Review: Confessions of a Hater by Caprice Crane

Title: Confessions of a Hater

Author: Caprice Crane
Publisher:  Feiwel & Friends
Publishing Date: August 27th 2013

Pages: 368
Genre: YA  Chic Lit

Series:  Stand Alone
Source: Audio

  

Mean girls are always the haters - Right?

Hailey Harper has always felt invisible. Now her dad has a new job and the family is moving to Hollywood. Just what Hailey needs: starting a new high school.

As she's packing, Hailey finds a journal that belonged to her older sister, Noel, who is away at college. Called "How to Be a Hater," it's full of info Hailey can really use. Has Hailey found the Bible of Coolness? Will it help her reinvent herself at her new school? Will her crush notice her? Will she and the other Invisibles dethrone the popular mean girls? After all, they deserve it. Don't they?

Caprice Crane's funny--and deeply felt--observations about high school, bullies, popularity, friendship, and romance will leave teens thinking...and talking.

I was really excited to read this book. The cover actually drew me in first. It was very inviting and set me up for a very comical read. Once I read the synopsis I really believed I was in for a comical read and it was a comical read. I laughed quite a few times through all of Hailey’s antics, pranks, and her general thought process. The book was a very enjoyable read. It had its faults in my eyes but not enough to keep me from reading more from this author.

Hailey is moving to a new city, across the country, and she decides it’s a chance to start over in high school. At her current high school she has always been invisible and recently been picked on. She has a few good friends and felt that is all she needed. She wasn’t the happiest teenager but she was content. Until she found out she is moving. She was upset at first but that changed when she found her popular older sister’s journal titled How to Be a Hater. From this journal she learns to dress, speak, and act like a hater. She finds out it works once she starts her new school but it backfires when she realizes the haters suck. She finds new friends and a new mission. Turn the hate on the haters and the school becomes a war zone for two distinct groups, the haters and the invisibles. Hailey finds out just how far is too far.

There were so many things to like about this book and a few things I didn’t . I like the story. It’s been a long time since I was in school but I am sure that the only thing that has changed is the methods, the madness was always there. I remember the haters, the invisibles, and everything in between. I think this story pretty much hit it on the nose. The invisible girls always want to be a part of the haters. So many never get the chance to realize it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Haters are haters for a reason and they are just mean. So yes this was another mean girls story but with a bit of a twist. The haters got what they dished out. That concept is awesome and all but as Hailey learns there is always a price for hate and there is always a too far.

I liked Hailey enough, as much as I could for the type of story she starred in. She was selfish, whiny, and a pain but then most teenage girls are at first. She played her part true to form and there were many times I really really liked her and found her thoughts and her actions to be cool but then she would turn around and do something stupid and I would want to slap her. In my mind she was very relatable. Everything she did I felt and I liked it or hated so I did grow a strange sort of attachment to her. I was able to cheer for her and yes there was some growth at the end.

The not so minor other characters were pretty awesome too and of course we have a bit of everything. The hot popular cool guy the popular funny guy, the school mean girl and her minions, the once popular turned invisible girl, the smart invisible girl, and so many more. I really liked the variety of personalities and it added so much to the story. It was fun to get know each and every character… even the school witch. My favorite for sure was Chris. He was pretty awesome and I liked the romance between him and Hailey. He was sweet and cute. He seemed to be the only one in the book with his head on straight.

Some of the story was very believable and some was not. I did like the mix of realistic with fiction. It made the story more interesting. I didn’t like some of the parts that were out of my comfort zone. I do read YA for a reason and there was a bit more mature content than I liked. This book is definitely for the older crowd not the young teens. The ending was a bit far- fetched and even though I felt that Hailey did pay the toll for some of actions, she didn’t have to reap the consequences fully. I think that was more for a feel good ending but a little too unrealistic.

What I really approved of was the spot light on bullying, what can be classified as bullying, and the consequences of bullying. It’s never simple, there is always more there than what the peers see. The book didn’t preach it was brought on in a very funny light mood but it was there and I appreciated that.

The book was full of comical scenes and I laughed so many times. I felt the book was a bit long for the story and at times I thought I must be getting close to the end then had 4 hours still left to go. I was entertained the entire time and the pacing was alright but it felt more of a couple stories than one story. There were so many times it could have been brought to an end then it started back up again.

I did enjoy it and I think many others will too. It was a good chic lit for teen girls with a bit of realistic issues thrown in.