Jake Finds Out

Making Out #2

by Katherine Applegate

When Jake finds out that his ex-girlfriend Zoey had deceived him and his new love Claire has also betrayed him, he decides to seek revenge. Original.

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Fiction, Teen, Childrens, German Literature, Death

212 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

#1 New York Times bestselling author Katherine Applegate has written many books for young readers, including THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN, winner of the 2013 Newbery Medal.

Katherine’s picture books include THE BUFFALO STORM, illustrated by Jan Ormerod (Clarion Books); THE REMARKABLE TRUE STORY OF IVAN, THE SHOPPING MALL GORILLA, illustrated by G. Brian Karas (Clarion Books); SOMETIMES YOU FLY, illustrated by Jennifer Black Reinhardt (Clarion Books); and ODDER: AN OTTER’S STORY, illustrated by Charles Santoso (Feiwel & Friends).

She’s written or co-written three early chapter series for young readers: ROSCOE RILEY RULES, a seven-book series illustrated by Brian Biggs (HarperCollins); DOGGO AND PUPPER, a three-book series illustrated by Charlie Alder (Feiwel & Friends). With Gennifer Choldenko, she co-authored DOGTOWN and MOUSE AND HIS DOG, illustrated by Wallace West (Feiwel & Friends).

Books for middle-grade readers include HOME OF THE BRAVE (Feiwel & Friends); THE ONE AND ONLY series, illustrated by Patricia Castelao, including THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN, THE ONE AND ONLY BOB, THE ONE AND ONLY RUBY, and THE ONE AND ONLY FAMILY (HarperCollins); the ENDLING trilogy (HarperCollins); CRENSHAW (Feiwel & Friends); WISHTREE (Feiwel & Friends); WILLODEEN (Feiwel & Friends); ODDER (Feiwel & Friends); and the forthcoming POCKET BEAR (Feiwel & Friends).

With her husband, Michael Grant, Katherine co-wrote ANIMORPHS, a long-running series that has sold over 35 million books worldwide. They also wrote two other series, REMNANTS and EVERWORLD, and a young adult novel, EVE AND ADAM (Feiwel & Friends.)

Katherine’s work has been translated into dozens of languages, and her books have won accolades including the Christopher Medal, the Golden Kite Award, the Bank Street Josette Frank Award, the California Book Award Gold Medal, the Crystal Kite Award, the Green Earth Book Honor Award, the Charlotte Zolotow Honor Award, and the E.B. White Read Aloud Award. Many of her works have appeared on state master lists, Best of the Year lists, and Publishers Weekly, USA Today, and New York Times bestseller lists.

Katherine lives in Nevada with her husband and assorted pets. She is represented by Elena Giovinazzo at Heirloom Literary and Mary Pender at WME.

Reviews

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Squeeee this is so good :D :D :D :D

At this point I love everyone but I think my favourites are (in order):
1. Lucas *swoon*
2. Nina
3. Zoey
4. Aisha
5. Jake
5. Benjamin
6. Christopher
7. Claire

(The scale is like Zoey and Lucas are like a 10 and Christopher and Claire are like a 9 so this doesn't mean I don't like them. Going to try to rewrite this list after every book. I'm sure my opinions are gonna change! Except for Lucas. Lucas and I are going to get married.)

SPOILERZ:

I really like Lucas and Zoey together and all their scenes ♥. I felt sooooooooo bad for Lucas, having to pay so much for what Claire did. When he was the one who was telling her to pull over.

I love Nina. She is my spirit animal. I relate to her probably the best out of all of them so far. I hope either she and Benjamin hook up, or she finds someone else she likes. I think it'd be okay too if Benjamin and Nina are just friends, even if she would be sad about it. Things like that don't always have to work out, even if you really want it to. But I hope she finds someone :( (Jake????)

Claire came off as really like... kind of unlikable in the first book. But I feel like she's someone I'm going to grow into for sure. She's very strong. As much as I thought it was super shitty of her to let Lucas continue to take the fall for what she did and not even ONCE try to talk to him, I kind of understood why she didn't. If put in the situation, I know I might do a lot of things to protect my dad and my family if I had to. I really hope she talks to Lucas, but I hope she does NOT hook up with Lucas even though she probably will. Sigh. My opinion of her definitely started to change when she finally admitted that she was driving.

Poor heartbroken Jake :( He's such a sweetheart. I feel really terrible for what he went through. He's still grieving for Wade, and then Lucas comes back, and his girlfriend breaks up with him FOR Lucas, and now his new girlfriend Claire admits that she actually drove the car that killed Wade :( That is a lot for one guy to deal with on his own :(

I also really like Benjamin and his sense of humour. I'm on the fence about whether he actually just doesn't see Nina as a potential love interest, or if he's being purposefully coy because he doesn't think she's interested.

I REALLY like Aisha. In some ways I was actually a little disappointed that she finally went on a date with Christopher. I wish she had've held out a little longer and gotten to know him more. Christopher can be a definite jerk, but he's also really charming and that can be a really dangerous combination.

Very worried about Jake driving drunk at the end :( That's not the solution :( Hoping he and Lucas will make up after he finds out the truth. He has a lot to apologize for, even if how he treated him was understandable given what he thought he knew. Even though I'm 99% sure it doesn't happen 1% of me is still desperately hoping Lucas and Jake will hook up. Because come on, that'd be so fucking perfect.

[Nicky (burialshroud) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid effort. Slightly less eventful than the first instalment but still full of loveable characters and too cute, too witty repartee.

So, spoiler alert, Lucas wasn't really responsible for the accident that killed Jake's brother Wade. CLAIRE WAS. She's only just starting to remember the events of that night and is sitting on this information for now, so that she can make out with Jake and watch him play football. Then Lucas' salty sea-dog father books Lucas on a flight to Texas, to live with relatives and lift the fog of shame from the Cabral household. Zoey is heartbroken and Claire starts to feel guilty. Aisha and Christopher go out.

In my memories of this series, Jake is a no-neck, humourless jock. In my re-read he is sincere and funny and gets dicked around by practically everyone he meets. Claire on the other hand, is completely deluded and envisions herself as some kind of romantic puppet-master.

Fave moments:
-The gang go out to the cinema together. The chapter before this cuts between characters and their plans for the evening; Nina's seating plan machinations are super cute. Also love the pre-show badinage.
-Nina takes Benjamin to a Bach concert, she dresses up real nice, wears "enough perfume to fumigate a barn", everyone says how nice she looks but she still feels like "the largest, most conspicuous dweeb on earth" LOOOOVE HER.

Notes:
-No mention of Jake's disappearing sister Holly.
-This novel is dedicated to Applegate's fellow YA titan Ann Brashares of Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants fame. Awes!

[Katelynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have TOO MANY FEELINGS about TOO MANY PEOPLE

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

So Jake really does find out.

* Jake finds out that Zoey is with Lucas, which doesn't go sown very well.
* Claire pounces on Jake within a few hours of him finding out about Zoey, and they're immediately an item.
* Lucas gets a message from his dad that he's booked him on a flight to Texas for Saturday, this also doesn't go down well.
* Aisha goes on a date with Christopher who she obviously likes, but won't admit it.
* Nina asks out Benjamin, but he doesn't really get the message that it's a date.
* Claire eventually feels so guilty about Lucas being punished again for her mistake, she admits to his father that she was driving not Lucas, and his father tells him he can stay.
* Claire also admits that she was driving to Jake, and even tells him that she moved the wheel at the last minute so that the car would hit the tree on the passenger side, killing his brother Wade, but saving herself.
* Jake drinks a load of beer, and drives to the site of the accident where the others find him passed out in the drivers seat.

- Not sure that Jake will ever forgive Claire for killing his brother 😬 The way she described making sure the tree didn't kill her and killed Wade instead must have been the final nail in the coffin.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revisiting my favours series of books from my youth and loving the journey. A great sequel

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoying my re-read of this series. This book was full of emotion. Claire is just the worst! Really want to see how Nina's story arc is going to proceed as I seem to have forgotten the details from my first time reading this series.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

November 2022 Point High School Book Club readalong

Tight writing, not discouraged by the instalove. Really enjoyed this one and I think I'll have to at least get through the first 8 books before it changed authors.

[Reading with Cats · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zoey obsesses over Lucas, Nina obsesses over Benjamin, Aisha obsesses over Christopher and Claire obsesses over Jake while thinking she’s some teen master manipulator. Meanwhile everyone’s angst-o-meter is set on 11. And poor Jake has a spectacularly terrible week.

[Melissa McGuire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the first book this one was jut as good and exciting

[Katie (Kitkatscanread) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a re-read for me.
I loved remembering everything that happened.
Full of drama and secrets.
Ends on a cliffhanger.
Can't wait to crack on with the next in the series.

[Kiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75/5 stars

[Taylor Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Im intrigued to find out what happens next....

[Emma Beckett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, swoon!
I love this series just as much as I did 25 years ago.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as action-packed as the first book and with less humour although I liked Ben in this one. Still enjoying this.

[Neve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t think I’ll write a review for all of these books cuz they’re basically one big book but I reckon I’ll love them all
……….

At least Claire sorted herself out ish

[Maria P · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easy and short read to end the year on. A good YA fiction book.

[Dori · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was younger, I never imagined that the events took place is like a week in this book.

[belindag26637 · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are extremely fun and quick books. Very much enjoying the drama.

[Elaine Mullane || Elaine and the Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feeling nostalgic for the books of my youth, I revisited Katherine Applegate and her Islanders omnibus editions (first released as the Making Out series way back in 1993. Yes, I am that old...).

While I found them to be overly-dramatic and a little bit cheesy on second reading, I think they would be loved by teenagers today. YA has taken a much-welcome step in the sphere of fantasy, science fiction and Dystopia, largely, in recent years so for teenagers looking for the traditional romance novels filled with teen-angst and buried secrets, these are a good series to turn to. A little bit Dawson's Creek in it's setting and it's drama, The Islanders is the perfect teen soap opera.

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has a surprising number of characters for its length and reading level. They also weren't always clearly set apart, so keeping track of them was sometimes confusing. Maybe it would have been easier if I'd read the first book, but I don't feel like I missed anything else by skipping it. Then again, the plot mainly involves shuffling relationships around, so a large cast was probably necessary. The author tried to help by including journal entries and internal dialogue in the characters' own handwriting (in pretty bad handwriting fonts, actually), but I found it only made reading more tedious, and basically spelled out things that could have been foreshadowed more subtly. There is, in fact, a scene in an English where foreshadowing is explained more or less as telling the reader what's going to happen before it does. And Katherine Applegate does just that. The back cover copy is basically all there is to the plot, and the secret that Jake's going to find out is revealed early on. Most of the book after that is spent figuring out who's dating whom. Near the end, a wrench is thrown into this pattern when Lucas' father decides to send him away to live with his grandfather in Texas. He's plead guilty to driving drunk, resulting in the death of Jake's brother, Wade, all referenced apparently from the previous book. Only at the last moment does Jake's girlfriend (formerly Benjamin's, I think maybe) Claire reveal to everyone that she was the one driving and had amnesia all along. Then Jake finds out, nothing really consequential happens, and the book abruptly ends. Even though very little is going on in this book, the diction and exploration of character's motivations were good enough that I never had any trouble making it to the end, which is more than I can say for a lot of books that I've liked a lot more than this one.

[C. B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember being obsessed with this series when I was 14! I made my mom buy me all 29 books (in Germany a 29th book was published, there is no English translation) after borrowing the first one from my then-best friend.
Looking back, the plots got wilder and wilder with time: A lost half-sister, Claire's stalker, Ben miraculously being able to see again etc. I don't think I would enjoy it as much now as I did ten years ago, but it will only have a special place in my heart.

[Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again, there's still very little substance, but we'll see what happens. And I did not see that coming about Nina, at all, while I was able to predict the twist with Claire in the last book. We'll see what happens.

[Jenaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

good

[Isa · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0

[Zuzanka · Rating 5 out of 5]

nic

[Lianna]

Again easy to read and predictable. I love 90's books.

So much couple switching in this series though..

[Nadine · Rating 4 out of 5]

diese Buchreihe hat mich während meiner Teeniezeit begleitet. ich habe sie so geliebt...

[Liz Laurin]

Re reading my favourite books of my teen years might be a mistake, but it's fun so far.