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How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life
Opal Mehta is a young woman with a laser focus: getting into Harvard. Since her birth, Amal and Meena Mehta have raised their only daughter with Harvard emblazoned on her pajamas, her walls, and her brain. Everything she does is meant to add up to the perfect Harvard application. There have been flowcharts, diagrams, and endless checklists. At seventeen, Opal is valedictorian, president of three honor societies, and founder of the Science Bowl team. She ven took welding classes to appear well-rounded. With SAT and AP scores to die for, getting in looks like a sure thing.
Then, at her interview with Harvard’s Dean of Admissions, he sets aside her résumé and asks her the single question she never prepped for:
“What do you like to do for fun?”
For once, Opal is at a loss. The interview screeches to a nightmarish halt. The Dean says she still has a chance—but only if she can show that she is more than just another 4.0 GPA.
And so the Mehtas turn their ingenuity and determination to a whole new plan: getting Opal a life. Dating, partying, and popularity are the new subjects of late-night cramming, and Opal’s study guides are now MTV and the WB, Vogue and InStyle. The girl who wore high-water cords and hung out with her cat for fun is now rocking Manolos, cutting class to shop with the queen bees, and winning the attention of her longtime lust object.
But when Opal finally faces the Dean again—this time in a Diane von Furstenberg blouse and Theory pants—she is more confused than ever. Does lip gloss actually matter? Does life have to have a crimson theme? What—and whom—does she really love?
For anyone who’s ever sweated a crisis, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life is a hilarious and painfully real novel about family, love, and daring to push your life to the limit.
Then, at her interview with Harvard’s Dean of Admissions, he sets aside her résumé and asks her the single question she never prepped for:
“What do you like to do for fun?”
For once, Opal is at a loss. The interview screeches to a nightmarish halt. The Dean says she still has a chance—but only if she can show that she is more than just another 4.0 GPA.
And so the Mehtas turn their ingenuity and determination to a whole new plan: getting Opal a life. Dating, partying, and popularity are the new subjects of late-night cramming, and Opal’s study guides are now MTV and the WB, Vogue and InStyle. The girl who wore high-water cords and hung out with her cat for fun is now rocking Manolos, cutting class to shop with the queen bees, and winning the attention of her longtime lust object.
But when Opal finally faces the Dean again—this time in a Diane von Furstenberg blouse and Theory pants—she is more confused than ever. Does lip gloss actually matter? Does life have to have a crimson theme? What—and whom—does she really love?
For anyone who’s ever sweated a crisis, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life is a hilarious and painfully real novel about family, love, and daring to push your life to the limit.
314 pages, Paperback
First published April 4, 2006
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June 3, 2013
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If you were into the YA scene circa 2006 you probably heard of the Kaavya Viswanathan saga. Heck, even if you didn't read YA back then and half way paid attention to the media you probably heard about how the teen got a publishing deal than blew it by plagiarizing various works.
This review isn't about the plagiarism. Sure, I'm going to discuss it some at the end, but more in the context of today's P2P phenomenon . Honestly, think Viswanathan's own plagiarism been talked about enough-though I did think she also copied Mean Girls. And I'm not just talking about plot, I'm talking about actual quotes being slightly reworded.
Honestly, finding the plagiarism sections was easy because the tone of the writing felt so different in the rest of the novel. And that's what this review is going to be about, the rest of the book. I know, I know, how can I review or in this case rant since I can't use my usual review format because I can't find one redeemable feature about this book and it makes me long for Alexandra Adornetto's purple prose-well, I'm going to try.
Let's start with the easiest thing: plot.
The plot was pretty simple. And plots can be simple. But this is so simple it has no originality. It's your typical nobody becomes somebody and of course in the process alienates herself more than she was already alienated which really doesn't make sense considering at the beginning she claims she has no friends and...yeah.
My biggest problem with the plot, besides the fact it was cliche filled, was that there were so many plot holes involved in it. Which is sad because simple plots shouldn't have plot holes. Especially if they're realistic fiction. For example, Opal gets "caught" because her parents start up a website regarding their plans to make her popular.
Seriously, they thought that was a good idea?
Maybe a private page, but a public website?
I was just flummoxed. Almost as much as I was shocked that none of the characters realized how ridiculous their whole let's make Opal popular plan was throughout the book.
It was simple what Dean Anderson was trying to ask, he was asking Opal what did she do in her free time. How was she a normal person. That's an easy enough question. He wasn't asking her if she was popular, she could've said she liked to make brownies and that probably would've worked. But instead she freaked out. It was beyond stupid.
And yeah, what did I expect with that summary? I knew she'd be wanting to become popular and all that jazz but the way it happened. Just stupid.
It didn't help that the characters were essentially caricatures.
I'm serious.
I've seen some bad characters and while Opal isn't exactly the worst YA protagonist I've encountered she would be in the dungeon of doom. To put it bluntly, she's a horrible person.
And yes, I know she's a fictional character.
But sweet baby Jesus, I've never....
Okay, how do I go about this. If I was to describe Opal I'd say she was: self absorbed, short sided, sexist, culturally insensitive, and racist.
I guess I'll go through these point by point. First, she's self absorbed. It's all about her getting into Harvard. She has nothing in her life besides that and it's sort of sad. Honestly, I get it. Getting into your dream school is an important goal, but she has no relationships with any one other than her parents. And to be honest with you, she only uses them for their money. Oh, before I forget, apparently if both your parents are doctors (one being a successful neurosurgeon) you're teetering on poverty.
You can stop laughing now.
Though the Mehtas apparently now have money, though we don't get how they got they went from having nothing not having everything. Including buying their daughter a car, a five hundred dollar hair cut, and a wardrobe from the Beautiful Popular People Only Company.
Yeah....from this alone you're probably getting self absorbed vibes, but let's continue with are analysis on Opal. The second thing I said she was short sided. She doesn't even know why she wants to go to Harvard or has any idea with what she wants to do with her life afterwards. I get that you can be undecided in your major, but usually at that age you have interests and broad goals. Maybe she knew she didn't want to become a doctor or whatever, but she could say she was interested in the sciences or something. Going to Harvard when you have no idea of what you want to do is sort of a waste of money, especially when state schools have programs that give you the same education.
Okay, now we get to the more offensive traits, Opal is sexist. The slut slamming that went on in this book was ridiculous. Apparently, if you're a women you can be only pretty or smart, not both. WTF!?!?!?!
Seriously. I'm offended by that. So, all of those who apply ourselves academically are ugly. And all of those who take time to put on eyeliner correctly are dumb as a box as rocks.
Fuck you.
I'm sorry. I already have enough problems when I read YA because most of the books feature poor body and self image. And these remarks just pissed me off. It also doesn't help that any girl who wears something that shows any remote skin is called a slut. And if you wear name brands your called materialistic -even though Opal wears buckets full of Cool and Popular Inc, until she's found out because of her parents dumb-assery then she switches back to her "frump" clothes. Seriously, no happy medium with this one.
I could go on about how sexist this book is all day, but now it's time to talk about culture sensitivity issues. This book centers around the fact that Opal is an Indian American and quite frankly that should've been its best quality, but it isn't. I think because the Indian culture is portrayed as being cartoonish and, well, offensive. Especially the portrayal of Indian boys who are according to Opal a) too nerdy or b) chauvinists. BTW, I've known a lot of hot and nice Indian boys.
Finally, I found Opal to be a bit racist when it concerned illegal immigrants. She and her friends the HBZs made some rather offensive comments about immigrants and honestly it rubbed me the wrong way. I mean, just because these people are working manuel labor jobs does not make them second class citizens. And you shouldn't judge them for sending money to their families.
As for the rest of the characters, the parents were just plain stupid. Let's just say, I wouldn't want them being my MD. Seriously, they decide to interrupt Opal's party which they orchestrate and leave so she can have a raging drunk fest (providing the booze and everything, which is illegal btw) and then are surprised Opal's drunk because they gave her a chart of how much she can drink without getting drunk.
Um, even if you do calculate someone's BAC it's not foolproof because different people react differently to alcohol. Not only that, but how do you expect someone to keep track of their alcohol when they're partying.
Dumb asses.
The non-Mehtas aren't much better either.
First let's talk about the love interests. They are sort of pathetic. The object of lust throughout seventy-five percent of the novel is a caricature based on conservative values. Even though I tend to vote more left than right, I have respect for conservatives. They don't need to be portrayed this way. They are people. And even though I might disagree with a lot of their policies, I understand their arguments. And I feel like regardless of your political affiliation you should not try to demonize the other side--unless your a cartoon artist or a late night comedian and make fun of everyone. The way Jeff was written with Karl Rove as his role model, just was laughable. Almost as much as Sean, who I've been told is a Marcus (from the Jessica Darling series) ripoff. The chemistry between Opal and Sean barely exists. I really don't know why they even got back together at the novel but hey...what do I know about chemistry?
The same can be said about friendships in this story. At the very best they are shallow. First there is Natalie, who we are told at the beginning Opal has very little social contact with then she becomes the stories designated Tiny Tim.
What is a designated Tiny Tim? It's the character who's so needy that we as the audience are supposed to feel sorry for as they exploit are main character, the exploiting is supposed to make them a "good" person. Instead, it just makes me groan.
And seriously, I'm supposed to believe that this super smart kid can't go to school unless she gets this science scholarship from the school.
Sure....
I guess there's no thing such as work study, student loans, or going to a less expensive school, or getting a scholarship from said school.
And that was another thing that ticked me off. Why were Ivy Leagues the only decent schools? And for that matter, why is Opal only satisfied with Harvard? Stanford and Yale are both Ivy League and...and...it's insulting to think that people who go to state schools are stupid. Oh, and Opal, my sister got wait listed at Yale and went to Rice University and her SAT was nowhere near as good as yours, she didn't have fifty million extracurriculars either, she was just kick ass when it came to playing her oboe. And yes, she has a social life even though she's a musician.
Okay, I got off of track. I need to talk about Opal's second group of friends. Well, were they really her friends. To sum them up they were...The Plastics (dubbed HBz here for "originality")
Okay, there are three of them. Two are really insignificant since they really don't have personalities. Though one is essentially Regina George but she's different because she's Asian.
Oh, yeah, thats a huuuggge difference let me tell you.
Viswanathan also tries to show that her Regina is different by adding the fact that Opal and Pricilla used to be friends, but you really don't see that other than Opal telling you that. Any history, is non-existant save for that last ditch effort by Opal to get Seany to like her. Which really doesn't make sense because you would've thought Opal would've used this information earlier but whatever...
Honestly, I could go on and on about my rant all day but I won't. I think I got the basics. What I want to talk about now is the plagiarism issue.
As I mentioned before, you can find the particulars about this if you do a mere Google search. What I want to talk about is why Viswanathan got caught and other authors, notably EL James seem to have to have gotten away with plagiarism.
The plagiarism in this book is different than Fifty Shades of Grey because it's easier to prove. Okay, you're probably saying, MJ, it's obvious James plagiarized. Fifty Shades of Grey is really that Master of the Universe fan fiction, and Dear Author did a pretty kick ass job showing the similarities. That's true,
and while I have great disdain for James's tampon trilogy and other P2P fan fics, I think it was easier showing plagiarism in Viswanathan's story because she used actual quotes from other works. Which is easier, I think, than proving that the characters were essentially Bella and Edward since there's more or less a paper trail (well, that can be argued too if you count the cyber trail). Not that I'm saying P2P fiction is right. Not by any means.
Also, I think society has changed somewhat since the publication of Opal. Digital books have taken off since 2006. Not only are original e-books more popular than ever, but sites like fanfiction.net, fictionpress.com, Wattpad, as well as others have increased in popularity and several writers have been found through these sites. Notably Cassandra Clare.
Who by coincidence was accused of plagiarism. Clare's plagiarism, on fanfiction.net, was similar to Viswanathan. Allegedly, she lifted quotes from various TV shows and huge passages from a couple of out of print books. The stories were subsequently pulled from fanfiction.net. Here's the interesting thing with the Clare fiasco, The Draco Chronicles are heavily incorporated into The Mortal Instruments series. I have nothing against Clare incorporating some of her fan fiction into her regular work if its substantially changed and has no bearing to the story that it was originally based on, but the fact that the scenes were almost eerily similar and the fact that the originality of that writing was already in question has me raising a couple of eyebrows. It's the same thing with Fifty Shades of Grey, it's barely changed (bad grammar included) from it's original source material.
But both of these works and many more p2p fan fictions haven't been pulled.
To add to this, Amazon has recently stated that it will be allowing fan fiction authors to publish their fan fics for sale. Grant it, the original authors will be compensated. Notably, Alloy Entertainment is one of the "authors" allowing their work to be (in my terms alone) exploited. But what's so interested about it is that Alloy was the same book packager that packaged Opal. Which leads me to these thoughts....
It's all about money.
And yes, I know that selling books is a business. But when ethics are put behind to make a buck it leaves me feeling dirty. I feel exploited. Especially when you charge for fan fiction. To me it's not so much of the idea of fan fiction itself. I write fan fiction. And I feel its a great passage for any wannabe writer, but to charge for it? Even when it's compensating the original writer that just rubs me the wrong way. It's sort of like sweatshop labor in a weird way, but not (since they are getting paid). Will it be profitable for Amazon? Probably, but still...it's...it's.
Icky.
Back to Opal. When you put all of this in hindsight, I think you're seeing a conflict between ethics and business. Well, obviously that's something seen in any industry since the beginning of time. But what is more discerning about this particular issue is the swift change in the industry from Viswanathan to James. When Viswanathan copied from various sources she wasn't viewed as an instant success or a Cinderella story like EL James, instead she got the Katie Couric smack down. And boy, if you ever got plagiarized it feels good watching Katie smack her down.
EL James, on the other hand, has gotten the Cinderella treatment by the media. Which is odd to me because essentially she is a plagiarist too. Yes, different form of plagiarism. But there was documented evidence that Master of the Universe existed and was barely changed. Yet, this is often glossed over. While I discussed earlier that this might be in part because of the form of plagiarism, at the same time I really have to wonder if its because society in the book world has changed. When it comes to the book business it has underwent radical changes in the past few years. Not only are e-books more popular and self publishing is actually possible now, but social media is essential to marketing these books. Fifty Shades of Grey was noticed in the fan fiction world when it was known as Master of the Universe, James attended Twilight cons and had her own following before she pulled the book to "edit" and then it was a sensation on Good Reads before being picked up by a traditional publisher. Viswanathan published traditionally. And even though her book was getting buzz, I don't really remember hearing anything about it until the scandal.
Honestly, I really can't come to a conclusion to what's different after thinking about it. I just find the Viswanathan case an interesting case to point out especially when looking at the current trend of P2P fan fiction. When rereading the book, I wasn't only disgusted again over the plagiarism, but I realized just how bad the actual writing was. The tone between the quotes that were copied and the actual books differs greatly. I'm not saying that Viswanathan lacked talent. She just wrote like an eighteen-year-old. A mature eighteen-year-old, but an eighteen-year-old. And as much as I love the idea of young writers, I often think the ones that get published that young are published merely because they are young and = teen sensation in the publishers eyes.
If you were into the YA scene circa 2006 you probably heard of the Kaavya Viswanathan saga. Heck, even if you didn't read YA back then and half way paid attention to the media you probably heard about how the teen got a publishing deal than blew it by plagiarizing various works.
This review isn't about the plagiarism. Sure, I'm going to discuss it some at the end, but more in the context of today's P2P phenomenon . Honestly, think Viswanathan's own plagiarism been talked about enough-though I did think she also copied Mean Girls. And I'm not just talking about plot, I'm talking about actual quotes being slightly reworded.
Honestly, finding the plagiarism sections was easy because the tone of the writing felt so different in the rest of the novel. And that's what this review is going to be about, the rest of the book. I know, I know, how can I review or in this case rant since I can't use my usual review format because I can't find one redeemable feature about this book and it makes me long for Alexandra Adornetto's purple prose-well, I'm going to try.
Let's start with the easiest thing: plot.
The plot was pretty simple. And plots can be simple. But this is so simple it has no originality. It's your typical nobody becomes somebody and of course in the process alienates herself more than she was already alienated which really doesn't make sense considering at the beginning she claims she has no friends and...yeah.
My biggest problem with the plot, besides the fact it was cliche filled, was that there were so many plot holes involved in it. Which is sad because simple plots shouldn't have plot holes. Especially if they're realistic fiction. For example, Opal gets "caught" because her parents start up a website regarding their plans to make her popular.
Seriously, they thought that was a good idea?
Maybe a private page, but a public website?
I was just flummoxed. Almost as much as I was shocked that none of the characters realized how ridiculous their whole let's make Opal popular plan was throughout the book.
It was simple what Dean Anderson was trying to ask, he was asking Opal what did she do in her free time. How was she a normal person. That's an easy enough question. He wasn't asking her if she was popular, she could've said she liked to make brownies and that probably would've worked. But instead she freaked out. It was beyond stupid.
And yeah, what did I expect with that summary? I knew she'd be wanting to become popular and all that jazz but the way it happened. Just stupid.
It didn't help that the characters were essentially caricatures.
I'm serious.
I've seen some bad characters and while Opal isn't exactly the worst YA protagonist I've encountered she would be in the dungeon of doom. To put it bluntly, she's a horrible person.
And yes, I know she's a fictional character.
But sweet baby Jesus, I've never....
Okay, how do I go about this. If I was to describe Opal I'd say she was: self absorbed, short sided, sexist, culturally insensitive, and racist.
I guess I'll go through these point by point. First, she's self absorbed. It's all about her getting into Harvard. She has nothing in her life besides that and it's sort of sad. Honestly, I get it. Getting into your dream school is an important goal, but she has no relationships with any one other than her parents. And to be honest with you, she only uses them for their money. Oh, before I forget, apparently if both your parents are doctors (one being a successful neurosurgeon) you're teetering on poverty.
You can stop laughing now.
Though the Mehtas apparently now have money, though we don't get how they got they went from having nothing not having everything. Including buying their daughter a car, a five hundred dollar hair cut, and a wardrobe from the Beautiful Popular People Only Company.
Yeah....from this alone you're probably getting self absorbed vibes, but let's continue with are analysis on Opal. The second thing I said she was short sided. She doesn't even know why she wants to go to Harvard or has any idea with what she wants to do with her life afterwards. I get that you can be undecided in your major, but usually at that age you have interests and broad goals. Maybe she knew she didn't want to become a doctor or whatever, but she could say she was interested in the sciences or something. Going to Harvard when you have no idea of what you want to do is sort of a waste of money, especially when state schools have programs that give you the same education.
Okay, now we get to the more offensive traits, Opal is sexist. The slut slamming that went on in this book was ridiculous. Apparently, if you're a women you can be only pretty or smart, not both. WTF!?!?!?!
Seriously. I'm offended by that. So, all of those who apply ourselves academically are ugly. And all of those who take time to put on eyeliner correctly are dumb as a box as rocks.
Fuck you.
I'm sorry. I already have enough problems when I read YA because most of the books feature poor body and self image. And these remarks just pissed me off. It also doesn't help that any girl who wears something that shows any remote skin is called a slut. And if you wear name brands your called materialistic -even though Opal wears buckets full of Cool and Popular Inc, until she's found out because of her parents dumb-assery then she switches back to her "frump" clothes. Seriously, no happy medium with this one.
I could go on about how sexist this book is all day, but now it's time to talk about culture sensitivity issues. This book centers around the fact that Opal is an Indian American and quite frankly that should've been its best quality, but it isn't. I think because the Indian culture is portrayed as being cartoonish and, well, offensive. Especially the portrayal of Indian boys who are according to Opal a) too nerdy or b) chauvinists. BTW, I've known a lot of hot and nice Indian boys.
Finally, I found Opal to be a bit racist when it concerned illegal immigrants. She and her friends the HBZs made some rather offensive comments about immigrants and honestly it rubbed me the wrong way. I mean, just because these people are working manuel labor jobs does not make them second class citizens. And you shouldn't judge them for sending money to their families.
As for the rest of the characters, the parents were just plain stupid. Let's just say, I wouldn't want them being my MD. Seriously, they decide to interrupt Opal's party which they orchestrate and leave so she can have a raging drunk fest (providing the booze and everything, which is illegal btw) and then are surprised Opal's drunk because they gave her a chart of how much she can drink without getting drunk.
Um, even if you do calculate someone's BAC it's not foolproof because different people react differently to alcohol. Not only that, but how do you expect someone to keep track of their alcohol when they're partying.
Dumb asses.
The non-Mehtas aren't much better either.
First let's talk about the love interests. They are sort of pathetic. The object of lust throughout seventy-five percent of the novel is a caricature based on conservative values. Even though I tend to vote more left than right, I have respect for conservatives. They don't need to be portrayed this way. They are people. And even though I might disagree with a lot of their policies, I understand their arguments. And I feel like regardless of your political affiliation you should not try to demonize the other side--unless your a cartoon artist or a late night comedian and make fun of everyone. The way Jeff was written with Karl Rove as his role model, just was laughable. Almost as much as Sean, who I've been told is a Marcus (from the Jessica Darling series) ripoff. The chemistry between Opal and Sean barely exists. I really don't know why they even got back together at the novel but hey...what do I know about chemistry?
The same can be said about friendships in this story. At the very best they are shallow. First there is Natalie, who we are told at the beginning Opal has very little social contact with then she becomes the stories designated Tiny Tim.
What is a designated Tiny Tim? It's the character who's so needy that we as the audience are supposed to feel sorry for as they exploit are main character, the exploiting is supposed to make them a "good" person. Instead, it just makes me groan.
And seriously, I'm supposed to believe that this super smart kid can't go to school unless she gets this science scholarship from the school.
Sure....
I guess there's no thing such as work study, student loans, or going to a less expensive school, or getting a scholarship from said school.
And that was another thing that ticked me off. Why were Ivy Leagues the only decent schools? And for that matter, why is Opal only satisfied with Harvard? Stanford and Yale are both Ivy League and...and...it's insulting to think that people who go to state schools are stupid. Oh, and Opal, my sister got wait listed at Yale and went to Rice University and her SAT was nowhere near as good as yours, she didn't have fifty million extracurriculars either, she was just kick ass when it came to playing her oboe. And yes, she has a social life even though she's a musician.
Okay, I got off of track. I need to talk about Opal's second group of friends. Well, were they really her friends. To sum them up they were...The Plastics (dubbed HBz here for "originality")
Okay, there are three of them. Two are really insignificant since they really don't have personalities. Though one is essentially Regina George but she's different because she's Asian.
Oh, yeah, thats a huuuggge difference let me tell you.
Viswanathan also tries to show that her Regina is different by adding the fact that Opal and Pricilla used to be friends, but you really don't see that other than Opal telling you that. Any history, is non-existant save for that last ditch effort by Opal to get Seany to like her. Which really doesn't make sense because you would've thought Opal would've used this information earlier but whatever...
Honestly, I could go on and on about my rant all day but I won't. I think I got the basics. What I want to talk about now is the plagiarism issue.
As I mentioned before, you can find the particulars about this if you do a mere Google search. What I want to talk about is why Viswanathan got caught and other authors, notably EL James seem to have to have gotten away with plagiarism.
The plagiarism in this book is different than Fifty Shades of Grey because it's easier to prove. Okay, you're probably saying, MJ, it's obvious James plagiarized. Fifty Shades of Grey is really that Master of the Universe fan fiction, and Dear Author did a pretty kick ass job showing the similarities. That's true,
and while I have great disdain for James's tampon trilogy and other P2P fan fics, I think it was easier showing plagiarism in Viswanathan's story because she used actual quotes from other works. Which is easier, I think, than proving that the characters were essentially Bella and Edward since there's more or less a paper trail (well, that can be argued too if you count the cyber trail). Not that I'm saying P2P fiction is right. Not by any means.
Also, I think society has changed somewhat since the publication of Opal. Digital books have taken off since 2006. Not only are original e-books more popular than ever, but sites like fanfiction.net, fictionpress.com, Wattpad, as well as others have increased in popularity and several writers have been found through these sites. Notably Cassandra Clare.
Who by coincidence was accused of plagiarism. Clare's plagiarism, on fanfiction.net, was similar to Viswanathan. Allegedly, she lifted quotes from various TV shows and huge passages from a couple of out of print books. The stories were subsequently pulled from fanfiction.net. Here's the interesting thing with the Clare fiasco, The Draco Chronicles are heavily incorporated into The Mortal Instruments series. I have nothing against Clare incorporating some of her fan fiction into her regular work if its substantially changed and has no bearing to the story that it was originally based on, but the fact that the scenes were almost eerily similar and the fact that the originality of that writing was already in question has me raising a couple of eyebrows. It's the same thing with Fifty Shades of Grey, it's barely changed (bad grammar included) from it's original source material.
But both of these works and many more p2p fan fictions haven't been pulled.
To add to this, Amazon has recently stated that it will be allowing fan fiction authors to publish their fan fics for sale. Grant it, the original authors will be compensated. Notably, Alloy Entertainment is one of the "authors" allowing their work to be (in my terms alone) exploited. But what's so interested about it is that Alloy was the same book packager that packaged Opal. Which leads me to these thoughts....
It's all about money.
And yes, I know that selling books is a business. But when ethics are put behind to make a buck it leaves me feeling dirty. I feel exploited. Especially when you charge for fan fiction. To me it's not so much of the idea of fan fiction itself. I write fan fiction. And I feel its a great passage for any wannabe writer, but to charge for it? Even when it's compensating the original writer that just rubs me the wrong way. It's sort of like sweatshop labor in a weird way, but not (since they are getting paid). Will it be profitable for Amazon? Probably, but still...it's...it's.
Icky.
Back to Opal. When you put all of this in hindsight, I think you're seeing a conflict between ethics and business. Well, obviously that's something seen in any industry since the beginning of time. But what is more discerning about this particular issue is the swift change in the industry from Viswanathan to James. When Viswanathan copied from various sources she wasn't viewed as an instant success or a Cinderella story like EL James, instead she got the Katie Couric smack down. And boy, if you ever got plagiarized it feels good watching Katie smack her down.
EL James, on the other hand, has gotten the Cinderella treatment by the media. Which is odd to me because essentially she is a plagiarist too. Yes, different form of plagiarism. But there was documented evidence that Master of the Universe existed and was barely changed. Yet, this is often glossed over. While I discussed earlier that this might be in part because of the form of plagiarism, at the same time I really have to wonder if its because society in the book world has changed. When it comes to the book business it has underwent radical changes in the past few years. Not only are e-books more popular and self publishing is actually possible now, but social media is essential to marketing these books. Fifty Shades of Grey was noticed in the fan fiction world when it was known as Master of the Universe, James attended Twilight cons and had her own following before she pulled the book to "edit" and then it was a sensation on Good Reads before being picked up by a traditional publisher. Viswanathan published traditionally. And even though her book was getting buzz, I don't really remember hearing anything about it until the scandal.
Honestly, I really can't come to a conclusion to what's different after thinking about it. I just find the Viswanathan case an interesting case to point out especially when looking at the current trend of P2P fan fiction. When rereading the book, I wasn't only disgusted again over the plagiarism, but I realized just how bad the actual writing was. The tone between the quotes that were copied and the actual books differs greatly. I'm not saying that Viswanathan lacked talent. She just wrote like an eighteen-year-old. A mature eighteen-year-old, but an eighteen-year-old. And as much as I love the idea of young writers, I often think the ones that get published that young are published merely because they are young and = teen sensation in the publishers eyes.
February 2, 2024
This is the book from the 2006 Harvard student plagiarism controversy. I was reminded of it with all the Fifty Shades drama.
This link gives some of the examples of the passages in question:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/200...
To be fair, I haven't read the book from which Viswanathan allegedly plagiarized, but at the time I remember thinking it seemed to be a case of one mediocre book with trite sentences copied from another. The book was eventually pulled from stores and destroyed.
I find it somewhat ironic that the examples of suspected plagiarism here are relatively subtle when compared to the similarities between Fifty Shades of Grey and Twilight (there's a good example in this review). And yet Stephenie Meyer seems pretty unconcerned about it all.
This link gives some of the examples of the passages in question:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/200...
To be fair, I haven't read the book from which Viswanathan allegedly plagiarized, but at the time I remember thinking it seemed to be a case of one mediocre book with trite sentences copied from another. The book was eventually pulled from stores and destroyed.
I find it somewhat ironic that the examples of suspected plagiarism here are relatively subtle when compared to the similarities between Fifty Shades of Grey and Twilight (there's a good example in this review). And yet Stephenie Meyer seems pretty unconcerned about it all.
April 26, 2007
Yes, that's right! This is the book that's not officially supposed to exist! So how surprised was I, how lucky did I feel, when I found it at my super-secret source?! What's the verdict??
It's cute. Opal Mehta is an academic overachiever in New Jersey, whose Indian parents have spent their entire life planning (with acronyms and flow charts) how, exactly, she's going to be admitted to Harvard. She's done it all perfectly. So imagine her surprise when she shows up in Cambridge for her early-decision interview and the dean asks, "What do you do for fun? Tell me about your best friend." She feels like a failure when she doesn't have an answer. So her parents embark on a quest to turn her into the stereotypical teenager, first by finding out exactly what that is (think OC marathons and a trendy haircut), and then by forcing her to be it. So she runs around in spiky heels and eventually befriends the popular clique, however tremulously. Of course there's a huge tragedy (you can see most of the plot devices coming from a mile away). Still, Opal is sympathetic, I enjoyed the denouement, and even though the moral of the story really is that Harvard is the perfect place, it's not for the reasons you'd strictly expect. Really, after reading it, I feel bad for the poor girl (Kaavya, not Opal). I really don't think she needed to have her publishing contract taken away from her, and all that other stuff. I do have to wonder, though, how much of the novel is autobiographical -- since it's about a Harvard-bound Indian girl from New Jersey with overbearing parents, written by a Harvard-bound Indian girl from New Jersey with... well, we can only speculate. It's also incredibly of its time: there are soooooooo many pop culture references that are so specific, that reading it even two years from now would make it seem dated.
Suddenly I couldn't decide whether Priscilla would be more impressed with the OPI polish color Don't Be Koi with Me or the Benefit lip gloss Raisin Hell. In the end, the only thing I managed to squeak out was "Hi."
Priscilla and Jennifer executed identical slow-motion turns that sent two seats of straight shiny hair (one black, one blond) flying up, only to land again on their shoulders, not one strand out of place. How did they do that? I knew that if I tried, I would probably give myself whiplash. I bet that while I'd been going to SAT prep courses, the HBz ["Haute Bitchez", what the girls call themselves] had taken a class that taught them the art of the magical hair flip.
It's cute. Opal Mehta is an academic overachiever in New Jersey, whose Indian parents have spent their entire life planning (with acronyms and flow charts) how, exactly, she's going to be admitted to Harvard. She's done it all perfectly. So imagine her surprise when she shows up in Cambridge for her early-decision interview and the dean asks, "What do you do for fun? Tell me about your best friend." She feels like a failure when she doesn't have an answer. So her parents embark on a quest to turn her into the stereotypical teenager, first by finding out exactly what that is (think OC marathons and a trendy haircut), and then by forcing her to be it. So she runs around in spiky heels and eventually befriends the popular clique, however tremulously. Of course there's a huge tragedy (you can see most of the plot devices coming from a mile away). Still, Opal is sympathetic, I enjoyed the denouement, and even though the moral of the story really is that Harvard is the perfect place, it's not for the reasons you'd strictly expect. Really, after reading it, I feel bad for the poor girl (Kaavya, not Opal). I really don't think she needed to have her publishing contract taken away from her, and all that other stuff. I do have to wonder, though, how much of the novel is autobiographical -- since it's about a Harvard-bound Indian girl from New Jersey with overbearing parents, written by a Harvard-bound Indian girl from New Jersey with... well, we can only speculate. It's also incredibly of its time: there are soooooooo many pop culture references that are so specific, that reading it even two years from now would make it seem dated.
Suddenly I couldn't decide whether Priscilla would be more impressed with the OPI polish color Don't Be Koi with Me or the Benefit lip gloss Raisin Hell. In the end, the only thing I managed to squeak out was "Hi."
Priscilla and Jennifer executed identical slow-motion turns that sent two seats of straight shiny hair (one black, one blond) flying up, only to land again on their shoulders, not one strand out of place. How did they do that? I knew that if I tried, I would probably give myself whiplash. I bet that while I'd been going to SAT prep courses, the HBz ["Haute Bitchez", what the girls call themselves] had taken a class that taught them the art of the magical hair flip.
September 13, 2017
Lots and lots of fun. It came out before the cancerous growth of YA. Hence 4 stars. In reality it is closer to 3.
March 22, 2008
I read this book because of the controversey surrounding it. It is about an Indian girl whose life dream is to get into Harvard, written by a Harvard student who is female and Indian. It got good reviews, but then they discovered that the author plagiarized a portion from another teen novel and she was disgraced. This all happened last year while we were in Boston, so I wanted to see how the book was. Basically shallow and not very well written. It gives the false sense that status and prestige bring happiness, not self-confidence and hard work. Very formulaic and cliche.
August 1, 2009
If Megan McCafferty really read this and thought it was a rip-off of her writing style then she must not think much of herself as a writer. This is terrible! And it has nothing to do with whether or not this is plagiarized.
I admit that I only picked this up because of the controversy surrounding it. Although I heard about the book when it was first published it was a recent link to the author's wiki that made me want to read this. Mostly I wanted to see if I'd enjoy the story -- plagiarized or not. I was pleasantly surprised that the Chicago Public Library still carries it. "Pleasantly" because I don't believe in censorship, even if the title in question may be plagiarized.
I went into my reading with an open mind. I didn't really care about the plagiarism hype. I wanted to see if I'd like the book, its plot and subplots, the characters, the writing. Obviously I don't support plagiarism but I wasn't convinced that the author had plagiarized it (I'm still not) so I was hoping it would be a worthwhile read that would help me ultimately figure out whether or not she intentionally "borrowed" phrases from Megan McCafferty and other authors.
But, sadly, the book was total crap and I don't even care if it was plagiarized. The writing was atrocious. The plot was wacky and unrealistic. HOGWIH, HOGWAL, HOGWARSH! It's all crap. The parents in this book are INSANELY RIDICULOUS and I can't believe any editor and publisher was interested in such an over-the-top novel with so little charisma and so many stereotypes. It's not worth reading. I feel like this is a sad reflection of how so many suburban teens feel about getting into college and being so image-oriented and with the ending, where silly Opal gets into Harvard, just totally glorifies and rewards her stupid behavior.
I can't really say anything positive about the writing except that I'm pretty sure she was unintentional in her copying of other authors' works. This plot and its accompanying character development were so weak yet so out of left field that I think she focused way too much energy on trying to sound cute and fun and witty that she probably didn't realize she was "borrowing" a lot of phrases she had read in books that were actually well written.
I admit that I only picked this up because of the controversy surrounding it. Although I heard about the book when it was first published it was a recent link to the author's wiki that made me want to read this. Mostly I wanted to see if I'd enjoy the story -- plagiarized or not. I was pleasantly surprised that the Chicago Public Library still carries it. "Pleasantly" because I don't believe in censorship, even if the title in question may be plagiarized.
I went into my reading with an open mind. I didn't really care about the plagiarism hype. I wanted to see if I'd like the book, its plot and subplots, the characters, the writing. Obviously I don't support plagiarism but I wasn't convinced that the author had plagiarized it (I'm still not) so I was hoping it would be a worthwhile read that would help me ultimately figure out whether or not she intentionally "borrowed" phrases from Megan McCafferty and other authors.
But, sadly, the book was total crap and I don't even care if it was plagiarized. The writing was atrocious. The plot was wacky and unrealistic. HOGWIH, HOGWAL, HOGWARSH! It's all crap. The parents in this book are INSANELY RIDICULOUS and I can't believe any editor and publisher was interested in such an over-the-top novel with so little charisma and so many stereotypes. It's not worth reading. I feel like this is a sad reflection of how so many suburban teens feel about getting into college and being so image-oriented and with the ending, where silly Opal gets into Harvard, just totally glorifies and rewards her stupid behavior.
I can't really say anything positive about the writing except that I'm pretty sure she was unintentional in her copying of other authors' works. This plot and its accompanying character development were so weak yet so out of left field that I think she focused way too much energy on trying to sound cute and fun and witty that she probably didn't realize she was "borrowing" a lot of phrases she had read in books that were actually well written.
August 8, 2007
I picked this one up at the library with no knowledge of all the plagiarism hype, but as soon as I started reading it, passages jumped out as eerily familiar- the ones from Sloppy Firsts and Born Confused in particular, as these are two of my beloved favorites.
And thus I was too angry to finish the book. It was heading in the direction of fluffer crap either way.
And thus I was too angry to finish the book. It was heading in the direction of fluffer crap either way.
January 10, 2020
I don't find Jim Morrison appealing but this was a fun read.
April 23, 2013
After reading “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life”, I was shocked to see that this book had some plagiarism issues going on. However, my review is not taking those accusations into regards.
I really enjoyed reading this book because I could so deeply connect with the main character, Opal. She is Indian, as am I, so I understood more of the cultural issues that were discussed in the book such as drinking and dating from an Indian person’s standpoint. But what I really admired was that the book was written in a way that Indian and non-Indian readers would be able to connect with the story. Opal was a girl with parents that embarrassed her all the time and used her a method to brag to their friends. She was expected to get all A’s and her family had a crazy plan to get her into Harvard, their dream school. One little snag happened, she totally bombed her interview because she had no personality. She was given another chance and that’s when her family concocted another plan to get her into Harvard, and this one involved making her the most popular girl in high school. And this is where things started going right and wrong because Opal began to find things she loved which she never did before, and she actually realized what she loved. Along the way, she falls into love with a young man who loved her as the nerd she is, and always will be, at heart.
The author does a spectacular job of developing the character, along with describing the inner and outer conflicts that were raised throughout the novel. There were some conflicts that Opal had some control over, such as her decision to become Ms. Popular. And there were some that she had no control over – her acceptance into Harvard. The author described the conflicts in such detail that the reader was fully captivated and was at a crossroads as to which direction to go in. The reader was fully briefed on both perspectives of the situation and was able to symphatize with Opal along the way. The conflicts were based on issues that everyday people go through: friends drama, parent issues, school difficulties, moral issues, and of course romantic dilemmas. All of those were greatly detailed in the novel. Also, character development was done splendidly. The reader was able to see her neurotic parents in an obsessive and loving way because of their caring personalities, the mean girl as the insecure ex-nerd, and the hot guitar player as the vulnerable and sensitive guy in need of love.
I would not use this book in a minilesson for younger grades because some explicit things are discussed in the book and it is better suited for older audiences. I would however, take inspiration from this book to talk to my students about the types of conflicts we would put in our writing, and perhaps find some age-appropriate examples of conflicts to read to my students for them to get a better understanding.
I really enjoyed reading this book because I could so deeply connect with the main character, Opal. She is Indian, as am I, so I understood more of the cultural issues that were discussed in the book such as drinking and dating from an Indian person’s standpoint. But what I really admired was that the book was written in a way that Indian and non-Indian readers would be able to connect with the story. Opal was a girl with parents that embarrassed her all the time and used her a method to brag to their friends. She was expected to get all A’s and her family had a crazy plan to get her into Harvard, their dream school. One little snag happened, she totally bombed her interview because she had no personality. She was given another chance and that’s when her family concocted another plan to get her into Harvard, and this one involved making her the most popular girl in high school. And this is where things started going right and wrong because Opal began to find things she loved which she never did before, and she actually realized what she loved. Along the way, she falls into love with a young man who loved her as the nerd she is, and always will be, at heart.
The author does a spectacular job of developing the character, along with describing the inner and outer conflicts that were raised throughout the novel. There were some conflicts that Opal had some control over, such as her decision to become Ms. Popular. And there were some that she had no control over – her acceptance into Harvard. The author described the conflicts in such detail that the reader was fully captivated and was at a crossroads as to which direction to go in. The reader was fully briefed on both perspectives of the situation and was able to symphatize with Opal along the way. The conflicts were based on issues that everyday people go through: friends drama, parent issues, school difficulties, moral issues, and of course romantic dilemmas. All of those were greatly detailed in the novel. Also, character development was done splendidly. The reader was able to see her neurotic parents in an obsessive and loving way because of their caring personalities, the mean girl as the insecure ex-nerd, and the hot guitar player as the vulnerable and sensitive guy in need of love.
I would not use this book in a minilesson for younger grades because some explicit things are discussed in the book and it is better suited for older audiences. I would however, take inspiration from this book to talk to my students about the types of conflicts we would put in our writing, and perhaps find some age-appropriate examples of conflicts to read to my students for them to get a better understanding.
Read
September 7, 2010I was willing to give the Kaavya Viswanathan the benefit of the doubt. Really, I was. But between reading the book and the clearly publisher-engineered act of contrition that was sent to the media yesterday, I have to say: no. No, this was not a mistake. No, this book should not have been published. Her A-plot is okay. Good, even. And her writing style, while often derivative of McCafferty's is ALSO derivative of about 25% of the current YA chick-lit junior writers in the genre. But. The entire backstory is lifted straight from Sloppy Firsts/Second Helpings. It's like she superimposed sari and masala dosa over Pineville High. Scenes follow the same trajectory. Mirror-image conversations are used in mirror-image settings. As I read, I started tagging bits and pieces that I noticed were from McCafferty's books. (Books which I own and consider among my favorites. Books that I have discussed at length with friends and library patrons. Books that I feel I KNOW, not because I read them once three years ago, but because I read them again and again.) I had to stop, otherwise I would have gone mad.
March 20, 2009
Something about the plagiarism scandal surrounding this book really gripped me--I remember reading each new report with a vicious, intense rush of schadenfreude. Everything I learned about the author and her life made me loathe her more, and it was deeply enjoyable watching her get her comeuppance. Given how invested I’d become in the whole thing, I decided that when I came across a free copy of the book, I would read it.
Well, I finally got my free copy, and I read it. I didn’t enjoy it much, but then I wasn’t really expecting to, since it’s not exactly my genre of choice. I do think the concept is kind of clever (though maybe too slight to sustain a whole novel). Its emphasis on cool, current brands and trends means that it is looking pretty dated at this point.
Given my hatred for the author, how could I give this book anything but one star?
Well, I finally got my free copy, and I read it. I didn’t enjoy it much, but then I wasn’t really expecting to, since it’s not exactly my genre of choice. I do think the concept is kind of clever (though maybe too slight to sustain a whole novel). Its emphasis on cool, current brands and trends means that it is looking pretty dated at this point.
Given my hatred for the author, how could I give this book anything but one star?
will-never-read
February 17, 2016The only reason I would read this book is to compare it to the original (it was plagiarized) like merireads is doing.
February 29, 2024
I had absolutely no idea what to expect from this book and I had never heard of it before so I was a bit sceptical of the title. Also they say not to judge a book by its front cover (although I'd say 99% of readers do so...) and so i was a bit wary at the start. But it was actually really good, and some of it funny to hear how Opal misunderstood the assignment to get into college.
February 1, 2021
This book got pulled from stores back when it was published in 2006 for plagiarism but while looking at barbie picture books on internet archive’s digital library I found a scan of it! It was pretty funny. Like a less good mean girls.
February 12, 2013
I had no idea of the controversy with this novel; I just picked it up from the fiction shelves at the library. I also had no idea it was essentially a teen movie screenplay, and I honestly checked the library's stamp to see if I'd missed the "YA" mark to see it had been improperly shelved. The book was silliness, and it would be fun for a teenager who likes Mean Girls. I seriously thought it was the inspiration for that film. The plot is the same with a few scene changes.
It was fun in its way. The character is likeable but unbelievable. Her and her parents' concept of what "life" is was the biggest problem for me. It's one thing for a teenager to have such inexperienced notions ... that being kissed or being popular equal life, but for her parents to develop the whole scheme and not be the voices of guidance, love, and reason was ridiculous.
The ending could be seen from a million miles away... no surprises here, nothing particularly inventive... just a lot of shallow experiences and conclusions. I agree with one of the other reviewers who stated it was a fun read for tanning pool-side.
The plagiarism aspect ... wow. I graduated from a state university and the rules of plagiarism were crystal clear to me. No doubt in my mind it was intentional and just plain dumb on the part of the author.
It was fun in its way. The character is likeable but unbelievable. Her and her parents' concept of what "life" is was the biggest problem for me. It's one thing for a teenager to have such inexperienced notions ... that being kissed or being popular equal life, but for her parents to develop the whole scheme and not be the voices of guidance, love, and reason was ridiculous.
The ending could be seen from a million miles away... no surprises here, nothing particularly inventive... just a lot of shallow experiences and conclusions. I agree with one of the other reviewers who stated it was a fun read for tanning pool-side.
The plagiarism aspect ... wow. I graduated from a state university and the rules of plagiarism were crystal clear to me. No doubt in my mind it was intentional and just plain dumb on the part of the author.
August 14, 2009
Its a good book. I do remember it being in the news for some wrong reasons (apparently the author was accused of being "inspired" from other works). To be honest, that is actually what made me pick up the book in the first place.
Ok, so now about the book. The story is simple, nothing really fancy. So dont expect anything out of the blue. The language is great, simple and lucid. The narration doesnt drag at all and keeps up at a very lively pace. Infact, its a book you'd like to curl up with on one lazy afternoon.
I liked it, though I may not choose to read it again.
Ok, so now about the book. The story is simple, nothing really fancy. So dont expect anything out of the blue. The language is great, simple and lucid. The narration doesnt drag at all and keeps up at a very lively pace. Infact, its a book you'd like to curl up with on one lazy afternoon.
I liked it, though I may not choose to read it again.
August 17, 2007
Good for a beach/poolside read. It's not great writing, half of it is plagiarized (I guess that's what it takes to get into Harvard these days), and its contents are so superficial it makes me want to barf. It's supposed to be "autobiographical" in some respects, and part of me wanted to tell the author "yeah right - you could never be the cool person this girl eventually becomes. Keep dreaming."
Good fluff reading though - took me about 3 days of reading during my commute to finish.
Good fluff reading though - took me about 3 days of reading during my commute to finish.
December 16, 2015
One of those very engaging enjoyable chick-lit stuff that you can pick just any season to read and feel light enough to smile; a night's read at the max; but despite it being scrapped from world-wide reading lists due to charges of plagiarism, the book was a thorough entertainer. Basically, I was not embarrassed to be in the chick-lit pick mood. :P
July 24, 2010
Hated it! It reminded me of half a dozen different teen books.It was almost like I had read it before. Ridiculous book!
January 13, 2015
Nice read.....easy going, humorous....
February 17, 2016
i remember reading this in college solely coz of the plagiarism controversy
March 17, 2016
Read this bcoz it was making news for the wrong reasons. Plagiarised or otherwise, it wasn't that great as it was hyped up to be. Not totally a bad read. Maybe 2.5 stars :)
August 16, 2013
Oh God...where do I even start with this mess? And by "this mess" I mean the book in itself, the author, and the controversy. God...where do I start?
OK, I'll start with my initial knowledge of this book. When I first heard about Kaavya Viswanathan's "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" it had received a review in an Entertainment Weekly magazine I had been reading. It got an OK review if I can remember correctly, but I was skeptical. I had read Tanuja Desai Hidier's "Born Confused" not long before and it felt like this "Opal" book was riding on its' coattails and seemed like a lamer version of it. I didn't care if some Harvard student had gotten it published. A week or two later, I saw a copy of "Opal" at my local library and I read the synopsis and decided that I didn't want to check it out. And I thought that would be the last of my encounter with that book.
Forward to 2013, one random day, I remembered reading a book titled "Born Confused" and wondered if it will ever get a movie adaptation since it seems like every YA book ever published is getting that treatment, so I go to Wikipedia and instead find out that "Born Confused" had been involved in some controversy with "Opal". Suddenly, the memories of the EW review and my short library encounter with "Opal" return. I kind of laughed at the fact that I was kind of right in that "Opal" was a ripoff of "Born Confused" and then read the Wiki page on the whole controversy, and I knew I just had to read it. I ordered a copy from Amazon, and read it.
My thoughts? I really didn't like this book. As a stand alone book, I didn't like it. I didn't like how cheap the story was, how one dimensional almost every character was (except maybe one or two of the characters were MAYBE two dimensional but is that even really saying anything?), how quickly dated it seemed with all the topical media name dropping (watching TRL and The OC, listening to 50 Cent and The Killers), and how much the author wanted to make love to and suck up to Harvard.
Though I only read one of the books that this this book is said to have plagiarized from, I don't see how people who initially read this book didn't see that it was a pretty big ripoff of "Mean Girls". A much dumber, less funny, not really self-aware and much less tongue-in-cheek ripoff of "Mean Girls" (which was not a movie that "Opal" watched or name dropped which surprised me considering, again, it ripped off that movie so much and this book seemed to like to name drop topical shit all the time).
So the story: Opal Mehta has always dreamed of going to Harvard, her (and her parents') dream college. On the day of her interview with the Dean of Admissions, she bombs the interview when he asks her what she does for fun, because Harvard, Opal is informed, is more than just about high academics. She and her parents want her to get into Harvard so much that they decide that Opal's senior year of high school is the perfect opportunity to show off that Opal can be a popular and wild teenager who parties. Thus, they decide to start on Project HOWGAL (How Opal Will Get A Life) where Opal gets a makeover to look and dress like how popular girls look and dress. She also fits in study sessions into being cool by watching reality tv shows, listening to popular music, and reading fashion magazines as a way to figure out to fit in with the popular crowd at school. Opal then goes through an identity crisis, finds out the guy she likes is a twat (which really only gets probably five pages worth of attention if we are to grab all of that subplot together), ends up liking the guy who she didn't initially like (because he's the only one who sees through what she's doing but then gets all righteous and angry at her when he finds out she's been faking her way all along...ulgh that bit of bullshit was so bullshitty and full of...bullshit, I really hated it, let's just say) but OH SHIT WHAT DO YOU KNOW? There's a MISUNDERSTANDING! Will our young couple be able to- I can't even finish it. OF COURSE THEY DO!
I found the behavior of every single character to be so cartoonish that I couldn't take this book seriously. If we are supposed to get the message that you are better off as yourself, why are we suffering through an episode of every high school tv show/every high school movie ever? Perhaps if the characters had more depth, and were more believable perhaps this book could have been better. But like many high school tv shows and many high school movies, everything is sugarcoated and all the characters fall into stereotypes and there is nothing outside of said stereotype. I couldn't honestly believe that Opal and her parents would be so oblivious as to what the Dean of Admissions meant when he told Opal that she should have a life outside academics. Why would they want or even consider going to such extremes to prove a point? It wasn't as if the Dean told Opal that only popular kids got accepted. How could any logical human being misunderstand what the Dean was asking of Opal? Oh right, I'm sorry, this is a story of no logic, just a lot of stupid people forcing stupid situations upon this story, because...that's what teens like, right?
Honestly, perhaps if "Opal" had ripped off more of "Born Confused's" plot of our lead trying to figure out how to balance being a typical American teen and keeping in touch with her Indian heritage more, instead of trying to be a crappy high school stereotype movie, this book wouldn't have been so crappy. There were a few instances where I was kind of interested in Opal and her cousin Kali and their own views of what is expected of them in their Indian community and they reacted differently to what was expected of them, but like most things, these things felt tacked on and wasn't deeply looked into. If only we could have seen Opal and Kali hanging out more, learning from each other and teaching each other through their separate strengths and weaknesses that they shouldn't be so much this or that; perhaps if they learned to balance out what's best in each other they could get through all this bullshit together. But again, no. That's not what happened. So much could have been done with this story, I think, but it was all wasted just to tell us the same old shit we've seen time and time again. It's "Mean Girls". It's "She's All That". It's a season's worth of "Beverly Hills 90210" or "Dawson's Creek" or all those other high school based shows.
And then to find out that a large chunk of these passages and this storyline were taken from various sources, it just makes this book seem especially terrible and unnecessary.
I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, unless you want to read it from morbid curiosity since there was a lot of controversy when this book was revealed to be a huge pile of plagiarism. But even then, I don't really think it's worth it.
OK, I'll start with my initial knowledge of this book. When I first heard about Kaavya Viswanathan's "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" it had received a review in an Entertainment Weekly magazine I had been reading. It got an OK review if I can remember correctly, but I was skeptical. I had read Tanuja Desai Hidier's "Born Confused" not long before and it felt like this "Opal" book was riding on its' coattails and seemed like a lamer version of it. I didn't care if some Harvard student had gotten it published. A week or two later, I saw a copy of "Opal" at my local library and I read the synopsis and decided that I didn't want to check it out. And I thought that would be the last of my encounter with that book.
Forward to 2013, one random day, I remembered reading a book titled "Born Confused" and wondered if it will ever get a movie adaptation since it seems like every YA book ever published is getting that treatment, so I go to Wikipedia and instead find out that "Born Confused" had been involved in some controversy with "Opal". Suddenly, the memories of the EW review and my short library encounter with "Opal" return. I kind of laughed at the fact that I was kind of right in that "Opal" was a ripoff of "Born Confused" and then read the Wiki page on the whole controversy, and I knew I just had to read it. I ordered a copy from Amazon, and read it.
My thoughts? I really didn't like this book. As a stand alone book, I didn't like it. I didn't like how cheap the story was, how one dimensional almost every character was (except maybe one or two of the characters were MAYBE two dimensional but is that even really saying anything?), how quickly dated it seemed with all the topical media name dropping (watching TRL and The OC, listening to 50 Cent and The Killers), and how much the author wanted to make love to and suck up to Harvard.
Though I only read one of the books that this this book is said to have plagiarized from, I don't see how people who initially read this book didn't see that it was a pretty big ripoff of "Mean Girls". A much dumber, less funny, not really self-aware and much less tongue-in-cheek ripoff of "Mean Girls" (which was not a movie that "Opal" watched or name dropped which surprised me considering, again, it ripped off that movie so much and this book seemed to like to name drop topical shit all the time).
So the story: Opal Mehta has always dreamed of going to Harvard, her (and her parents') dream college. On the day of her interview with the Dean of Admissions, she bombs the interview when he asks her what she does for fun, because Harvard, Opal is informed, is more than just about high academics. She and her parents want her to get into Harvard so much that they decide that Opal's senior year of high school is the perfect opportunity to show off that Opal can be a popular and wild teenager who parties. Thus, they decide to start on Project HOWGAL (How Opal Will Get A Life) where Opal gets a makeover to look and dress like how popular girls look and dress. She also fits in study sessions into being cool by watching reality tv shows, listening to popular music, and reading fashion magazines as a way to figure out to fit in with the popular crowd at school. Opal then goes through an identity crisis, finds out the guy she likes is a twat (which really only gets probably five pages worth of attention if we are to grab all of that subplot together), ends up liking the guy who she didn't initially like (because he's the only one who sees through what she's doing but then gets all righteous and angry at her when he finds out she's been faking her way all along...ulgh that bit of bullshit was so bullshitty and full of...bullshit, I really hated it, let's just say) but OH SHIT WHAT DO YOU KNOW? There's a MISUNDERSTANDING! Will our young couple be able to- I can't even finish it. OF COURSE THEY DO!
I found the behavior of every single character to be so cartoonish that I couldn't take this book seriously. If we are supposed to get the message that you are better off as yourself, why are we suffering through an episode of every high school tv show/every high school movie ever? Perhaps if the characters had more depth, and were more believable perhaps this book could have been better. But like many high school tv shows and many high school movies, everything is sugarcoated and all the characters fall into stereotypes and there is nothing outside of said stereotype. I couldn't honestly believe that Opal and her parents would be so oblivious as to what the Dean of Admissions meant when he told Opal that she should have a life outside academics. Why would they want or even consider going to such extremes to prove a point? It wasn't as if the Dean told Opal that only popular kids got accepted. How could any logical human being misunderstand what the Dean was asking of Opal? Oh right, I'm sorry, this is a story of no logic, just a lot of stupid people forcing stupid situations upon this story, because...that's what teens like, right?
Honestly, perhaps if "Opal" had ripped off more of "Born Confused's" plot of our lead trying to figure out how to balance being a typical American teen and keeping in touch with her Indian heritage more, instead of trying to be a crappy high school stereotype movie, this book wouldn't have been so crappy. There were a few instances where I was kind of interested in Opal and her cousin Kali and their own views of what is expected of them in their Indian community and they reacted differently to what was expected of them, but like most things, these things felt tacked on and wasn't deeply looked into. If only we could have seen Opal and Kali hanging out more, learning from each other and teaching each other through their separate strengths and weaknesses that they shouldn't be so much this or that; perhaps if they learned to balance out what's best in each other they could get through all this bullshit together. But again, no. That's not what happened. So much could have been done with this story, I think, but it was all wasted just to tell us the same old shit we've seen time and time again. It's "Mean Girls". It's "She's All That". It's a season's worth of "Beverly Hills 90210" or "Dawson's Creek" or all those other high school based shows.
And then to find out that a large chunk of these passages and this storyline were taken from various sources, it just makes this book seem especially terrible and unnecessary.
I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, unless you want to read it from morbid curiosity since there was a lot of controversy when this book was revealed to be a huge pile of plagiarism. But even then, I don't really think it's worth it.
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January 11, 2024Not rating this because of the plagiarism controversy.
I actually really enjoyed this. I first heard about this book in 10th grade when my English teacher talked about the plagiarism scandal and have been trying to find a copy ever since. My library had access to this book so I HAD to borrow it. This is a very typical young-adult book and it reminded me so much of Mean Girls as well as Meg Cabot's writing. It is certainly a product of its time- some things would not fly by today but it was hilarious. I loved how Opal's parents were willing to do anything to get her into Harvard and the romance with was really cute too. I'm surprised to see that so many other reviews criticized the story since I found it super easy to read and unbelievably funny (the story is obviously stereotypical but I can't expect more from a YA novel). I don't remember the last book that made me laugh out loud. I really loved this book and it's too bad that I can't buy a copy to reread. Loved the desi representation since it emphasized how manic parents can really be about their kid's education.
I actually really enjoyed this. I first heard about this book in 10th grade when my English teacher talked about the plagiarism scandal and have been trying to find a copy ever since. My library had access to this book so I HAD to borrow it. This is a very typical young-adult book and it reminded me so much of Mean Girls as well as Meg Cabot's writing. It is certainly a product of its time- some things would not fly by today but it was hilarious. I loved how Opal's parents were willing to do anything to get her into Harvard and the romance with was really cute too. I'm surprised to see that so many other reviews criticized the story since I found it super easy to read and unbelievably funny (the story is obviously stereotypical but I can't expect more from a YA novel). I don't remember the last book that made me laugh out loud. I really loved this book and it's too bad that I can't buy a copy to reread. Loved the desi representation since it emphasized how manic parents can really be about their kid's education.
August 19, 2019
I didn’t know about the plagiarism scandal before deciding to read this book. But as I was waiting for it from the library, I decided to find out more about the copying. I was so flabbergasted that she copied so many people that it made me want to read the book and see if I could tell if it was copied. For the most part, I couldn’t. But some passages just seemed out of character and a different writing style. Leaving all the plagiarism behind though, this book was just boring. I felt like I was watching a stereotypical Disney rom com. There was really no surprises in the whole book. Her parents were super involved to the point of creepiness, but other than that, it was the same old “girl tries to be popular, and then finds out who she really is” story.
September 9, 2017
Ok so I had NO IDEA this was so controversial due to plagiarism. Just pulled it off the library shelf (should the library still have it? I have no idea). Without knowing that, I kind of liked it - cheap beach read, it was predictable but didn't go on *TOO* long with its predictableness, and honestly as someone who also knows the joy of finding people both fun and academic, I really loved Opal's discovery of same once she got to Harvard. (However, no way would she be friends with the people who hosted her on her overnight.)
6/10 but I'll keep it at 2/5
6/10 but I'll keep it at 2/5
October 20, 2019
Opal goes for an early admissions interview at Harvard where after highlighting all her academic achievements, the Dean asks her what she does for fun--for which she has no answer. So her parents go about making her into a popular party girl so she can have a social life on her resume.
From then on out, it's pretty much the plot of "Mean Girls" with an Indian main character. Fun to read, but not really original.
Question: why was this shelved with the adult novels, when it's essentially a Meg Cabot book?
From then on out, it's pretty much the plot of "Mean Girls" with an Indian main character. Fun to read, but not really original.
Question: why was this shelved with the adult novels, when it's essentially a Meg Cabot book?
February 3, 2021
I think I acquired this book at a library book sale. When I got around to reading it, I added it to my Goodreads...and learned about the controversy. This, of course, colored my experience of reading the book. I actually felt a little bad about reading it at all! But I did, and I liked it. Didn’t love it, try to avoid stories with mean girls. But as a nerd who lived on the fringes of the high school social world, I appreciated it.
August 25, 2021
After I read this I found out at the time it came out there was a plagiarism scandal and it was actually pulled from bookstore shelves. Where it's been since 2006 I couldn't' say, but I got this copy at my local used bookstore. The writing isn't great and the story was predictable. But the worst part was all the dated pop culture references. At least I remember 2006 and the brands, tv shows and music mentioned.
October 30, 2024
Hopefully exaggerated story of an Indian girl who is hell bent on going to Harvard written by an Indian girl who goes to Harvard! At the time of its publishing, the book was pulled from book stores because of accusations of plagiarism. I bought the book at my library’s book sale shelves without prior knowledge of the scandal. My take is it is derivative of other young adult books, and if that is plagiarism, it is just one among many.
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