it. There was absolutely that atmosphere of Gothic Doom permeating through the book. And it is compulsively readable. Plus I loved "Rebecca" and I like both Gothic and campus novels. So this was a pretty good pic for me.

What I did not like has to do with the fact that if you did not know ahead of time, you may not realize this is a retelling as it really is not like Rebecca all that much. New Girl comes to campus strange things happen, she is disliked etc. It is a good book to read but there were some things that happened that were a bit perplexing and nothing ever really wowed me. I think it's a good choice if one is in the mood for Gothic YA. Don't go into it expecting it to be just exactly like Rebecca but you will most likely stay engrossed.

[Areeba · Rating 2 out of 5]

so i'm not a prude or anything, but the amount of gratuitous teen sex in this book is RIDICULOUS. by page 100 one of the MC's had sex about seven times or something. with two different dudes! and she's been in school for about, uh, three days, methinks. i mean, seriously, dude. holy. shit. i gave up on the book because of it, but ended up going back to it to skim it till the end to see what happens. and i was left quite disappointed. not necessarily because of how the story ended, but with the book in general.

Rebecca is one of my favouritest books ever, so i guess it's only natural that this one didn't quite live up to the mark. this book just doesn't seem to have the same feel as the original one. i know Ms. DuMaurier's prose is pretty much incomparable, but still. and the characters--well, in Rebecca, even when they're infuriating, they're so deep and 3D, ya know? in this one some of them have depth but some of them--like Max, for example--were just bland as heck. which is sad because the original Max--Maximilian de Winter, i.e.--is one of my favoritest love interests ever. and i just...really didn't like the Young Adult-isized version of the tale. so yeah.

ah bloody well.

[Katrina Passick Lumsden · Rating 2 out of 5]

A modern retelling of Rebecca (one of my all-time favorites) about a bunch of whiny, privileged teenagers with apparently too much time on their hands? Yes, please!

OK, so this book was melodramatic. I'm talkin' insanely melodramatic. Where Rebecca worked, however, New Girl falls short. While Maxim de Winter was charming, yet mysterious, Max Holloway is just a dick. Who can occasionally be sweet. An occasionally sweet dick, but a dick nonetheless. Rebecca's protagonist, while young, also has a certain force about her. Yes, she's insecure and scared and unsure of what to do with herself at Manderley, but all in all, she's pretty kick ass. New Girl's protagonist is just a hot mess. Mrs. Danvers, the insane housekeeper who was fiercely devoted to Rebecca, made sense. Dana, the bipolar roommate who was insanely devoted to Becca....well, not so much. The girl is a ticking time bomb, yet none of the faculty call her parents to take her home and get her some professional help? Really, that's where this book lost it for me. Coincidentally, it's also where it made me so amused that I couldn't possibly hate it. It's just far too silly to truly dislike. I'm giving it two stars because...well, why would I rate it any higher? But it can be an enjoyable read, provided you suspend reality for a few hours and just laugh at all the zany antics. I mean, these kids don't make any sense, not a one of 'em, and that ingredient, mixed with the extreme emotional rollercoaster ride, makes for one awesomely bad story.

There's some of this:
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And this:
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Oh, and this:
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It's like a soap! Enjoy!

[Reynje · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one did not work for me.

Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca is one of my all-time favourite books, and the elements I feel that made it such a powerful book are wholly missing from Harbison’s adaptation. While Rebecca’s lingering presence was chillingly palpable in DuMaurier’s novel, her New Girl counterpart – Becca – has all the menace of a Bratz doll. (Creepy, but not in the way you’d think). Similarly, the supporting character fall flat in this retelling: Max is entirely forgettable and doesn’t produce any of the conflict in the reader as does Maxim de Winter, and Dana Veers is a cartoonishly hysterical Mrs Danvers.

Essentially, while the basic plot of New Girl is transplanted into a modern North American setting, none of weight and resonance of Rebecca has been retained. What should be disturbing is merely histrionic, mean girl shenanigans and cheap thrills by means of a lot of sex and drinking. And no, it’s not the beer pong and casual hook ups I find offensive – I really don’t – it’s the fact that the author seems to have attempted to soften up the original story into a sort of Rebecca-for-The-Gossip-Girl-Generation, which if I find kind of insulting.

The protagonist is much more assertive and forthright than her predecessor, which results in she (New Girl)her name is revealed at the end of the book, unlike in Rebecca and Becca wrestling for the narrative so we get two insipid characters as opposed to two points of stark polarity. Also, giving Becca a voice actually results in undermining much of the power she wielded in Rebecca. Rather than being a largely unknown quantity, Becca’s threat is almost instantly rendered ineffectual by the attempt to “explain” her, and why she acts the way she does. Perhaps it was Harbison’s intention to point out that Becca is not an entirely unsympathetic character, to reveal the reason for her manipulative and messed up behaviour – but it isn’t handled particularly well, especially considering the heavy content of her backstory. Rape treated as a mere plot device really bothers me.

Further, in what seems to be an effort to make Max a more appealing love interest, (and spoiler warning here but sorry I’m not sorry) Harbison chooses not to have him carry out Maxim’s heinous actions. It’s okay to like him! He’s not a murderer! Unless he bores you to death, which is entirely possible.

Is it unnecessarily harsh to measure New Girl by holding it up against Rebecca? Should I be weighing it on its own merits? I still don’t believe my opinion would alter very much. Harbison’s writing is accessible and fluid, but the story itself is let down by the characters. Even if I didn’t know Becca was Rebecca and New Girl was the new Mrs de Winter, I’d find it difficult to feel particularly invested in their melodramatic and petty story.

There’s a lot to work with in the novel, there are several complex themes here, but none of them are given adequately considered treatment and are left basically unexplored.

[Giselle · Rating 3 out of 5]

New Girl tells us the story of both Becca and "New Girl" simultaneously. "New Girl" - who I only realized past the half way mark has no name yet - is living in Becca's shadow. Arriving at boarding school after Becca's disappearance makes the others feel like she's replacing their friend; their friend who came in with a bang and completely changed the school's atmosphere.

Dual POV has become a favorite of mine. I love seeing both sides of the coin, getting to know the characters at a deeper level. In this case, it also helped with the suspense factor. Becca's story is unveiled to us in small increments which makes it very intriguing. I was always looking forward to more of her chapters. Her character has a terrible personality of someone who is used to getting what she wants. She lies, she cheats, she's overall a awful person. But god darn it is she ever entertaining! No matter how much I would hate knowing a person like her, she makes a good, fun story that I was overall fascinated with. Happening after Becca disappears, New Girl's point-of-view gives us the after effects. Her hateful roommate thinks of her as a replacement. The rest of the school is not very welcoming either. This New Girl's personality couldn't be more different from Becca's. She's considerate, has self-respect (which Becca lacks greatly) and tries hard to fit in, but most of the time I just wish she'd defend herself better. Especially towards Dana -her roommate- who can be considerably cruel. I understand grief, but I couldn't comprehend why everyone was so upset at New Girl. She barely did anything except get accepted to this school. It felt kind of overly dramatic.

I hardly cared for the romance in this novel. Both love interests were just not that interesting. Max is simply hard to grasp. He lets Becca lead him like a dog on a leash. I did like Johnny though, but I didn't feel his connection with Becca. The mystery of the disappearance is what kept me glued to the book. I'm a sucker for mysteries and this one had me rushing through it. Becca's story has such an ominous vibe to it. I was hoping for a shocking ending that unfortunately left me feeling underwhelmed. It wasn't awful, I was just hoping for a bigger twist to it.

Although it failed to wow me, it was still an entertaining read that I mostly enjoyed. I would even recommend it. Especially to those who like mysteries and - surprisingly - Gossip Girl (Yes, I AM a fan! Don't judge me. One word: Chuck! Another word: Nate! Ah heck, they're all freaking awesome! (Well except for the prince *yawns*)). I also want to note that this is a retelling of the book Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, though I'm not able to make comparisons since I haven't read the original.

--
For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really struggled with how to rate and review "New Girl", mainly...because I was trying to figure out what there was to like about it.


Okay, that's too mean.

The thing is, I didn't actually struggle with reading it. Although the GR feed says that I read it for 12 days, I actually read it in about two. The biggest asset here is Harbison's writing: it's fluid and constantly engaging, despite never being fantastic. However, it's engaging (I can't quite go as far as to say compelling), and very well-paced. But, overall, it was bland. The worst offense, in my mind, is that it just isn't original. There is not one spark of originality in this entire book.

This might sound like a stupid thing to say - well, of course it's not original, Beth, because it's based on Daphne du Maurier's book Rebecca. However, for me, the thing that makes retellings worth it is the spark of originality that infuses it with new life. New Girl didn't have that. Although you don't have to read Rebecca to enjoy this, reading any amount of YA contemporary might spoil your enjoyment. Because it's just nothing you haven't seen before. Without the (quite blatant, e.g. Beatrice = Blake) "Rebecca" references, it's just another book about an everygirl who feels chronically, fatally overshadowed by someone 'much better', except in this case it's not a Dead Older Sister but a girl who lived in her boarding-school room.

Even with this hackneyed plot mashed together, "New Girl" could have been something special. But the only life in the book came from three of the only interesting characters - Becca, the New Girl and Dana (Dana Veers, taken from Mrs. Danvers). Becca is a great character, the only really interesting one in the whole piece, an utterly selfish sociopath whose constant manipulation, especially of Max, kept me reading. New Girl was quite likeable. But I thought the extreme downside to Harbison's plotting is how shallow everyone was. They were just so incredibly two-dimensional. There's nothing really to tell Max and J...J...Jack? Becca's two love interests apart. Max is dashing but distant, while Jack is more laidback and sexier. That's about all. And they have conversations that go round and round the same old loops. Here's a sample:

NEW GIRL: I hate Manderlay. It's dark. It's cold. Waaaah. No-one likes me. They all compare me to BECCA!
MAX [sexily]: Don't. You're you.
NEW GIRL: *swoon*
*Almost kiss*
MAX: CAN'T! Because of BECCA, the ex-girlfriend I didn't like very much!
*stomps off*
END SCENE

[Repeat: x10000 times]

Even Dana, the roommate, got similar treatment:
*NG walks into her room. Dana sits on the bed, staring creepily.*
AWKWARD SILENCE
DANA: Why did you replace Becca? We know you could never replace her. SHOO! BEGONE!
NG: Why are you so mean?
DANA: Because you aren't Beccaaaaaaaa....
*Max walks in and gets within fifty feet of NG*
MAX: Hey.
DANA: WHAT? WHY ARE YOU TOUCHING HER? WHY ARE YOU NEAR HER? BITCH! WHY DON'T YOU TELL HER WHAT YOU DID, MAX...
*Dana becomes so conveniently hysterical that she can't spit out whatever the hell Max was supposed to have done*
MAX: Go away, Dana!
*Dana goes away*

[Repeat x500000 times]

It was all very repetitive and boring eventually. It got even more boring after the 'revelation' about Becca's death, which terrible because it rendered all of the suspense leading up to the 'revelation' completely pointless as it was badly written and confusing. The possibility of Becca's pregnancy was so weakly written and speculative that I couldn't see the point in any of it. The revelation about Becca's death was the only part that was changed, but I really wished Harbison hadn't (after an entire book of praying she would!) because the ending was so wishy washy and it was like the whole story just petered out and Harbison swept all the characters and plotlines that had been built up under a rug and hoped no-one would notice. That made me knock off a star because I'd just assumed that all these 'clues' and ominous messages were going somewhere, and that Harbison had actually weaved a mystery in there somewhere. She hadn't.

Also, I don't know if this is just because I'm used to my YA dark and edgy, like Courtney Summers, but I felt that her treatment at Manderlay was...weak. Sure, it's horrible to be talked about. But Harbison never gave us that claustrophobia that omes with rumours and ostracisation. Although New Girl was likeable enough, Harbison sometimes went overboard on 'telling' rather than 'showing', and as a result all New Girl seemed to do was whine about how horrible it was to be in the North instead of in Florida. Also, we were supposed to believe that these people were 'tearing her apart' at Manderlay, especially from the way other people reacted, but...really? I never felt the intensity or horror that comes from a book about bullying like, for instance, Some Girls Are. There was no tension, because the so-called bullies never really did anything to her. A few of them had the guts to walk up to her and ask her why she was there, but most of them said it behind her back. And don't get me wrong, that's not an ideal situation to be in. But New Girl had real, warm friends in Cam and Blake, and it seemed like Jack and Max were constantly on hand to deter any of the potential mean girls. And the mean girls lacked any kind of bite - the worst thing Dana, who was the creepiest of them all, did was write 'whore' on her mirror (in her room, so it wasn't even like anyone else saw), and most of them just flitted in and informed her that she really couldn't have a thing with Max. Don't get me wrong: all of this is unpleasant, but it's nowhere near the horror stories you hear about bullying. I couldn't help but feel the way that New Girl described her disintegrating and frustration all a little over-the-top.

That said, there's nothing particularly wrong with "New Girl." It's just missing something. Or several somethings.

[Sandee is Reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

New Girl was one of those books that you'd either love it or hate it.
I am so torn between loving and hating it.
It was sort of an old-school crime movie that would keep you guessing who killed who.
If I could rename this book I would probably name it "Deception, Lies and more Lies".
Reading it also reminded me a bit of Pretty Little Liars.

New Girl would keep you thinking up until the last few chapters of the book.
You'd wonder what really happened to the missing girl and why people were so aloof towards new girl.
I actually made up a couple of possible endings for this book and none of them came close to the real ending of the story.
Turns out this book was a retelling of a classic novel Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier.
This book was definitely a page turner and that was one of the things I liked about New Girl.

The story was told between alternating POV's of the New Girl and the missing girl Becca Normandy.
The main character is actually the New Girl whose name was revealed almost near the end of the book.

LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO THE TWO NEW GIRLS:

New Girl 1: Becca Normandy
She came in a year before New Girl 2.
Everyone liked and loved her.
She was the picture of perfection.
She was fun and adventurous.
She had a boyfriend who loves her (at least that’s what she tells everyone).
But there was more to her than meets the eye.
She was not who everyone thinks she is.
As the story progress you'll see a different side of Becca that no one else knew except for her boyfriend Max.
Becca was the type of girl that has a lot of secrets and in the end those secrets came back at her.

New Girl 2: Her name was mentioned only once through the entire book which was actually near the end of the book.
She was from Florida.
Her parents has been trying to get her in to Manderly and on her senior year she finally got in that is after Becca went missing.
NG 2 had a hard time fitting in because everyone especially her roommate Dana thinks she's trying to become missing girl Becca.
She tried hard to let other people see that she was not doing that but everyone seem to be thinking differently especially when she and Max, Becca's boyfriend, started hanging out.

I liked the two main characters. Becca and NG 2 for me were well defined. I hated Becca which meant that her character was pretty convincing. She was a psychopath. She was seriously disturbed person. And for NG 2, I really felt her. It wasn’t easy being a new girl but being around the students of Manderly made it even worse. It is very hard to live in someone else's shadow but it is harder if everyone seem to think that you're competing with a person you don’t even know.

Anyways, Becca went missing right? So there were a lot of speculations as to what happened to her. I actually listed the three other important characters that might have contributed to Becca's disappearance.

POSSIBLE CULPRITS:

PRIME SUSPECT 1: MAX (the boyfriend)
Of course he would be the primary suspect on missing girl's disappearance. He was missing girl's boyfriend and new girl's love interest (what a coincidence huh?). He knew stuff about Becca that no one else knew. Becca has a hold on him. She controls him and at first thought he was the most likely to have killed or made Becca disappear. But he wasn’t the type of guy who would be capable of that on my own opinion. Since he's the boyfriend he definitely should be one of the prime suspects.

PRIME SUSPECT 2: JOHNNY (the other guy)
Becca has been a very naughty girl. She's not only been with Max but she's also been with Johnny. Tsk tsk. Anyways, Johnny was Max best friend until he hooked up with Becca that is. Most of the time I kept on thinking that it was him who should be blamed for Becca's disappearance. He didn’t have any motives though unlike Max but still I thought it was really him.

(PRIME SUSPECT 3: DANNA ( (the best friend)
Danna was the roommate, the best friend. She was the one Becca usually talks to. She was a loyal friend to Becca. While she has been a good friend to Becca she found out something that Becca did behind her back, hooking up with the one guy she wanted, Johnny.

When you read this book you'll find yourself looking out for these three characters too because you'd really think it was one of them. But I'll leave the rest up to you to read the book and find out on your own.

Though I liked the book I did have a couple of issues with it.

1. It was too unrealistic. I have not read Rebecca which I think is has the original concept of this book but I just didn’t see how people at a certain school could like one new girl like that so much. I usually for a new girl especially in a boarding school they already have their own cliques. They already have their own groups to even bother noticing a new girl or the most accurate term to use would be obsessing over a new girl.

2. I could understand if two guys fight over one girl but if two guys fight over one girl and then fight over another girl who happened to be the new girl is a different story. Again, it was highly unrealistic. Aren't there any pretty girls on that boarding school worth looking at?

3. Danna kept on accusing NG 2 of imitating Becca. I mean what the f***? They didn’t even know each other.

4. I know parents love their kids but if that kid wished for something when they were thirteen they should remember that as their child grows their wishes change too. This whole mess wouldn’t have happened if NG 2's parents didn’t assume she'd still want to be enrolled to Manderly.

There were some things I liked about this book too like the alternative POVs. I think it really made the readers get a glimpse of what happened before and after Becca's disappearance. I think it was a good approach for this kind of book. The characters were well played especially Becca. I hated her so much I want to punch her in the face. The pacing was good too. It was not too fast nor was it too slow.

See what my problem is with this book. It was a bit of good things and bad things that I couldn’t really tell if I loved it or hated it.

If you ask me if I'll recommend it, I will. It was actually a very interesting read.

3.5! :D

[~Tina~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5 stars) Some Spoilers

I had such a hard time trying to figure out my feeling for this one, which is strange since I usually know before I even finish a book. I can't guarantee that I'm gonna make sense and I'm sure other reviewers will say this much better, but here it goes anywho's.

Did I like this? Yes...and no. I guess this is what I would call a guilty pleasure since to tell you the truth I wouldn't normally enjoy books like this. I am a very easily annoyed reader when it comes to characters personalities. One or two flaws I can live with, but it seems like everyone of these characters (with the exception of very few) got on my nerves.
~Lets start with the main protag. She's nothing but a punching bag for insults, mind games and mockery. Which quite frankly isn't very fair since all she did was attend a school.
~Our other main protag, Becca is the girl who the "New Girl" can't ever live up to. See Becca left quite a stir at Manderley Academy. Her parents sent her there unwillingly, but as soon as she arrived she became the life of the party, actually she became the party. Wild, daring, alive and pretty much had everyone bewitched by her mere presents. So naturally when she went missing and presumed dead everyone took it hard.
~Enter the "New Girl" (I'd give you her real name, but since we don't actually find out till the end of the book it would be a shame to spoil it for you now) she's always wanted to attend a boarding school since she was in eighth grade but since she never got in she became content with her life till her parents surprised her with a special gift, she finally gets accepted to Manderley- in her senior year no less. Becareful what you wish for.
As soon as the NG walked into her new school everyone seemed to look at her like the odd man out. Some were cold, others downright ruthless. See, she only got in cause there was a unexpected spot available. The NG lived in Becca's old room, started to hang out with Becca's friends and caught the eyes of Becca's love interest(s). Eventually she was accused of trying to steal Becca's life which is crazy talk since she's never even met her.
This is a story about two different girls starting over at new shcool and how they decided to handle themselves and just how very different things might have turned out...

Yeah okay, so this story? It's completely messed up. I'm not talking about the writing or saying that this is a bad book, what I'm saying is that the actually story-line and it's characters are really quite a trip.
The book is told in alternating point of views, one is the "New Girl" and the other is Becca, telling the story one year ago.
The NG seems to be living Becca's old life...but with a twist.

I have to hand it to Paige Harbison, she weaves a story that is equally interesting and exasperating. I'm not even sure what genre this would be classified under? I guess it's a contemporary with a touch of supernatural, but one thing is certain, this story was very uniquely constructed to get the moral of the story across to the readers.
It's a bit unorthodox, sure, but these days playing it safe seem very overrated.

Rebecca Normandy isn't a character that I liked. At all. The moment you meet her you just know she's trouble. She's an attention seeker, always gets what she wants, she's manipulative, back stabbing and uses sex to her advantage. She was semi-redeemed in my eyes in the very end, but yeah, for the most part I really wanted to slap her whiny little face.
~The NG is easy enough to like but I really wish she had more of a spine, she did start to defend her self eventually but it just wasn't enough. I really wanted her to rip into some of these people and yet she didn't seem to have it in her. I mean for crying out loud all she did was transfer to a school. It was so frustrating to see her endure it all especially since it just kept going on and on to the point where it started to get pretty unreasonable.
~As for Max? I'm still not sure what I think of him. When he was with Becca he didn't have much of a personality. He seemed to only be with her for sex and then later out of guilt. But when he's with the NG he seems decent, kind and caring and I started to find myself hoping for the best. It felt very disconnecting to have an opinion about someone who is portrayed so differently in the same book. And I pretty much felt the same way about Johnny. It was just such a strange...situation and one point or another I just wanted the NG to drop everyone who even knew Becca's name.
~Dana is a nut job. Period. Her fits of rage were intense, uncontrollable and crazy. She was the main reason it made it so hard for me to want to keep reading.

So why did I?

Bottom line, I was completely entertained by this story- out of sick morbid curiosity if nothing else. The characters were complicated and well developed but I didn't really like them. The plot was absurd and eventually turned outrageously ridiculous. But throughout it all I couldn't stop reading. It's like watching a train wreck, I couldn't look away no matter how frustrated I was for even wanting to look in the first place. The writing really is fantastic though. It's has a bit of everything, mystery, suspense, intrigue and above all it plants a burning desire to find out the truth. This wasn't exactly a struggle read but it did tangle up my emotions pretty dame good and any book that can do that is good enough for me.

I'm not entirely sure how others will perceive New Girl. It's frustrating as hell and gets pretty overwhelming but it's unique, compelling and entertaining right up till the very last page.

(Arc provided by Netgalley and Harlequin teen)


*Edit*
*An after thought* I didn't realize this was a retelling of a classic tale called Rebecca. If I would have known I would have read that book first and then maybe I would have had a different experience. I think it should be stated that this is indeed a re-telling then other readers might have the experience I didn't have.

[K. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Trigger warnings: ALL OF THEM EVER. In the order in which they appeared in the book: ableist slurs, all of the slut shaming ever, cheating, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, manipulative relationships/gaslighting, mental health, assault, rape, rape involving knock out drugs, death, drowning.

So this is a young adult retelling of Rebecca, one of my favourite 20th century classics. Rebecca was one of TWO books I took with me on a three week school trip to France in 1998 (the other was P&P), and I'd finished both of those books before landing at Charles de Galle. Needless to say, I read it multiple times in that three week period and I know the story...well...as a result.

And here's the thing: a big part of WHY Rebecca is such a compelling story is that you learn about Rebecca's personality slowly. You uncover things about her at the same time the narrator does. You go on that journey with her.

Here? The story alternates chapters between our nameless protagonist in the present and Becca a year earlier. We know from the very beginning of the story exactly what type of person Becca is, and how manipulative she was, and therefore there's no tension in the "OMG MAX AND BECCA WERE SOOOOOO IN LOVE" stuff that the other girls keep spouting because we know it's categorically untrue. Becca told us so herself. And it sucks all the charm out of the story.

Let's talk about the writing here. It's...terrible, to be perfectly honest. Especially where the sex scenes are concerned (of which there are MANY. I don't care whether there's sex in YA books, but...there is a LOT of sex in this book).

Exhibit A, featuring a description of a blowjob that made me laugh out loud: "His grip on her waist tightened. She bit his lip and unzipped his pants, slowly dropping to her knees. She ran her hands up and down his legs, and kissed the sharp muscles of his hip. Then she did it."

Exhibit B, featuring Becca cheating on her boyfriend with his best friend IN THE STAFF ROOM OF THEIR BOARDING SCHOOL???? "He stood up, in between her legs. She leaned back, looking at him with all the sexy she could conjure."

Exhibit C, over the page from the above: "...less than two weeks since she'd lost her virginity, and her number had already doubled." a) STOP SLUT SHAMING, b) the reader can literally work that out for themselves because HER LOSS OF VIRGINITY HAPPENED ON THE PAGE TOO. LIKE 20 PAGES EARLIER JFC.

Exhibit D, unrelated to sex: "She laughed, and it did not suit her." Uh, rude.

And then at one point our nameless protagonist hallucinates Becca, who tells her that she's "a butter knife" in comparison to Becca, which...????? Is a very weird thing to compare a person to.

So you've got a retelling in which all the tension is removed from the story, in which the writing is...awful, in which there are an abundance of sex scenes and they're all catastrophically terrible. And then on top of that, you add the fact that there were so many things in this story that were deeply problematic, especially for teenagers.

- Becca has a diagnosed mental illness. She goes off her meds. This is never addressed.
- Becca is literally responsible for one of her best friends being raped (like, a cool boy tells Becca that if she puts white powder in her friend's drink, it will make her relax around boys. It makes her unconscious around boys...), and doesn't seem to have any emotions or guilt about this at all??
- Dana came to Manderlay because she was raped at her previous school, and it's mentioned and then just...ignored?
- There is a staggering amount of drug and alcohol abuse at this school. Especially given that it's a boarding school. Like, people are blackout/puking levels of drunk REGULARLY. Becca basically drowns because she was pregnant and decided to have the school drug dealer just give her something random, which makes her freak out, so someone gives her something ELSE from the school drug dealer to calm her down and it makes her decide to row out into the middle of the...lake? Bay? Whatever body of water is right by the school?
- There's literally one adult that they have to bribe to look the other way while they all sneak down to the boathouse to party every night??? Teachers show up about twice in this book
- There's one random scene in which a teacher is absent and the school hires said teacher's nephew to fill in for the day?? And it's literally only there so that the teacher's nephew can be off on his phone during class and the kids can have conversations that verge on bullying that an actual teacher would shut down REALLY quickly
- Becca is incredibly manipulative in both her relationship with Max and her cheating with Johnny, and it's never really addressed
- After she's been missing for A YEAR, the police find Becca's body?? Uh. If she's been in the water for any length of time, you MIGHT find her skeleton, but you're sure as shit not gonna find a body. Also, I call bullshit on them not having dragged this mysterious body of water at the time
- NO ONE EVER USES THEIR FUCKING WORDS AND IT WAS INFURIATING

In summary, this was a poorly written, deeply problematic hot mess. Just read the original and be done with it.

[Heidi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars: A modern update of the classic Rebecca, that fails to impress.

Summer is coming to a close for our protagonist "New Girl". Days of lying in a bikini, soaking up the sun's warm rays on Florida's sun drenched beaches will soon be replaced by the halls of high school. New Girl is looking forward to her senior year, filled with friends and memories. Little does she know her parents are about to surprise her, with an acceptance letter into the prestigious, boarding school, Manderley. Attending a private school was a wish she envisioned when she was thirteen, while reading Harry Potter. After years of rejection, New Girl has grown to love attending her public high school. Not wanting to disappoint her parents, who are overjoyed at the prospect of her attending this elite school, New Girl packs her bags and heads to Manderley to start her senior year. Upon her arrival, she discovers her room still decorated with the former occupant's belongings. New Girl finds herself the unwanted replacement for the ambitious and popular Becca Normandy, who disappeared at the end of the previous school year. Our protagonist finds herself thrust into an unwanted spotlight. No matter how hard she tries, it proves impossible to separate herself from Becca's shadow. She is constantly compared to Becca. To make matters worse she seems to be the anonymous girl, without a name other than New Girl. New Girl digs her heels in and tries to form her own identity, but the questions and rumors refuse to die. She is constantly surrounded by whispers and looks, there is no where she can go to escape Becca's influence. What happened to the beautiful and mysterious Becca?

What I Liked:

*Having read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, I was excited to read a modern take on this classic. The author does a nice job of recreating the mysterious atmosphere of Manderley, in her vision.
*I enjoyed the presentation of the dark mystery. I was drawn into the strange circumstances of Becca's disappearance and enjoyed formulating my own guesses on her fate. Trying to unravel the events and clues kept me reading this book.
*One of the most memorable aspects of Rebecca, was not revealing the protagonist's first name, the whole book she is referred to as Mrs. De Winter. I recall when I read this book, being frustrated with this tactic. I wondered if Ms. Harbinson would use the same technique. Indeed she does, our protagonist is known throughout the entire novel as "New Girl" or me. I could see how relegating the heroine to anonymity, enhanced the power that Becca held over the rest of the characters, as well as the reader.
*I liked the switching of the narrative between New Girl in the present and Becca a year ago. I appreciated being able to see inside Becca's head, so I could better understand her manipulative power and why she had such a lasting impact.

And The Not So Much:

*My biggest complaint and reason for the lower rating of this book was the heavy references to teenage drinking and sex. I realize that in reality, teens do engage in these activities, but this book's depiction is over the top. Becca on her first day at school organizes a drunken party and gives up her virginity to a boy she just met. This is just one example, the entire book is chapter after chapter of scenes involving drinking. Becca's use of sex to manipulate the boys she is interested in, is disturbing. What bothers me the most about this novel, is that it is marketed as a YA title. In this situation this book should be read by mature readers only. I would certainly not want young teenagers reading this, due to the content.
*The author brings up two tough topics facing teenagers today, rape and drug induced rape. She used these situations to clarify why two of the characters were troubled. The problem for me is in both events, the girls involved did nothing to rectify the situation, they chose to run away and hide by attending Manderley. Again, I understand that in real life, there often is not a positive resolution to these horrendous acts. I wish the author had taken the time to address these matters in a better way. Showing how the characters got help and worked through the difficulty would have made an impact. As an author, you have the power to make a difference with your words, why not show teenagers who have lived through these demeaning acts, seeking help, instead of showing them running away from their troubles.
*The characters, I can't say that I enjoyed any of them. Becca is cruel, controlling and cares for no one, including herself. The males, Johnny and Max are confusing, they both succumb to the temptress Becca and unwittingly become her pawns. Max especially, I never had a clear picture on his true feelings for Becca. The protagonist, New Girl, I liked her, but I was not pleased on the way she handled many of the situations that she faced.

The book drew me in with the mystery of Becca's disappearance but after awhile it was overshadowed by too much teenage drama. The first half of the book is dark and engaging, while the second half languishes.
I was excited to read New Girl, a current retelling of the classic Rebecca, but unfortunately this book failed to meet expectations. While some of the elements work, the book was lacking and did not hold my interest. Due to the mature themes involving heavy alcohol use and detailed sex scenes, I cannot recommend this book for young readers. If you have not read Maurier's classic, Rebecca, I would suggest reading that instead.

A copy of this book was kindly provided by Harlequin Teen, courtesy of Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite Quotations:

"The panoramic view outside the windows of the bus showed a world that wasn't mine. It was chilly in early September and the trees were pine, not palm."

"Manderley is like being stuck in an attic. Dusty, cold, and you feel like you might be struck by lightning at any moment. Sometimes it's just nice to get out."

"The waves were like a million dead, gnarly hands throwing themselves onto the sand and trying to bring whatever they could back with them into the darkness."

"---I am what made him live. I am his light. I am his excitement. I was the bells, the light, the darkness and the melody in his life."

"Lonely, friendless, barefoot new girl, with no identity."

"I'd never felt more drab in my life. I was like the gray, rainy skies outside, only less threatening and full of no mystery at all."

"They all liked her because she was unique. She was a new toy they never really got to play with. And now that she's gone, they just want her more than ever."

"You lived a year in my shadow but somehow you still never lost your light."
Originally posted on my blog:http://rainydayramblings.typepad.com/

[Sierra Abrams · Rating 1 out of 5]

UGH. I can't believe this book. The sexual content made me want to barf and there was way too much language and the ending totally left me unsatisfied and irritated. I hated Max, "new girl" was just super flat, and I suppose I strongly disliked everyone else as well.

Too bad. Tooooo bad. At least there's still the amazing original "Rebecca" story, untainted by stupid high school girls and getting drunk and having sex to break someone's heart.

Don't waste your time.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't think of a single reason to like this book and I'm surprised I finished it. The characters were flat and vapid; I found myself loathing every single one of them. The most interesting character, Dana, was so incredibly unstable, she was annoying and whiny. The new girl, whose name we don't learn until the very end of the book, felt so inconsequential that I actually don't remember her name now. I like strong characters, or at least characters who grow through a novel, but the new girl just complained a lot that people at Manderley didn't like her. Grow some backbone! The other interesting character, besides Dana, was Becca, whom the new girl replaced because she had gone missing. But she was only interesting because of her circumstance and the horrifying way she conducted herself around others (we do get to find out why later).
There is a love triangle in this, so if you hate them, don't read it. Personally, I don't mind them at all, but in New Girl, I felt that it was weak, and when there was conflict, it was put there to keep things interesting.
The plot point for Rebecca would have been alright, except that it dragged out and if you've ever read the book that New Girl is retelling, incidentally titled Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, then you can kind of guess how New Girl is going to end. Ergo, no surprises here, folks. Bummer.
No author can really avoid pop-culture references in their books, and I love them when they are done right because it helps the reader identify with the book. But the one big one in New Girl that really stood out to me was "Paint me like one of your French girls" from the movie, Titanic. The line should be "I want you to draw me like one of your French girls." Yes, it's a nit-picky detail, but part of a book's value is in the details, right? In Titanic, Jack was too poor to have any paints, therefore he used charcoal and paper. So this really bothered me.
I also had a really big problem with the filler in this story: teens were drinking and carrying on all the time on school property. I mean, ALL. THE. TIME. There was tons of language about sex, blow jobs and getting drunk. I felt like it glorified this lifestyle. Hey, I'm no prude, but come on now. If you are going to include something like this in your story, at least trump it with a message for the kids reading your book. That didn't happen here. I get it, this isn't the bible and for god's sake, it's just a book, right? But what was the take-away from all that? I couldn't figure it out.
I think if the author had spent time fleshing out the characters and staying true to her genre (this is a young adult, after all), it could have gone a lot differently. I really liked the synopsis, which is why I asked to review the book. But overall, I didn't like it and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone (I did, however, love the quote below).

**This review was updated to reflect my notes on 1/8.**

[Lissa]

It was a little hard to get into, but by the time Becca’s narration came I was interested. Becca’s POV caught me by surprise – I wasn’t expecting it and I was completely prepared to not like it… but Becca was fascinating to read about – that level of sociopathy (did I just made up a new word) could only result in something tragic – much like the badly behaving teenagers in horror films always get killed – you know, the ones who dirnk and have sex. Teen horror flicks are morality warnings. I never felt this book was preachy, but I could certainly see how others might think that.

Sometimes I wondered if Becca was so bad just to contrast with how good ‘New Girl’ was. New Girl was a good girl. Sure, she was as bad as the other students: She broke all the school rules, snuck out after curfew, went to the boys’ dorm, had things with both boys Becca was after, and got drunk – but she wasn’t half as bad as Becca, who was truly atrocious. Let’s look at some of my status updates for Becca’s character:

Page 55: I don't even think this is slut shaming but Becca is all kinds of a bitch.

Page 66: Look, Becca may be a manipulative bitch whom I really don't like but I'm really enjoying reading about her. She's a great, flawed, insecure, desperate for attention drama queen and it's a nice relief to see those imperfections when mostly in YA we get boring personality-less Mary-Sues like Nora and Bella and Luce.

Page 127: Wow, Becca is all kinds of psycho. Her parts of the story are definitely more interesting than the nameless 1st person POV. It's like Mean Girls with extra bitch and an extra helping of slut. She's so manipulative... I'm so glad I never knew anyone like her in high school!

Page 211: Becca is just all kinds of psycho.

Page 220: Ugh, this is way worse than the queen bee bitches of Before I Fall. Becca seriously has issues.

I guessed very early on what the twist would be. A red herring threw me off, but then it turned out I was right: I was wrong about another thing, but I was close enough to realise why Dana was so damaged. I knew she’d witnessed something. Her character totally freaked me out as well. It was easy to imagine someone losing their mind like that.

Throughout the narrative I sympathised with New Girl. She was adjusting to a new place and thinking about what her life would be like when she went home. Although I liked reading New Girl’s story, I was far more invested in and interested in the manipulation that was Becca’s narrative. It was so interesting reading about the things that happened the year prior, and when things were revealed, how they reflected in the modern day New Girl’s narrative. Although this book is about the New Girl, Becca’s narrative is integral. She was a truly fascinating character, and very believable.

One of the problems I had was being unable to really 'place' the year this novel was written. It made weird references to the film Titanic, Brad Pitt('s dating - he hasn't 'dated' since 2000) and Cate Blanchett (in Lord of the Rings, also from 2001), but then it constantly referenced Facebook as well. I'm pretty sure it was meant to be set in contemporary times, but the references to things from a decade ago was a little bit strange. Perhaps the author was not aware of whatever today's teens are talking about, but I'm pretty sure it's not the same things we were talking about when we were teens a decade ago.

I DO NOT object to anything that's in this book. I don't understand how the students keep getting their hands on alcohol and I don't understand why adults don't seem to care there's underage drinking, but all of these things you write about? It's AWESOME. It adds conflict. It makes the book interesting! I LIKE reading about all the fucked up things teens do - teens that don't have my background. I still hate parties because of all the drama that happens at them - but I love reading about it.

The biggest problem I had with the narrative was all those extremely common moments when the narrator told the audience what was going on, instead of showing us. Really simple sentences that could have been elaborated, but weren’t. Stuff like: Dana looked shocked... all of them said yes, nodding... the guys were all laughing and clapping at them. This happened a lot early on in the novel, although I think by the end I was either so used to it I didn’t notice anymore or it didn’t happen so much. I was a little disappointed by such simple writing, because I felt it could have been so much better.

The build up to the climax became somewhat unbelievable. It was far too convenient that Blake’s family would pay for a bunch of private hotel rooms that included beds when a bunch of underage drinking teens were involved. Is no one worried about preserving these teens' virtue? I started to wonder if all the sex and drinking wouldn't be more suited to a university style of life, because there was next to no adult supervision at any time, and all the rule-breaking didn't seem particularly difficult or dangerous. Age everyone a few years, remove all the rule breaking and it'd be completely normal. But then I guess the whole Becca thing wouldn't be so outrageous.

And upon reaching the climax, the audience is suddenly thrown two completely new points of view that we just totally don’t need. This should have been planned from the beginning, and subtly shifted to omniscient POV, not limited head-hopping for a random page. And it’s not accidental: these POVs are labelled so we don’t get confused. I just can’t understand why they’re even there.

And then the ending didn’t make much sense. New Girl tells us that she’s been having recurring dreams all year, but she’s only had one or two. Becca’s body is found a year after she dies in the water – still identifiable? Not decomposed or anything? It just doesn’t make sense. My forensics-trained and former morgue technician hubby tells me her body would definitely be bones, picked clean by the sea life – and maybe not even bones, depending on the area. So how did they find Becca’s body, what condition was it in, and how did they identify her?

But as a bonus, New Girl actually grew as a character. She grew and changed and changed her life as well! It was awesome watching her make the connections in her brain and outgrowing her old home as she had all these new experiences at Manderlay. Yay for heroines who can think for themselves!

And love triangle? Pfft! What love triangle? It's not a love triangle: it's a damned train wreck. But I mean that in a good way. Everyone is fucked over by everyone else. There's no pining and puppy dog eyes and 'I can't live without you.'

Overall, despite its flaws, I really enjoyed this book and during the final third I couldn’t wait to get back to reading it. I give it a firm four stars.

AND I really want to read Here Lies Bridget.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and it has in no way influenced my review.

[Dani H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Just wow. What a book to start off my summer break with!
New Girl is definitely not like anything I've ever read before. I know that it is a kind of modern retelling of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca, but A) I haven't read Rebecca, so this is lost on me, and B) this is a YA contemporary retelling and has an entirely unique style.

I was immediately drawn into the story. Paige's written style is so relaxed and fluent, yet so descriptive and emotive that the book is a really easy one to get lost in - and get lost, I did.
I loved the contrast at the beginning of the book between 'New Girl's' old life, back in Florida, and the seemingly dull and drab scene we're presented with when she arrives at Manderley in New Hampshire.
I also loved the contrast between her character and Becca's, once her point of view was introduced. Their characters were, in some ways, quite similar; 'New Girl' was popular at home, as Becca was at Manderley, and they both had some kind of relationship with the same two boys, Max and Johnny - although the boy they both truly liked was different from the other (Becca's true feelings were a little harder to figure out at first - until she comes to the realisation of who it is she actually likes).
Their voices were so distinct from one another that, even without the chapter headers telling us which character it was, I would have been able to tell quite quickly - especially once we were a little way into the story, and we know them a little better.
I also loved that when the story switched point of view, we also switched between the past and the present - the present being New Girl's point of view, and the past being Becca's. It meant that I could hear New Girl's story in the present, but also piece the past together at the same time.
The chapters were not equally divided between the two characters, as you might expect. Instead, we saw more of the story in the present, which I quite liked. It meant that the story remained primarily about New Girl, and how the events of the past were effecting her in the future, even though she had nothing to do with it.

As you may already have guessed, 'New Girl', the protagonist of the novel, is not called by her actual name until the very end of the book. Even then, we only see her name once, and it stands out so much that I can tell you (from memory) that it is on page 313 of the UK edition (but don't go peeking - read the book until you find it, otherwise you won't get the full impact of it - and it's a big one!).
At the beginning, I will mention that the characters at the school calling her 'New Girl' did feel a little bit awkward, and maybe even a tiny bit forced - but once she'd met everyone, they would just start talking to her, and this didn't matter any more. New Girl's point of view was also written in first person (compared to Becca's point of view being written in third), which meant that the lack of her real name was not all that obvious, until you read her name at the end of the book and realise you've never seen it before.

New Girl took on such an epic personal journey throughout the course of the novel! She went from being insecure and feeling as though she was living in Becca's shadow, but eventually she came to the realisation that she was her own person, and that she was not going to be compared to Becca just because she took her open place at the school. I loved the strength that this took, and it really showed her to be a brave, and (in the end) self-assured person. She knew she was a likeable person, and that she was worth knowing, so she decided to ignore the whispers and the gossip, stop caring about what other people thought, and be herself. Such strength!
We also see a change in her attitude to wider life in general. At the beginning of the novel, her mind is set on going to Florida State University, where the rest of her friends are going, and where her family lives. It was the safe option, where she knew she'd be happy and surrounded by the people she'd known all her life. But then, with everything she experiences at Manderley, and her new-found inner-strength, she begins to consider the other school she got accepted into - Boston University - a world away from Florida, just as Manderley is. So she has definitely been on a huge personal journey!

Her character was also so believable, that I ended up genuinely feeling every single emotion with her. When she was upset, so was I, when she was happy to the point of tears, so was I - and when she was frustrated? I definitely was too!
She was a very real person to me, even before I had read half of the novel.
To some extent, this is the same with the rest of the characters in the book, and they are definitely all very distinct from one another, but I didn't feel the same way about the others characters, as I did for New Girl (although Max was quite close...).

The last thing I feel I really need to mention is that the plot was not predictable. Obviously there is not a great deal to predict, but there is the question of, and the mystery behind, what happened to Becca Normandy, the girl that went missing. I had a feeling that the book would end in the way it did, but it was entirely a guess, really. I still found myself wondering about whether or not she was going to come back or not. There are moments when you believe she could be back at any moment, and others when you don't believe it at all. You do kind of expect the novel to end in the way that it does, but somehow it still manages to come as a mild shock, when the reality of what truly happens sinks in (to the both the characters in the novel, and to you).

Honestly, if you haven't gleaned from all of this that I absolutely adored this novel, what on Earth have you been reading?! I don't have enough words to praise this novel to the extent that I would like to!
New Girl is a thrilling, mysterious and highly emotion ride that will have you yearning for more! I recommend it to all fans of YA (or even adult) contemporary fiction, but would implore all of you to try it - it's definitely worth it!

Click here for my review on my blog, with an interview with Paige Harbison!

Like this review? I have more! Head to my blog, Pen to Paper.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

***Might be mildly spoilerish but doesn't give away ending or important parts of story***

Teens have a hard enough time trying to figure out who they are as they go through their years between 12 and 17 or 18. But imagine being called "New Girl" all through the school year, because that's who you are and no one tries to get to know you. They're too busy trying to tell you who you'll never be. You'll never be the effervescent Becca, the other new girl, last year's new girl who is missing. She is assured time and time again that she will never live up to Becca's image, personality, nor will she ever be allowed or gain the interest of Max nor Johnny because they both were in love with Becca and are just waiting for her return to rekindle their romance. Everyone believes she's coming back, or so she's led to believe.

The beauty of this novel is that we never get a name for the New Girl. She just goes with New Girl and allows people to call her that and treat her like the New Girl. She futilely tries to stand up for herself and we are inside her head knowing that she is not some spineless creature, she's just never been in this position, friendless, outcast, social pariah. She's always been friendly outgoing, social. It's new territory, for the New Girl. And trying to deny she's wanting Becca's life is pointless because in some ways she does. Who doesn't want to be beautiful and loved by everyone and she kind of does like Max and she feels bad about all of it.

But this is the year that things change for the New Girl. I didn't think she should have put up with the treatment she got from Max. I wouldn't have. She deserved better than that. Max was sweet with her sometimes, but he blew so hot and cold, she couldn't count on him. The New Girl learned to rely on herself and that she could make it by herself in a place of isolation. She grew up. Found out what the real world was like and tested the waters for the coming years. Her plans had always been to go to FSU (boo hiss) with all her friends from high school, but this year away, taught her that maybe, she should challenge herself. Maybe step out of her comfort zone. In her isolation, she learns who she really is and isn't.

The chapters are told in alternating points of view, though it might be told three chapters Me as in the new girl and two chapters Becca which was the year before. We can tell she, Becca, is a troubled girl, certainly narcissistic , but also more impressed with appearance than her own happiness. Max plus Becca equals most beautiful couple on campus, and Becca most envied. But is she happiest with him? It doesn't seem to matter. She does seem to have a heart and we see bits and pieces of it leak through her plans.

But the "New Girl" garners the most sympathy from us. Be it a tirade from her roommate who was Becca's one true friend and former roommate or a "You can't like Max or Johnny, because you'd just be hurt when Becca is comes back. Max is going to marry her. We're trying to spare you from getting hurt," talk from Madison and Julia.

This novel was filled with tension from the time the "New Girl" set foot on the campus of Manderly until she graduated. I kept waiting for Becca to return, or for her roommate to try to kill her. And I'm not saying attempts were not made on her life. Her roommate was extremely abusive. The climax is unexpected and the accusations that fly are extremely revealing. I loved this book. The tension, the "New Girl" finding herself and refusing to give in to the constant pressure of being something she wasn't, the mystery behind Becca's disappearance, it all lead to a great story. I've never read Rebecca so I don't know how it did as a retelling, but as a novel for today, I thought it was excellent!

Oh, as a rating, there was a lot of casual sex, drinking and drugs, the typical fare of boarding schools that actually does happen parents. So be advised. The sex is not detailed, but there is a lot of it and the drinking is excessive. You've been warned. I think all of it was necessary for the story.

[Anjana · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."

Sound familiar? It would if you've read Du Maurier's 'Rebecca'. And if you have, you'll love this one!

I finished reading 'New Girl' hours ago and I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about it.
It is the kind of book that leaves you feeling confused and disconcerted but fascinated and amazed at the same time.

To begin with, this is the story of a girl (you don't know her name till the end) who's a new student at a prestigious boarding school - Manderly. Being the 'new girl' is hard enough but for this one, it's much much worse as she's filling the shoes of someone else. Someone who went missing the previous year. Everyday she hears whispers and rumors about the 'missing girl' Rebecca Normandy and is haunted by her memories despite having never met her.

I'm not going to elaborate any further on the plot because I feel that not knowing the plot is what made this book brilliant for me. There were times when I was so angry at the characters that I wanted to scream but I still couldn't stop reading. I loved and hated this book. I have to hand it to the Harbison, she's one hell of a writer and is marvelous at keeping you interested.

Sure, there were incidents that were disappointing and frustrating and that's why I'm not giving it 5 stars but it has a certain riveting element that still makes it an awesome read. The story wasn't perfect and like I said there were times I hated the book, but to me, a great book makes you get attached to the characters and I got to know every one of them in this story.

To be clear,'New Girl' made me go on an emotional roller coaster and at the end of it, I loved the ride. It's not even 2012 yet and I'm naming this one of the 'Must-Read' YA books of the year!

My Verdict.
'New Girl' by Paige Harbison is a highly thrilling, suspenseful and captivating novel and trust me, you want to read it.

[ExLibris_Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

New Girl is a retelling of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, set in a stodgy New Hampshire boarding school. The New Girl, whose name you won't find out until the very end ala Rebecca, is given a surprise by her parents and sent to school for her Senior year. Although that part of the plot was a bit far fetched, you just have to go with it. Used to the warmth of the Florida coast, New Hampshire is the rude awakening you would expect, but when the New Girl meets her roommate things start to get creepy. The New Girl is taking Becca's place at the school and is assigned to sleep in her old room with her very traumatized roommate. Throw in a handsome and "off limits" love interest, Max, and this modern day Gothic has many of the elements that made the original so good.


The details about the missing student, Becca, are revealed through flashbacks and alternating view points and I liked the extra insight that it gave the reader. It allows you to get to know Max and Becca more than it would if it were only told from on perspective. The isolated world of Manderly (no cell phones or facebook) is juxtaposed by the very modern mean girls who are there to remind everyone that Becca cannot be replaced. The New Girl tries to adjust, make friends and make the best of her senior year while fighting the memory of Becca. Although she wasn't always strong, she did eventually stand up for herself, which I liked reading. There was definite growth in her character; the New Girl and the end of the book was much different that the New Girl at the beginning. Overall, this story was everything a Gothic novel should be; creepy, romantic, emotional and mysterious. I think fans of Rebecca will enjoy this modern day retelling and those who haven't will be interested to read more books in this genre.

[royaevereads · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s been a long time since I’ve read a good thriller! This one was so captivating. I love a good scary boarding school story. The missing girl, Becca, who initially seemed so shallow, became convincingly troubling. And a clever side note? It took me until nearly the end of the book to realise that you never learn the main character’s name - it’s a perfect and subtle way to underline the fact that in this story, even though it’s about our main character, Becca’s name is the one on everyone’s lips.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I haven't read a Teen Harlequin book, since I was a teenager (too many years to mention here!), so I picked up this book based on the fact that it is a retelling of Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier and retellings intrigue me -- although, I have to admit that I never read DuMaurier's classic Gothic story. I would have loved this book as a teen, but as an adult, I found the writing a bit uneven (especially with the odd shifts in point of view at the end). However, I also found myself engaged with the setting, the plot, and the characters enough that I really wanted to find out what happened at the end. All in all, worth the fun read, but don't over analyze too much....

[Sašenka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hlavná hrdinka? A ktorá?
Príbeh sa delí na dve dejové línie, ktoré sa striedajú. Začíname pohľadom do súčasnosti. „Tá nová“ prichádza do Manderlyovej akadémie bez veľkého nadšenia a netuší čo má očakávať. No taký posledný rok, aký má pred sebou, rozhodne nečakala. Tieto úseky sú písané v prvej osobe.
Druhá dejová línia je spred roka, keď na tú istú akadémiu prvý krát prichádza Becca Normandyová. Dievča, o ktorom od začiatku vieme, že zmizlo a nikto skutočne nevie, čo sa s ňou stalo. Pohľady do minulosti sú rozprávané v tretej osobe.
Čakali by ste, že hlavnou hrdinkou bude tá, ktorej príbeh je rozprávaný v prvej osobe. No ja si tým nie som taká istá. Vzhľadom na to, že sa celá celučičká kniha točí okolo Beccy, tak by som označila za hlavnú postavu ju. To by však nebolo fér, takže môj konečný verdikt je, že sa tu nachádzajú dve takmer rovnocenné hlavné hrdinky.
„She looked like a movie star, but partied like a rockstar.“ Page 232
„Vyzerala ako filmová hviezda, ale na párty sa správala ako tá rocková.“ Str. 232

Vyšší level milostného trojuholníka...
... alebo milostný štvorec. V takmer každej YA knihe, kde sa nachádza aspoň trochu romantiky, narazíme na milostný trojuholník. Tu to autorka potiahla ešte ďalej a predstavila nám rovno milostný štvorec. Ak nie aj väčší n-uholník.
Na jednej strane Becca, arogantná povýšenecká mrcha (môže sa to zdať trochu prehnané, no verte mi, slovo mrcha Beccu naozaj dokonale vystihuje), ktorá je zvyknutá manipulovať ľuďmi naokolo, aby dostala čo chce a aby vyzerala dokonalo. Aby ju každý uctieval. A neváha sa zahrávať s dvoma chlapcami a tým, nie úplne vedome zničiť ich priateľstvo.
Oproti Becce stojí „tá, čo zaplnila miesto, ktoré sa uvoľnilo po jej zmiznutí“. Nechce vytvárať žiadne problémy, len v pokoji zmaturovať a znovu sa vrátiť k rodine a priateľom. No číro náhodná podoba s Beccou a zjavná fascinácia oboch chlapcov pôvodného trojuholníka jej prinášajú množstvo problémov, ktorým musí čeliť.
„She wanted him to spread around hiw fantastically talented she was at... stuff.“ Page 104
„Chcela aby sa rozširoval, aká úžasne talentovaná bola v... v istých veciach.“ Str. 104

Psycho...
Na začiatku knihy som mala pocit, že väčšina postáv bude tak trochu psycho. Počínajúc Danou, spolubývajúcou oboch dievčat, ktorá bola viac než čudná a skrývala pár tajomstiev, cez Beccu, ktorá bola psycho-šibnutá manipulátorka, až po celkovú psycho atmosféru, ktorú vo mne kniha vyvolala.
„It seemed suddenly to be a horrible idea, sleeping in the school you go to. Everyone was everywhere, every second of every day. And in high schol, that’s pretty much the fastest way to lose your sanity.“ Page 89
„Zrazu to vyzeralo ako príšerný nápad, spať v škole, do ktorej chodíš. Každý bol všade, každú sekundu každého dňa. A na strednej je to viac menej tá najrýchlejšia cesta ako prísť o rozum.“ Str. 89

Obľúbila som si...
... Maxa aj Johnnyho. Po pravde, ak by som si mala vybrať, nevedela by som. Obaja mali v sebe niečo špecifické, čo sa mi na nich páčilo a priťahovalo ma to k nim.
... Blake. Síce nedostala veľa priestoru, no za spôsob, akým stála pri „tej novej“ si zaslúži veľké plus.
... tému, príbeh, spracovanie, aj autorkin štýl písania. To ako úžasne opísala postavy aj situácie ma nútil stále čítať ďalej. Postavy boli realistické, chybujúce, nedokonalé a ich správanie zodpovedalo veku a postaveniu. Ja som sa dokázala takmer úplne stotožniť s hlavnou hrdinkou („tou novou“, nie Beccou), lebo mi prišlo, že máme rovnakú povahu a prístup k riešeniu problémov. Síce by som asi nespravila úplne všetko ako ona, no bola mi veľmi blízka. (A veľké plus má za to, že na internátnu školu chcela ísť po prečítaní Harryho Pottera!)
... to, že autorka podsúvala informácie, o ktorých som si až do ich odhalenia nebola istá, na koľko sú naozaj pravdivé a čo je iba výmysel.
„I didn’t know why I believed him, but I did. Maybe that made me the dumb girl in the horror movie who willingly takes the hand of her killer, but I did.“ Page 184
„Nevedela som prečo, ale verila som mu. Možno to zo mňa robilo tú hlupaňu v hororovom filme, ktorá dobrovoľne vezme za ruku svojho vraha, no verila som mu.“ Str. 184

Na záver zopár slov a jedna pikoška
Neviem či sa mi dostatočne podarilo vyjadriť moje silné pocity voči tejto unikátnej knihe. No rozhodne ju odporúčam všetkými desiatimi. Ja sama sa z nej budem ešte chvíľu spamätávať (A nakoniec som neodolala a aj som si ju na BD predobjednala... Za 5,20€... No nekúp to!)
Môj názor na obálku nájdete tu. A viete čo? Hodí sa k príbehu!
A ešte sľúbená pikoška! Asi ste si všimli, že som jednu z hlavných hrdiniek volala vždy len „tá nová“ prípadne inou obmenou. To preto, lebo jej meno je na celých 300 dačo stranách spomenuté jediný raz a ja to pekne ukryté, takže ak vás zaujíma, ako sa v skutočnosti volá, budete si to musieť sami prečítať.
„If I’d been a cartoon, my eyes would have popped out of my head and I’d have done a double take.“ Page 128
„Ak by som bola animovaná postavička, tak by som sa najprv poobzerala, či myslí mňa a potom by mi skoro oči z jamôk vypadli.“ Str. 128

[cissy · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I was going to give this 2 but I couldn't stop reading it and the ending was beautiful and very lyrically, something I love.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished this book in a day. 25 hours. So a day in a half. Regardless my point is that I could not put it down until I read every last word. Paige Harbison's writing style demands your attention, her characters crave to be analyzed and the mystery of Becca Normandy will keep you glued to the pages. This is definitely one of my favorite reads of this year.

New Girl seems to play tribute to the novel Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and even though I have never read Rebecca, I did go over the summary and New Girl seems like a very clever idea.

Our main character is in her senior year of high school, living it up in her hometown in Florida. Going to the beach, chilling with her best friend, and hanging out with her family until her parents deliver some great news: she's going to boarding school. Crossing a time zone, she is welcomed to Manderly with rumors. The reason why she got into Manderly was because a student, Becca Normandy, has been missing for months now, and no one knows if she is dead or alive. Even though Becca is gone, she seems to be more present with each day that passes.

The story follows 'the new girl,' whose name you do not learn until the very last page of the book. She has been accepted to Manderly Academy after Becca disappears but the entire student body only sees her as someone who wishes to replace the Mandery sweetheart. The reader will struggle with the new girl as she tries to establish an identity at a school that doesn't want to accept her. The plot is fast paced with twists and turns that kept me glued to the pages. I had to know what happened to Becca and how she became Manderly's sweetheart!

All of the characters were wonderfully in depth, especially the mysterious Becca who probably need two novels just to analyze her inner workings. I also loved how strong our new girl was. Even when life handed her lemons, she made lemonade and added a shot of vodka for the hell of it. She stood up for herself, she went after what she wanted, and that gets major kudos from me. The rest of the characters played out like the average CW show with the guy she shouldn't have, the girls who maybe weren't really her friends, the psycho roommate and the boy that wants her. Although it was formulaic it worked. All of the characters complemented each other and each character held onto a piece of Rebecca that the new girl would need to unravel the mystery around her.

The writing style was very current and very true to how today's youth both speaks and thinks. Riddled with pop culture references like Jersey Shore (one I'm ashamed to have recognized), Harbison has no problem tapping into the mind of the average 17 year old who is wrought with issues like boys, schools, and missing pretty girls. I especially loved that Paige Harbison included chapters from the previous year of Manderly so that we could get to know Becca as we witness how others in present day Manderly students are affected by her disappearance. We also see how some scenes are not painted as prettily as others remember them to be.

I adored this book. I did not know what to expect until the very last chapters. Was Becca dead? Was she haunting the school? Was she alive? Was she stalking the new girl who has taken her place? So many questions and for the most part, we are given the answers that we crave. There are only one or two questions that are left unanswered which bothered me a little, but it did not take away from my overall experience.

One thing that did make me raise an eyebrow was how the author dealt with sex. Yes some of the characters have sex, and seeing how I read quite a few adult novels as well, I'm used to flowery and detailed language to describe the act. I guess that doesn't happen to often in the Young Adult genre. Instead of the poetry and obscure terminology that I used to with the adult romance genre, Harbison write one simple phrase to indicate that the deed was being done: "they did it." Perhaps it's just me but it made me feel a bit awkward to have sexual acts described as "she/they/he did it" and to be done with it. But hey that's just me.

I recommend this for any one of loves teen drama like Gossip Girls. And I especially recommend this novel for those who are fans of either Pretty Little Liars or The Lying Game.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paige Harbison's "New Girl" is a modernized retelling of DuMaurier's "Rebecca" - taking place in a high school setting where the primary protagonist is a high school senior who ends up transferring to Manderley Academy, taking the spot of a missing girl named Becca. And not only does the "new girl" appear to resemble Becca, everyone seems insistent on thinking that she's trying to take Becca's place.

Reading "New Girl" in its entirety felt a bit like my experience watching the readaptation of "The Roommate" (the version with Leighton Meester). You know there's a trainwreck coming in this story, you know that the relationships have some symbolic meaning, but you're waiting forever for it to get to the point. The crucial points of tension that the story tries to establish feel forced and static as opposed to kinetic for at least the first third of the story, if not a bit longer, and I imagine people might wonder when the story really starts to get going. It takes a bit of patience and suspension of disbelief, and I'll admit I had to do the same to really get into the story. Even the premise of the story doesn't feel palpable, as the "new girl" is being forced to attend Manderley Academy because her parents are obliging her wishes from when she was younger? Uhh...not so convincing.

Nonetheless, once "new girl" starts settling into Manderley and when the associations start connecting, the ball drops and keeps rolling to the end. Harbison switches between Becca and the "New Girl's" perspectives to give an idea of the personality differences between them and provide insight to events in the story. Pretty much, Becca is not shown to be a very nice person - matter in point, she's rather insufferable, manipulating her relationships and teetering between a person who seems to know what she wants and one very uncertain, vulnerable girl. I'll admit I didn't really come to feel much for Becca, even after what happens to her and the truth is revealed, because I think there aren't really that many moments to connect with her. I think that might have been part of the intention, however. Most of the time, she's either seen trying to play puppeteer with her relationships or having sex between the two boys her affections orient toward. (And yes, there are a lot of shirtless scenes with said boys - I almost wondered if in moments that was kind of thrown in there. (*cough* Story momentum getting a little slow - shirtless boy! *coughs* - Sorry, I'm mostly kidding, but there were moments where it felt a bit weird to note. It was a detail that stuck out, rather than blending in.)

The sex scenes don't give too much detail, but enough detail to where you get an idea of what's going on.

Moving along to "New Girl" - at first I didn't really have a clear idea of who she was and couldn't connect to her, but as the story started moving along, and she started standing up for herself against an overwhelming set of odds (some, again, you have to suspend disbelief for), my opinion changed. And it came to my surprise that, in the end, she does have a name, and that's a nice punctuation for the conclusion because it gives a sense of her identity, rather than just being the carbon copy of Becca that people make her out to be in the time she spends at Manderley.

There were a lot of factual questions that I had that didn't seem to match up in the progression of the story - but again, I suspended disbelief enough to follow the story, and ended up thinking it was okay for what it offered. Was it a fascinating idea for a story? Heck, yes. Was it executed well? Not always, because having to question those factors can and will detract from a reader's experience if they catch them when they pop up. Not to mention I found the dialogue a little spotty and cheese in points, but I think that was more of a minor nitpick than some of the larger issues, like the pacing and flow. It's a struggle to get through the first third of the book, but once the conflict starts hitting, it became easier.

Overall, I think this is worth the time trying for its target audience, though if you're looking for something with a faster paced read where the conflicts are more rapid fire, it might not be your cup of tea.

Overall score: 3/5

Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher Harlequin.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Before I could talk myself out of it, his lips were on mine. My mind went blank. My body went numb. I faded into him, letting my bag fall to the floor. I didn't care if someone walked in. I didn't care if anyone saw." -New Girl

I'm not even sure on where to start with this review. This book was incredible. Although I haven't read the original Rebecca, I am familiar with the story having watched the movie a few years ago, so I'm not sure if I can make an comparisons. What I can say is that Paige Harbison has managed to create a fantastically spooky story, full of mystery. Having watched the movie (I know it's not the same as the reading) I can say that Paige has done an excellent job at a retelling this story.

We meet 'New Girl' (We don't find out her name until the end of the book) who's parents have managed to get her into the prestigious Manderley Academy, it's been a dream of hers from the age of 8, but she grew out of it and didn't have the heart to tell her parents. So she went anyway, and that's when it all began. She is treated as an outsider, people are mean to her thinking she is there to replace Becca, the girl who went missing a year ago. The only people who treat her with any kind of friendship are Johnny, Blake and sometimes Max who happened to be Becca's ex-boyfriend. The last thing she needed to do was fall for Max.

New Girl is told between alternate points of view. One from New Girl and the other from Becca. This is done extremely well and helps to see how different the school year was for both girls. Becca was popular, top of the student body food chain. She was also mean, manipulative, a liar, and a cheat. She scratched her way to the top by using the people around her to get her way and get what she wanted. Towards the end of the book when she eventually had her break down, I had little, to no sympathy for her. In fact I hated her and I felt myself getting angry with Becca through out the entire book. New Girl, was different. Although she was treated badly, she stood strong, she hung in there. I would have run away back home, but she didn't she stuck it out and showed that she wasn't just going to be intimidated by Becca's memory or her friends. New Girl is probably one of the strongest female protagonists that I've read about in a long long time, and I loved her from the start. I was able to connect with her on an emotional level. Even though Paige kept New Girl's name a secret until the very last page, it didn't deter me away from the book and it didn't feel like Paige was purposefully withholding the name. In fact when her name was revlealed in the end, I was excited to finally read it! It's a pretty name too ;)

The book itself is paced well, there aren't any dull moments (in my opinion). It's always full of intrigue and mystery. It's an extremely emotional book, which had me on a rollercoaster all the way through. I picked up so many feelings when reading this book. Anger, love, sadness, pathetic-ness. It's all there on every page. It was just simply brilliant.

Overall the ending was satisfying. Things seemed to wrap up nicely, but I felt it could have been a little more to it. It felt a little rushed but that didn't make me give it any less than 5 stars.

This was the first book that I've read of Paige Harbisons and I intend to read a lot more. She's wonderful story teller and brilliant writer being able to bring all of these characters to life. Being able to keep you in suspense right to the end. I will be reading from Paige Harbison most definitely, And if you haven't picked up New Girl yet, then I suggest you do so. It's absolutely thrilling and I wish there was more!

Note: This book is for mature adults due to use of coarse language, drugs, underage drinking, and teenage sex. I recommend this for 16+ ages.

Thank you to MIRA Ink for letting me review this.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

New Girl was kindly provided to me by Netgalley for HarlequinTeen.

NOTE: This book is adapted and a tribute to Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier in which the main character's name was never revealed. Although we do find out New Girl's name toward the end of the book, I will be leaving it out of my review for spoiler purposes

New Girl was kindly provided to me by Netgalley for HarlequinTeen.

'New Girl' has been accepted into Manderley Academy, a private boarding school in New Hampshire where she will complete her senior year, its a place she has dreamt of going for a long while and even though she is happy to have been accepted, she is also afraid of leaving her friends and family.

On arrival at Manderley, she meets her roommate Dana who is immediately hostile; from here on out everyone seems to know her as the ‘New Girl’ and she is only there to replace popular former student who is either missing or presumed dead – Rebecca (Becca) Normandy.

I initially felt really sorry for 'New Girl'; I would have been on the first bus home if I had of experienced what she was going through. She ended up having to create an identity for herself when everyone had already assumed she was trying to replace and replicate Becca.

We also read chapters from Becca’s POV and boy was she a piece of work, she craved attention and the spotlight, she seemed to lack affection from her parents and was putting on a fake façade and persona whilst at college, duping everyone as she went along with her trouble making and attention grabbing schemes.

Caught up in Becca’s games were Max Holloway and his best friend Johnny Parker, both of these characters I didn’t find appealing, they played into Becca’s hands and seemed to both want her for ‘one thing’. What 'New Girl' saw in Max was beyond me – she heard the rumors, was constantly reminded to stay away from him yet she still had an attraction to him, I really couldn’t enjoy their relationship, it wasn’t believable to me.

I found it really hard to rate this book, whilst I found the premise to be fascinating and intriguing, I just couldn’t connect with any of the characters, pretty much everyone at the college was cruel, judgmental and had a serious case of hero worship when it came to Becca �� it was a tad bit unrealistic and strange to me. 'New Girl' also didn’t appeal to me as a main heroine, she had her strengths but she also at times acted just as she was being treated.

Although I didn’t love this book, I still struggled to put it down (more out of my need to find out what really happened with Becca), I did enjoy Ms Harbison’s writing and the plot is certainly unique but it just didn’t appeal to me.

This book is definitely for the more mature teen, there is language, drug & alcohol use and sexual content.

[Alanna (The Flashlight Reader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s hard to write a good retelling of a classic. One that is both simultaneously true to its roots and original, without sounding strained. Well, New Girl by Paige Harbinson was pretty darn good.
I really enjoyed this retelling of the classic Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Rebecca has always been one of my favorite ghost stories. It’s haunting and eloquent at the same time. Anyone that has ever read this novel knows what I’m talking about. Needless to say, when I saw that there was a retelling of such a great story, I was intrigued. I had to know if a modern version would have the same level of suspense without seeming silly.
I loved what Paige Harbinson did with the story. The “new girl” enters a snooty boarding school as a replacement to the well-loved Becca Normandy. It’s a hard act to follow because Becca had everyone fooled. She was perfect: living a perfect life with the devotion of the perfect boyfriend—at least that’s what everyone was lead to think. But then she goes missing. Enter “new girl.” The moment she meets her roommate—Becca’s roommate—she is met with hostility and open resentment, which builds throughout the novel. Dana is absolutely horrible to “new girl.” I liked that this story took place in a modern setting with teenagers replacing the well-known antagonists from Rebecca. The catty comments and spiteful actions were very believable. In fact, it made me imagine what it might be like to truly be a new girl at a cliquish boarding school. Drown right frightening…
Then there is Max Holloway. Rar. Complicated, moody, totally dreamy Max Holloway. (Go ahead and swoon, it’s ok.) I thought Max was a wonderful Max. de Winter (original character). He had the same level of mystery that the original character had, without the horrible secret. The character of Becca Normandy was also well-written. She had the same crazy, demanding quality that only those most intimate with her knew. Most importantly though, I am thankful that the character of Becca’s secret lover was completely rewritten. (I couldn’t handle an incestuous relationship, sorry.) The passion was still there—like in the original—but it was much more believable in the modern version. It was a perfect love triangle. Well, two love triangles actually, but that’s another story.
If you liked du Maurier’s classic, you’ll appreciate this modernized retelling. If you have no idea what Rebecca is about, then you’re in for a treat. You’ll really enjoy this book. Of course, half the fun of retellings are looking for the similarities between the tales.

[Isamlq · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel for Becca as I do for Bridget (in Here Lies Bridget.) There’s nothing more to them her other than the fact that she’s a horrible person. And it was never more evident that when she was with Max. All her plotting and manipulating, showed just how little she regard she had for others. Add the fact that there was little remorse fro her in what she was doing. And while she showed strength and purpose, her actions simply went beyond the line of what I could stomach. My point? That she’s a bad, bad girl had been hammered into me, so I saw no other thing in her... heck, I couldn’t even feel sorry for her when the situation called for it.

As to the New Girl… it was different that her name was only revealed later; better even was that I only really noticed after her name had been called out. Such a fact simply points to how quickly I became engaged in their stories and how easily their two storylines meshed. Back to New Girl and what if felt for her: in a situation that’s less than ideal, I was surprised to see that she could be strong. Yes, there were drops into self pity (nobody likes me), but overall, she had a spine and used it.

Then there’s Dana who… Holy crap... was simply the most interesting out of all of them. I didn’t know what drove her, I could not put my finger on what made her tick… but that she’d freak out every so often... with no apparent reason, made her stand out. With Becca, it was all about me, myself and I. With New Girl, it was all… I’m new or Nobody likes me or I don’t want to be her... but with Dana, I simply didn’t know what was what (until the very end of course).

Now what’s there to say about the love interests? Both are pivotal in linking Becca to New Girl and vise versa. But what read ‘off ‘to me was how vastly different they came across with Becca then later with the New Girl. And OK where one was suave and cool, the other’s laid back and approachable… but beyond those things? There’s not much to add really.

But like I said, the writing kept me rooted because it flowed. I was never bored. Outraged, yes. Pissed off, certainly. Bored? Never. Because New Girl was intriguing and mysterious and kept me guessing… sure there were some iffy bits (see how the entire story gets started )(and icky bits as well,) but otherwise, I am relieved to have read this especially given the string of really bad books I’ve read of late. And if retellings were written to make one want to read the originals, NEW GIRL has done its job (for me at least).

3.5/5
THANKS NETGALLEY!

[Caz (littlebookowl) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Original review from Little Book Owl

New Girl is a dark, chilling read that drags you in to the story and keeps you guessing the entire way through. What happened to Becca?

I thought it was really interesting how the point of view changed every few chapters between the 'New Girl', where she told her story of moving to Manderley in first person, and then Rebecca, whose story was told in third person, but from the year prior. It created a greater contrast between the two characters and their personalities.

The 'New Girl' is a much more likeable character than Rebecca (Becca), who was overly confident, manipulative and a chronic liar. Even still, both of the girls characterisations were done very well. The new girl was a strong character, who continued to stand up for herself throughout her year at Manderley, even with the constant harassment for her peers. And just a side note, it took me a little while until I realised that the 'New Girl's name had not been given. I thought this was quite interesting, actually.

I wasn't a fan of the love interests. I really didn't like Max. At all. And I thought it was a shame that both Becca and 'New Girl' were involved with him. By the end, he had sort of redeemed himself. Sort of

The pacing was perfect. It didn't drag and yet it wasn't overflowing with action. It moved along nicely and kept me wanting to see what was going on. The writing kept me hooked the entire way through, anticipating the mystery of Rebecca's disappearance to finally be unveiled. I was left constantly guessing - Did she leave? Was she killed? Was she alive? Was she dead? You don't really known until the very end.

I was a little disappointed with both the beginning and end of the story. Firstly, it started out with an unrealistic premise - her love for Harry Potter in the 8th grade resulted in wanting to go off to boarding school. However, this dream did not continue throughout the four years since, yet her parents fail to realise this. I was a little frustrated with the last 20 or so pages. It could have ended closer to the climax. Don't get me wrong, I loved the execution of the climax, when you finally find out what happened to Becca. It is the pages that followed that left me a little bored. 'New Girl' goes on a bit of a rant which I thought was a little unnecessary.

Review copy provided by publisher vie Netgalley in exchange for an honest review