Top 8

Top 8 #1

by Katie Finn

Social networking sites are THE place to be for today's teens -- this fun, juicy novel explores the ups, downs, and scandals of a group of friends online!

Madison MacDonald is seriously freaking out

Madison MacDonald
16
Putnam, CT

Single?

About
Everything in my life was working out. I had my three best friends, a brand-new boyfriend, and the lead in the school play. Aside from that history paper I hadn't started, things felt perfect.

Then I returned from spring break to find my Friendverse profile hacked. Someone clearly out to ruin me had spilled the most damaging secrets - AND posted the worst photos of me ever taken - online.

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

308 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2008

About the author

Katie Finn grew up in Connecticut, in a town that looks an awful lot like Putnam. During high school, she was a total theater devotee (like Madison) and never dreamed she’d be a writer. But lots of Katie’s high school misadventures have made it into her books…which just goes to show that you never know!

She currently lives in Los Angeles, California, in a house she wishes was a lot closer to the beach.

Reviews

[Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Morgan Matson (aka Katie Finn) is so great at character development, it's literally ridiculous. I loved how fun this novel was, the quotes and songs are so great and the twists and turns made this super duper entertaining. If you've loved all her other stuff, you will love this!

[Hailey (Hailey in Bookland) · Rating 4 out of 5]

just remembered that i had read this forever ago so ayo

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

TOP 8 was a book that I didn't want to put down once I started reading.

Madison MacDonald is stuck going on a trip to the Galapagos Islands with her family for spring break. She's not thrilled about it at all. She's recently started dating Justin Williamson (seventeen days) and doesn't want to leave him or her friends. And to make matters worse, she can't take her cell phone or laptop with her because they'd be useless.

The trip turns out to be okay, and there was even a sort of cute boy about her own age on the trip, but the whole time she just wanted to get home. Had she known what was awaiting her return, she might have changed her mind.

The minute she got home, she ran to her temperamental laptop to check her Friendverse account. She can't believe what she sees. She's so stunned that she reboots her laptop to make sure she logged onto the correct profile. Friendverse is the latest in the Facebook/MySpace trends. Someone has totally changed her profile! The photos that are uploaded are the most unflattering possible. And the comments she's received from her friends leave her flabbergasted. The things that they're saying she's said about everyone. This just can't be right! And Justin has broken up with her!

Madison calls an emergency session with her three best friends: Schuyler, Liz, and especially Ruth. After struggling to explain the situation, all three friends believe her and vow to help her discover the culprit. Madison can't imagine why anyone would do such a thing to her. The four girls come up with a list of two possible perpetrators: Kittson
Pearson, who is in charge of the junior prom and has just stolen her boyfriend, and Connor Atkins, who has lost the student secretary election to Madison.

Madison vows to discover the evildoer and to get Justin back. But what she doesn't count on is running into the sort of cute boy from her trip. He's not just sort of cute, he's really cute, and his family lives in the next town over!

Madison is far from perfect and comes to realize her faults by the end of the story. The things her friends accuse her of saying are true, in a way. But she doesn't deserve the headaches that the hacker sets her up for.

TOP 8 moves so quickly that you will find yourself determined to finish the book in one sitting. I thought I had the culprit figured out early on, but I was totally wrong in my assumptions! Ms. Finn wrote an amazing first novel. Having enjoyed this as much as I did, I can't wait to see what her future books will bring!

[Stephany · Rating 5 out of 5]

If a book ever made me smile nonstop, giggle uncontrollably, made my stomach flop, made me verbally exclaim different sentiments ("I saw that coming!" "Omg, I knew it!" "I totally saw that coming!!"), it is this book. And I rarely get into books that much.

From the beginning, I didn't understand what was so great about her boyfriend, Justin. When she first explained what he's like and how happy he makes her, I was like, "Aww, how sweet." But then she would think about him and think of his hair and his muscles, and I was like, "Really?" Madison appeared very shallow, and honestly? She was. But as the story went on, I saw her change as she realized that if people have accused her of telling their secrets behind their back and she claims "I'd never post it online!", that doesn't really make her a better person.

I greatly enjoyed the interactions between Madison and her four best friends, Ruth, Lisa, and Schuyler (my only problem with Schuyler was that they apparently pronounced it "Shyler" instead of "Skyler"). They each had unique personalities, although at first it was a little difficult to discern which friend had the "sailing accident," which had cheated on their boyfriend/girlfriend, and which had gotten grounded because of exposed online pics of his without-permission parties.

So the "kinda-cute" boy Madison describes in the beginning of the book? Yeah, I knew he'd be comin' back. And I knew she would realize that Nate (Nate from Jonathan--adorable!) was way better than Justin, although it took her much longer than I expected. It definitely doesn't help (does help?) that, since this book is mainly about a social networking site, there is a picture of said adorable Nate in the book, and frankly? I want one. :D

The search for who hacked Madison's Friendverse account seemed very middle-grade and cliche-Nancy-Drew, but the way Madison grew from it and became friends with the people she ends up accusing made it seem more mature. Of course, at first Madison is very melodramatic and "Omg" about it (no joke there), but she begins to realize that it wasn't only her life that was "ruined"--it was the lives and relationships of her friends.

The way this book was written also helped with how addicted I was. I enjoyed the pages filled with the Friendverse website profiles and chats and texts; it made the story seemed even more real. And Madison's erratic way of thinking is so hilarious and cute that you can't help but fall in love with her, even if she does start out as a shallow...female dog.

This book is a quick, easy, and incredibly enjoyable read that anyone who enjoys girly love stories with a slight Sarah Dessen feel is bound to love, too. Obviously, I loved it very much.

[Katie Miller · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a teenager who practically lives on the internet, when I received this book as a gift I thought, "meh. okay, I'll read it." I find that most "internet based" books are written from a parent "OMG YOU NEED TO WATCH WHAT YOUR KIDS OD ONLINE BECAUSE EVERYONE IS AN EVIL HACKER EXCEPT YOUR KID" perspective. This book did not fail to bring out that perspective. Aside from the predictable parent-esque attitude about the internet, I mostly found this novel shallow and unrealistic. Most people, if they were to get hacked, would probably just delete their profile/blog/whatever. Bam! Problem solved, right? Apparently that course of aciton is just too hard to fathom, because instead of deleting, Madison just kind of lets it go on. Sigh. Madison in herself is purely irritating (WHO PAINTS A LAPTOP. WITH PAINT. WHO ARE YOU WHAT NO). All she is concerned with is her multiple love interests (why are they even all interested in her she's literally more annoying than a wasp). All in all, this book was just, uh, not good. The predictable storyline (Wow, rich white girl's life is just so perfect and then BAM- psuedo-crisis that is easily fixable but no) and irritating attitude and characters rendered this unreadable for me.

[KC Herbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bring back being 16

[Anna Hardesty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I feel like this is a really easy book to relate to, especially if you're in high school, obviously. The main character, Madison, went somewhere over spring break & when she came back, her Friendverse (keyword for basically a MySpace or Facebook) & it had been hacked. See, Madison has a problem with telling her other close friends everything about everyone else. She's not real good at keeping her mouth shut, and that seems to be her biggest problem. Her "hacker" seems to know everything she's every said about someone behind their back & now their using it against her. She lost her boyfriend because of it and everyone in school was mad at her. Now, I've read some other reviews on this and they claim that she's stuck up, you can't relate to this book, blahblah. I disagree. I think this book's main lesson or "theme" is for you to stay true to your friends and true to yourself. I love this book & love the way it's written. I love the font, I love the way it shows you her updated profile & her top 8. Trust me, it's a cute read & it actually teaches you something!

[Adele · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book didn't knock my socks off. I think the whole solution to having one's friendverse site hacked would be to delete it. Or is that just me? Despite this, I think it had an interesting message about dissing people behind their backs. The hackers (of which I guessed very, very early) parroted Madison's own comments about people on her myspace-like site while she was on vacation. So while she had been hacked, she couldn't really defend heself against the comments. An interesting predicament indeed.

The formatting throughout is very interesting as it shows Madison's actual profile page including the changing top 8 friends, comments and so on. This got a little old after awhile as the msn's were also included in the text. I am not against their inclusion but I have a problem when they are pretty pravalent in a novel. What I really did enjoy was the great songs and quotes listed at the start of each chapter. One of my student's (grade 8) read this book and really enjoyed it so maybe I am just being old and jaded? Or maybe it's just something to read

[Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Real rating: 3.5 stars!

The type of book you can read in one sitting. It was so absorbing and fun, with all the little red herrings in the mystery. It's too bad episodes of Inspector Morse have trained me to think outside the box, so I guess the hacker about half way through. Still, Top 8 has some excellent messages about sharing information and the keeping everyone's trust.

[Fairytalebliss · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Morgan Matson's writing and I'm so glad I found her books she wrote as Katie Finn. The story is a perfect summer read for teens/preteens. It's a pity I didn't have the chance to read it earlier because I'm sure I would enjoy it a lot more if I were younger. I wasn't expecting much from this book but it really surprised me because it was just amazing!

[Jacquelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plot: 6/10
Creativity: 7/10
Writing: 5/10
Characters: 7/10
Pacing: 8/10

Total: 33/50

I liked this book enough for me to want to continue on with the series, but it wasn't anything special. It was a light read. Pretty quick read. I really liked how things came through in the end.

[ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

-This book is most definitely a guilty pleasure. It was very flawed, but it's Morgan Matson! And Morgan Matson is amazing! If you didn't know already, Morgan Matson also writes under the name Katie Finn.
-The whole plotline of the story was very, very, cheesy but the mystery did keep me intrigued. Surprisingly, I had no idea who hacked the account until a bit over halfway and I put all the pieces together.
-Madison at times could be very annoying and naive. Her need for Justin really bothered me.
-All of the relationships were very cute besides the ones with Justin in them. Just no. Please stop.
-Morgan Matson is so talented at writing friendships! I loved most of Madison's friends and they were great support system.
-If you need to escape a slump, or want to read something very fluffy, Top 8 is perfect.

[ab ˖ ࣪ · Rating 5 out of 5]

another reread from childhood. ❤︎ this was cute, even though it was always obvious who the hacker was.

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genre: Young Adult

I chose this book because of the title. When i went threw the isles of books the title caught my eye.

Katie Finn's Top 8 was an intriguing book that i never wanted to put down. It started with Madison MacDonald who is a 16 year old girl living in Connecticut. Her life seemed perfect; she had a new boyfriend Justin (of 17 days), the lead in the school's next production, and three amazing best friends (Ruth, Lisa, and Schuyler). But her life turned sour when Mads came back from her spring break trip and found her Friendverse profile had been hacked. Whoever hacked her profile broke up with Justin, had shared horrible pictures of her, and had spread other people's secrets. Ultimately whoever did it tried to destroy Madison's Reputation.
From that point on she is tried to solve the hacking mystery, convince Justin they are meant to be, and to somehow convince everyone to forgive her. But she soon learns that the answer you’re looking for is right in front of you.

The Conflict in the story is both Man vs. Man and Man vs. Self. Someone was trying to destroy Madison's life by hacking her profile and turning everyone against her. But ultimately it's up to Madison to figure out who hacked her, make amends with those who were hurt, and choose to listen to her heart or her head.

I believe the theme of this book is to be careful with what you say and who you say it to, because what you say could come back to haunt you. Madison defiantly learns that talking behind other people's backs just causes more problems.

I think that Madison’s laptop represents a form of security. No one expects that they could be a victim of hacking, yet it happens all the time. All of her personal information was trusted on her laptop which ended up helping the hacker. She was so comfortable and trusting that no one would take advantage of her that in the end she set herself up for a downfall.

Katie Finn made this book interesting with a teenage point of view. She used a Friendverse profile format in parts of the book giving it a new edge. The language was very easy to read and understandable. The book was in Madison's point of view which gave insight to what she was thinking but didn't want to say.

This book was a very interesting book from beginning to end. At the moments you thought were going to be predictable a curve ball was thrown. It was a story of a girl who had to learn many lessons about friendships and relationships. I would recommend this book to teen girls and older. Many girls who have social networking sites can relate to Madison's situation and enjoy the ups and downs she faces.

[Joyce Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joyce Baker
Mystery

For two weeks, Madison MacDonald goes to Galapagos Island for spring break with her parents and her little brother Travis. She comes home and discovers her Friendverse account has been hacked. The hacker was relentless. Madison meets with her three closest friends. They forgive her but others are not so easily persuaded.

To Madison’s dismay, she is hacked again. This time the hacker stole and returned her laptop out of her locker to do the crime. Madison cannot figure out who hates her so much until her father makes a statement. She is able to figure out the guilty parties.

In the end, Madison emails a sincere apology to all her friends. She also has an encrypted new password and a new boyfriend.

This was a light weight mystery for teens. I had figured out the identity of the hackers like ten chapters before it is revealed. Nevertheless, the overall message of the book was very positive.

[7703arlet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good realistic-fiction book. It's about a girl named Madison who goes to vacation over spring break. When she comes back she finds out that her Friendverse profile had been hacked. It revealed secrets of other people and they got mad at her because they trusted her to keep their secrets confidential. Madison just wanted things to go back to normal and to find out who her hacker was. I really enjoyed this book because this book is a mystery book and I just wanted the pieces to fit together and find out who the hacker was. I also enjoyed this book because it just got you for reading more to the end (I guess because it was a mystery). I think people who read "The Internet Girl" by Lauren Myracle will love this book.

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

So when I first picked up this book, I really liked the plot and couldn't wait to see where the author took it. But about half way through, I realized that it was going to be very cliché, and very unrealistic. By the time that I was finished, I realized that I was right. To be honest, there were times where I was getting bored with it and just wanted to finish it so I could move on. There was a good plot, but I think the author just needed to take it a different way.

[Nisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book! Plus, it was very easy to get into because the story is exiting right from the beginning of the book! I could not put this book down. It was really a page-turner because it was very exiting and interesting. I like how the plot is very original and the characters are easy to relate to. I would recommend this book to teen girls who like reading about highschool and things like that.

[Dominique Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was beyond excellent, I could NOT put it down. Madison Macdonald is 16 year old girl, and just like every other 16 year old her life is completely dependent on social media, but over spring break someone hacks into her account and spills secrets of her friends, all over the internet causing her friends to turn their back on her, and her boyfriend to break up with her. Can Madison figure out who's impersonating her, reclaim her friends and love back?

[Kaitlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was just okay and I basically ordered it for a quick read at work. Someone hacked the main girl's online profile (a lot like facebook) while she was on vacation and she is dealing with the consequences and trying to figure out who did it throughout the book.

[Cristi-Lael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read, and a cute book. I did, however, see some similarities between this book and Matson's newest book. That's not a bad thing, and I may have not noticed if I hadn't just read them both recently.

[Véronique · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book used to be one of my favourite books as a kid! I've read it like a thousand times. I look forward to reading it again soon, but this time in English haha c:

[Jenni · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh.

This book is popular with my students.

UGH.

That's all I can say.

Oh, and I'm thankful Myspace went under.

[Nicole Nash (Costanza) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Friendverse is the social media site that EVERYONE is using (think MySpace and Facebook). When Madison goes away for speing break, her life is good: she has three best friends, a cute boyfriend, and the lead in the school play.

But when she returns from Spring break, she discovers that someone hacked her Friendverse account. Now half the school hates her, her boyfriend and her broke up, and the theater students don't trust her. Can Madison figure out who did it while also playing damage control with the people she accidentally hurt? 💻🖱

This was a series I read years ago and decided to re-read the 3 books to finish out my reading goal for the year. This was a cute book and an easy read, especially for the YA crowd.

What I liked:
• The quotes and songs at the beginning of each chapter
• I love when texts, chats, etc are included in the story - it makes it feel more real.
• Watching Madison realize as time went on how she should always watch what she says about other people. She came off as this "perfect" and "nice" girl but did talk behind others' backs. It shows her maturity.
• All of the side characters. It was perfect for a YA novel.
• Nate!
• The "who done it?" aspect. I vaguely remember who did it and was surprise I almost got it right at the end...

What I didn't like:
• Everything that happened occurred within a week (from what I got) but it felt like everything that happened occurred within a longer time frame.

I highly recommend this to YA readers and even adults that need a quick, easy read. Especially after reading anything heavy that you need a break from 😅💻

[Hailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book “ Top 8 “ wasn’t just a book t to me but I actually feel like this book connects to the outside world . I say this because After being on a trip Fresh from a vacation in the Galapagos Islands, Madison returns stateside only to discover someone has hacked into her Friendverse ( Facebook & her MySpace) profile and completely changed her profile. And broken up with her boyfriend. And said terrible things to her “friends,” who unfriended her. And posted the most unflattering, somewhat disturbing photos of Madison and others that are imaginable. What follows is Madison working eagerly to get to the bottom of who did this who disliked her so much that they would purposely set out to destroy her reputation, friendships and her and her boyfriend’s relationship.And as a little slice of relationship the times, it all involves plenty of cyber-research.


I do also think that she is obviously not responsible enough to use the internet in the first place, no less have a social media account. She makes so many assumptions about her friends that she doesn't know what is the truth and what is a lie. She spreads vicious gossip about all of her friends behind their backs, and when it is posted on social media, she has the nerve to think she is not at all guilty.

By the end of the book, there’s quite the shake-up among Madison’s top 8 friends . . . and that’s probably a good thing. I didn’t like Madison’s friends as much, though. I was so disappointed in them! Even after being friends with Madison for somany years they still believed that she made the changes to her profile on purpose. If any of my friends told me they were hacked I’d believe them! Schuyler was probably my favorite friend because she was so fascinating., there was so much in this book that could easily be continued into the next story, like why does Shy never want to talk about her past school and Nate’s breakup with his past girlfriend hasn’t yet been explained. The mystery surrounding who hacked Madison’s profile was the story’s main idea and me through the plot. With a lot number of “suspects,” all who appear to have good cause to hurt Madison, I truly didn’t know who did it until the pieces came together toward the end. And by that point? I was all kinds of invested. This book would be a good book for people to read it talks a lot about the problems of social media . It talks a lot about how social media has an effect on teens. Not just Madison but a lot of teens who use social media.

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was cuteness. And boy did it really take me back. I have not read a book like this one in hot minute. It is just quintessential 2000s, you know? Dorky, but cute. At first, I was like, oh my gosh this is not a mystery because it is so easy to see through. But then I read more and my theories got busted a couple times and it took me a little while to figure out it was the best friend. I knew Ruth liked Justin but then I forgot that and I thought that she and Dell were behind it because Dell wanted a shot with Liz and Ruth with Jimmy. But, anyway, I'd be interested to see if the two other books are mystery themed too, or nah. Also, we all knew Nate was better from the moment he was described as the "cute guy from the cruise" I'd be interested to see how his and Maddie's relationship progresses as well. I hope they don't break up. I'm emotionally invested.
Also, I thought it was cool to go back and read more of Morgan Matson's work from before she was Morgan Matson. I didn't even know this existed before I heard about it on a book podcast, but I'm so glad I did. I can tell how her writing has grown and I love Since You've Been Gone.

[McKenzie Creagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Top 8 is a very powerful book because it reflects on the negative aspect of social media. This is a story about a girl named Madison MacDonald and it seemed like she had everything in her life in order. She had a few best friends, a new boyfriend and a lead role in the school play. In this book, they had something called a Friendverse Profile where you could add people, pictures and share memories. After spring break, Madison came back home to find out that her account had been hacked and someone had posted all of her secrets and some terrible pictures of her. This totally flipped her world upside down. I think that this is a good book for middle school students that are just getting into social media. It can be a dangerous and scary thing that everyone can see. I think this could also be a good book for book discussions about social media and the downfalls of it. This wasn't my favorite book of all time because some aspects of it seemed too cheesy to me, but overall it had a good message .

[Pluto Princess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was definitely going to be 3 stars max when I started it. I honestly picked up this book through a resell shop & decided to read it for a quick read (it was) before I started my spooky novel for the season! To my surprise, this was a blast from the past that was *deeply* comforting. Reading level is max 15 years old, but it was still such a cute little read. I’m not sure if I have interest in going to read the other two in the Top 8 series (maybe one day if I find it in a thrift or resell store,) but I was happy to have enjoyed the story so much & that’s all I could really ask for. I’m sure the 4 stars comes from not having gone in expecting much to begin with, but the MySpace flash back partnered with high school squabbles really did something for my inner child. I needed this. So happy I decided to pick it up!

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyment: FIVE STARS
Objective quality: probably about 3 stars
Gosh I just had so much fun reading this!!! If you’re nostalgic for a simpler time when the internet was fun and cell phones were only for calling and texting, this is for you. If you long for the simplicity and giddiness of a high school romance, brought to life by status updates and trips to the drive in movie theater, read this book. I can’t wait to read books 2 and 3. It’s so much better as an adult than it was as a middle schooler!!! What I will say is that maybe there wasn’t a huge difference between talking behind someone’s back and posting about them online in 2008, but there definitely is now. Like, we have TikTok now, and algorithms…it’s a whole new world and I’m not sure I like it. And if you’re also not sure you like it, you’ll like this book!

[Sophia A · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could probably point out the clichés and issues with this book but I'm in a benevolent mood so I won't. It's definitely not a high enough reading level to intellectually stimulate a high schooler (especially if that high schooler is me) but it'll certainly get you out of a reading slump.

It does that semi-annoying thing where the author parallels their novel off of a novel the main character is reading at the time, so if that bugs you...sorry?

Also her parents are painfully absent and don't care when their sixteen year old drives to keggers and comes back past midnight? Tell me you're a horrible parent without telling me you're a horrible parent. Plus she's one of those main characters who despises her little brother for no reason which is super annoying.