Review: The Julian Game by Adele Griffin.

Posted August 25, 2010 by Rowena in Reviews | 3 Comments

Main Characters: Raye Archer, Ella Parker, Julian Kilgarry, Henry Henry
Series: None

All new girl Raye Archer wants is a way into the in crowd, so when ice-queen Ella Parker picks her to get back at her ex, the gorgeous Julian Kilgarry, Raye is more than game. Even if it means creating a fake Facebook identity so she can learn enough about Julian to sabotage him. It’s a fun and dangerous thrill at first, but Raye hadn’t counted on falling for Julian herself and igniting Ella’s rage.

As Raye works to reconcile the temptress Elizabeth with her real-life self, Ella serves up her own revenge, creating an online smear campaign of nasty rumors and trashy photographs. Suddenly notorious, Raye has to find a way out of the web of deceit that she’s helped to build, and back to the relationships that matter.

Adele Griffins riveting novel explores the issues of generation Facebook: the desire to be someone else, real versus online friends, and the pitfalls and fall outs of posting your personal life online for all the world to judge.

This book was on my monthly wish list from this month and I was lucky enough to nab one from the author (thanks Adele!) and I was so excited to read it. It took me no time at all to read this book because it was one of those fast reads.

I’m all about the happy ending and I was happy that in this case, the book ended the way it was supposed to end. I’m really glad to have grown up in the town that I grew up and for having gone to the high school that I went to because the people in my town were nice and the people that I went to high school with were also very nice. Of course we had our problems with fighting and what not but there weren’t any bullies. Ella Parker was a bully and to make matters worse, she was an unhinged bully and that mixture just does not mix well at all.

This story follows Rae Archer as she maneuvers her way through a new school where all she wants is to get into the IT crowd, with the popular folks. She finally gets her in when the most popular girl in school, Ella Parker, asks her for help with Chinese. One crazy study session puts into place a revenge plot that has Rae squirming in her seat at the same time that she’s totally curious about how everything will play out. The revenge is on Ella’s ex boyfriend, Julian Kilgarry.

The games begin and as Rae starts to get to know Julian, she starts to realize that maybe the whole revenge thing is going too far. Lots of things pop off and well, let’s just say that you have to read it to believe it. LOL.

Griffin did a great job of delving into Rae’s story. The world she created for these characters felt real and even if I’ve never come across anything like the bullying going on in this book, everything was still believable.

Let me start off by saying that Rae reminded me of all of the girls that I knew growing up (heck, even me) with their “I want to be popular” attitude. They would do and say anything to get in with the IN crowd and while that sounds totally normal, it still got on my freaking nerves. The one character in this book that I absolutely adored was Natalya. The girl was 100% real from the beginning of this book to the end. What’s even better is she was a true friend to Rae from the beginning to the end, even when Rae was being a doo doo head and ditching her. I adore characters like that.

The one character in this book that I wanted to run over in my car and then back up over was Julian. What a d-bag! I mean, I guess I shouldn’t be too mad at him since he’s a teenager but goodness, I hated how two faced he was.

I totally adored Henry Henry and thought he was a great addition to the story and my only complaint where he was concerned was that there wasn’t enough of him in the story. The whole story revolves around the revenge that Ella and Rae started on Julian and the drama that unfolded from there so that explains why Henry wasn’t around for it all but still, I adored him from the first time he came into the story.

What got me was that Griffin tricked me because like Rae, I fell for Julian’s little nice boy act and I couldn’t stop kicking myself afterward. So good on you Griffin for that bit of trickery, it added some flair to my reading.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I thought Griffin did a fantastic job of sucking me into her world and making me care for her characters, the only drawback was that I didn’t end up caring for the main characters but the secondary characters. There were more than a couple of times that I wished Natalya played a bigger role or that Henry would hurry up and make another appearance.

It was the secondary characters that pulled me through this book. I ended up liking Rae at the end but it was Natalya and Henry that I LOVED! Would I recommend this book? Yep, I think YA lovers will enjoy it.