The Insiders

Insiders #1

by J. Minter

Join the fabulous life of the INSIDERS! And read more about about the lives and loves of these fabulous Manhattan boys in the INSIDERS PASS IT ON and BREAK EVERY RULE.A captivating scandalous look into the privileged and turbulent world of five cool guys living in Manhattan's trendiest neighborhoods. Jonathan is the leader of the pack - but what will happen if the pack falls apart? Arno's way with the girls makes you wonder, "Can boys be sluts?" David is known as the nice guy, but will he stay that way? Mickey is always in trouble - Romeo never fell off a roof impressing Juliet, did he? And Patch is just Missing in Action. They've got rich parents, go to top schools, and are best friends. With so many parties to go to, colleges to impress, girls to win over, and so much money to be spent, who can keep track of it all? And can real friendship shine through in the end? J. Minter's keen eye for urban teens, their dialogue, and the details of New York City's high life make this a guilty pleasure for readers of the Gossip Girl series and other glitterati novels. Reviews "Designed to resemble a Gossip Girl entry, this enticingly trashy entrant into the yearly teen beach read sweepstakes attempts to do for lower Manhattan what the Cecily von Ziegesar books have done for the Upper East Side." Publishers Weekly About the Author J. Minter is the writer and former columnist for Seventeen magazine. He lives in New York City.

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Chick Lit, Fiction, Teen, Contemporary

280 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2004

About the author

J. Minter grew up in New York City and attended Columbia University. He is the author of The Insiders series, and lives in TriBeCa, in New York City.

Reviews

[Krystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Look, it was okay but not really substantial enough to leave a lasting impression. I never really connected with the characters and normally I'm all over the ridiculous rich-kid drama.

Kind of more of a filler book than anything addicton-worthy. I didn't totally hate it, and even read the second book, but it was definitely nothing special.

[AtenRa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I admit that chick lit is my guilty pleasure,but this is overkill!

J.Minter's world in NYC is absolutely and utterly superficial.Flat characters, with nothing to show for themselves beside their unbelievably good looks and immeasurable amount of money, no plot whatsoever, unless you count the guys' numerous attempts to hook up with girls, which turns out it's all they can bother to think about.

Reading books of this genre you surely do not expect high quality literature.However, you do anticipate some kind(any kind!) of a story,around which the main characters of the book will develop.A plain novel structure that The Insiders simply didn't have.A guy version,and a bad one at that,of Gossip Girl?I'll pass!

[Geli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never read any of the Gossip Girl books, but I do plan to, so I can compare. I thought this was totally different from anything I had ever read. I like the way it goes from First person to third person. That was really different. It was a little confusing at first because the first person view changes every now and then so you have to pay attention to keep up with whos talking. But it really turned out to be good.

[Andreya · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was great, i finishedb it in a day or two.. i love the drama and i imagine the young rich teens as sexy wealthy boys having a good time.. it made me wish i was in their world of high class partying and life

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a reread for me I found it will cleaning out the attic
Rich kids no parental guidance
What not to do with your teenage children lol

[Dayjara Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Insiders" is a realistic fiction book about five young, rich, high school boys that live in Manhattan, NY. They have been friends for many years due to their parents.Jonathon, our protagonist and leader of the pack, encounters many difficulties throughout their friendship. They all attend top high schools, have rich parents, and go to many parties that have celebrities at them. Additionally,they all trust each other until one night everything goes wrong. Patch, one of the five friends, has a huge party at his house that he does not show up to. He is always missing in action because his parents are never home. Johnathon has a crush on his little sister, Flan Flood, and despises his other sister, February Flood. Johnathon has a girlfriend named Liza already, but always seems to fantasize about Flan. He describes her as a majestic and beautiful 8th grader. After dinner with his family and others that are visiting, he has to take his really beautiful cousin with him. Johnathon leaves his cousin with another one of his friends, who eventually has sex with his cousin by the end of the night. As soon as he arrives to the Floods' home, he goes up to Flan's room to check on her. The two flirt with each other, talk about their problems to each other, and tend to kiss every now and then. Throughout the book, Johnathon faces losing all of his friends for keeping this secret.

[Kiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hello Darlings! anyways today I shall make my review on the Insiders made by J.Minter so hope you like it and it helps.


The Insiders was an ok book I liked it but it was just... man I couldn't describe it. I liked how there were different viewpoints but then it started to become a bit confusing to me and I couldn't get it at all. It was a strange way to make the book but I liked it. I didn't love it as much as the last book but it was something that I enjoyed. I just wish that there was a bit more of some kind of structure but hey! I don't mind if you guys think it is fabulous and you just adore it so much! I am just giving my honest opinion on what I think. I like a book with very hard drama romance action and etc. some of the stuff people like me would like but anyways, back to the story.

I loved all the characters even the minor characters because it was just amazing how their personalities fit them very much. I found the book to be a very good book overall. I gave it three stars because I have read many books and I just found it to be around that range.

That is my review glitchies!! I hope you liked it and you thought it helped. I am trying to get myself to read divergent but it is very difficult but eventually I will. I hope too see you glitchies soon! until then toodles!
-EvilGlitchy

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember liking this series even though I found it to be full of holes in character development and plot (or plot lacking thereof).

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

worst. book. everrrrr.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book at times but you really have to focus on the characters' problems since it's all divided between many characters. There are rarely any moments where there isn't any drama happening to one of the main characters so that made the book interesting. I would recommend this book just to read to pass time, but not really as a series because the characters go through small problems along the way and not an overall problem that lasts throughout the book. Most characters were lovable but too many that by the end you really don't completely know or understand them like the Flood family. It's mostly about relationship problems which involve romantical relationships and friendships. A group of friends is torn apart by Jonathon's cousin, Kelli, who came to visit for a few months. She slowly tears them apart with other problems they face as well. The resolution to me was pretty funny. It's a quick entertaining read.

[Mikel Pfeiffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I needed a break from all of what had been reading so I picked up this breezy, teen read that's kind of like a male version of Gossip Girl. Overall, I enjoyed it. It was a kick to go back to high school and hang out with five rich guys that really don't have a care in the world besides wondering whether a girls likes them and where the next party is at. I enjoyed reading what was happening with some of the characters over others but all the chapters are short so you on to the next event before you get too bored. There are other books in the series, I don't own any but if I see one for cheap I might pick it up and catch up with them.

[Anuradha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe I'm too old or old-fashioned for this book, but I hated it. I really do not want our teenagers reading this, and basing their choices on shallow beliefs.

I could not continue after the first few chapters. I skipped to the end (which I never do) to see if there would be any improvement or any point to continuing, and found that there was nothing.

The book has no point, just rich obnoxious kids engaged in nothing but shallow pursuits.

[juliana · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was interesting and i did want to keep reading it, but at the same time none of the characters were making the best decisions and it was frustrating me because i think the conflict outweighed the good.. i think the writing could be really captivating at times and even helped me really really visualize what was happening and i think this book would do great as a film. still a three ⭐️ for me.

[Catie · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF it

[kaitlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was okay nothing too spectacular. Just a cute little story about a group a friends and a girl coming and messing it all up.

[Div · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weirdly entertaining. But characters are kind of flat

[Faith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just a bunch of horrible people doing a bunch of inexplicable and horrible things to each other without any…. anything. I hate them and I’m bored.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book because I secretly love the lives of fabulously wealthy people living in New York City. I had heard it was like Gossip Girl except it was a book full of boys. I have to disagree. I consider Gossip Girl a guilty pleasure--guilty because it's, of course, totally materialistic and shallow, but a pleasure because, for what it is, it has some sort of substance. This has nothing. It's fluff. The characters aren't interesting enough for me to care about. Arno is a complete womanizer who's supposed to be dreadfully handsome and all that, but he turns out to be very weak. David is a lumpy, mopey pile of laundry that was done about a week ago and has been sitting on a bed ever since because someone was too lazy to put it away. He cries a lot in public over his girlfriend who cheated on him with Arno which wasn't a huge surprise since she didn't seem to be very taken with David in the first place. He starts to get interesting near the end of the book for like five pages and then returns back to his lumpy, sweatshirty state. Patch is absent for the entire book up until around the last four chapters, and when he does show up it's barefooted and with a very vacant outlook on life. But that's apparently very cool according to Johnathan, who appears to be the narrator of the story and the leader of the group of boys. Probably because he's the only one who has his head on straight, minus the fact that he has feelings for a twelve year old. He was my favourite. I enjoyed the fact that he was obsessed with clothing and quite the shopaholic. Finally there's Mickey who's pretty much high on pain killers for the duration of the novel. He's the comic relief, I think. The boys don't think about much other than girls and hooking up, which they do often. The girls in this book, by the way, make me ashamed to call myself female. Overall, this book definitely wasn't worth the time and effort I put into reading it. I might read the second instalment of the Insiders to see if it gets any better, but I doubt it will.

[Gabriel Echeverria · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I think about this book was that it was exciting. What I mean by exciting is that the book had many twists like when Jonathon, the person who mostly leads his friends around and leads them to crazy parties that are specially made for those who are wealthy, was found out to have a crush on Flan Flood, the little sister of one of his friends named "Patch". But the problem is that Jonathon already has a girlfriend, Liza. Or when Patch throws a huge party which he cannot attend to due to his parents always dragging him around everywhere he goes. I would highly recommend this for teens 13 and over due to the strong language that the book uses. Overall, the book would be somewhat similar to "Gossip Girl" but in a male version instead of female. What I mean by this is that throughout the book, the guys are always so secretive about what they do. Take Jonathon for example. My favorite part would have to be on page 141 when it states,"He'd convinced himself that he was finally coming down from his pain killer cloud, and anyway he'd been sort of missing the place." This is significant because this shows how Mickey Pardo finally decided to go to school after missing out for a while due to him doing something he was not supposed to in his room. This meant that he was probably going to mess something up because he was still sober from the night before.

[Judith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a young adult novel, about a group of privileged male teenage friends who live in Manhattan.

As a rule, YA novels are written simply, without a lot of detail. This book takes that trend to a new level. It is so sketchily written that I often wondered what the fuss was about (it was explained in about two sentences and could be missed). Essentially, the issue in this novel is the visit of a cousin, Kelli, of the main narrator, Jonathan. She is beautiful and knows it, and inserts herself into the lives of most of the other characters, not necessarily in a good way. She's out for a good time and doesn't consider these friendships important.

Many episodes happen to each of the characters but these events are not meaningful to me because both the events and the characters are like transparent film. Hard to see.

Admittedly I am not a fan of YA novels. But this one is so bad it is hard for me to believe the comment on the back cover (by author Cecily von Ziegasar): "It's physically impossible not to fall madly, unreasonably in love with each one of the Insiders." Ridiculous. I hardly remember who they are.

[Jose Bou · Rating 3 out of 5]

When i first grabbed the book Insiders i read the back of the book it said something like its going 5 teenagers kids who live in New York and i admittedly started to think that this story was probably going to be about how me and my friends live. How me and and my friends are going to be when we get a house. About how me and friends act do and everything. Well guess what i was completely wrong this book was the opposite this book is about 5 young men who all they care about is having sex with girls and drugs. There isn't no scene in this book that you wouldn't hear about people having sex or doing illegal things. Me and friends do not think about hooking up with girls IR drugs me and my friends care about sports and grades without those life would i br hard. I have to addimitt that there are some types in this boom where you have to really think and have try your hardest to understand the things that such KS or else you would not knowibg what yur diung aftwe@is that you can't miss antdaya from this week

[Erik Saenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me gusto bastante, básicamente es la versión masculina de Gossip girl ya que aquí los protagonistas también son niños ricos que se la viven de fiesta y traicionándose unos a otros pero siguen siendo los mejores amigos (?) Creo que ademas logra que sientas empatía por todos los personajes y cada uno tiene una personalidad muy definida. La historia es muy simple y ligera lo cual me agrado, y lo sentí un poquito mas realista que GG el cual me parecía excesivo en ocasiones. Sin duda quiero seguir leyendo el resto de la saga.

[Samantha · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a waste of time. It was exactly like all the other high society teen chick lit out there (which I enjoy reading generally) but with male protagonists. The problem is that the characters all felt completely false -- like girls given boy names and semi-boy problems. Stick with Gossip Girl, It Girl or Au Pairs if you're into this kind of story.

[Solansh · Rating 3 out of 5]

10.20.10
i am currently reading this book, so far its going well. i read it while im on the train. even though im like in page 40, i can already see the drama building up, and i like how it sets in NY, so when they mention a place, i know what their talking about and i can imagen how the atmosphere around them is.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're looking to read a trashy chick-lit novel about how guys (wealthy, arrogant high school boys) think, then this is your book. The characters are hardly developed as anything more than stoned human beings. They're fake, but funny- they live in a world where the most expensive pair of shoes is all that matters. A quick read. It was mildly entertaining for me.

[Maria · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is terrible. Do not read. The characters are flat, there is no plot, and the best part was when it finally ended and I could be done with it. If I hadn't needed to read this for my children's literature class, I would have never read it on my own and I would have stopped ⅓ way through it. Don't waste your time.

[Viviana · Rating 3 out of 5]

What can I say? It was interesting. I'm not one to read books where boys are the main characters. But I want to read the rest of these books since I saw somewhere that its a series. Can someone tell me which book goes first?

[Sandy · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Gossip Girl for guys or something like that. Rich boys who go to a private school and can have any girl they want cause of course they're good looking too. This book left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

In downtown New York City, a sophisticated, stylish high school junior is already having trouble keeping his group of lifelong friends together when his wild cousin Kelli arrives from St. Louis and stirs things up.

[Sasha Strader · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know those books you're terribly impressed with, but you really couldn't put a finger on why? This was it for me. I tore through it like a fat chick through M&Ms. Can't wait to read the next one!