Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Spoiled by Heather Cocks, Jessica Morgan Review


"You say Spoiled like it's a bad thing.

Sixteen-year-old Molly Dix has just discovered that her biological father is Brick Berlin, world-famous movie star and red-carpet regular. Intrigued (and a little) terrified by her Hollywood lineage, Molly moves to Los Angeles and plunges headfirst into the deep of Beverly Hills celebrity life. Just as Molly thinks her life couldn't get any stranger, she meets Brooke Berlin, her gorgeous, spoiled half sister, who welcomes Molly to la-la land with a smothering dose "sisterly love"...but in this town, nothing is ever what it seems. 

Set against a world of Redbull-fuelled stylists, tiny tanned girls, popped-collar guys, and Blackberry-wielding publicists, Spoiled is a sparkling debut from the writers behind the viciously funny celebrity blog GoFugYourself.com."

I thought Spoiled would be great. It's great when my predictions turn out to be correct. Yes, Spoiled is actually pretty great. However, there's a few points I wish the authors explored on, but I supposed it has to leave some threads hanging. 

Spoiled goes around two POVs. Molly Dix is the farmer girl turned Hollywood Princess. Brooke Berlin is the happy Hollywood Princess turned spoiled brat. Wait. Brooke was always a spoiled brat. Never mind. She hasn't changed. Until the end of the book, of course. I guess there's always a reason for dramatic characters' existence: So they can change.

Overall, I think Spoiled would be the best for younger teens. I mean, there's so many issues dealt with in this book. First of all, there's the sisterly 'advice.' It's better known as sister/sibling arguments and disagreements. Second of all, there's the problem with best friends who want more than friendship. (This book totally says that truth will set you free). Lastly, but also most important, the problem with bullying is met and touched. The best lesson taught is the second one I mention. The Truth will set you free. It comes with a price, of course. Stalking may be one of them, but let's pretend it won't happen.

Molly Dix is no innocent little girl. She comes fairly close to it, but I think she learns the ropes fairly well. She doesn't care about what other people think (eventually). She tries to be herself. She becomes awesome in her own way. 

Brooke? Not so much. For most of the book, I thought about how rude and spoiled she is. She's Daddy's little girl from head down to toe up. Yeah, that kind of sounded a bit weird. Moving on, because it's going to get weird. I think a better lesson that could be taught here is how terrible fake tans are for your skin. Now, I'm done.

The ending is the best part. All the characters change so much, with the sort of exception of Mr. Brick Berlin. I don't think he's really the best guy. At least he tries his hardest to be the best guy. Anyway, Molly lets go of her daddy/mommy issues (yeah, I'm being pretty cruel right now). Brooke lets go of her daddy issues (and she certainly has a lot of it). Brooke certainly stops taking it out on Molly. Brick tries to be around for his girls instead of playing in awesome action movies (dang it) and being awesome.

Rating: Four out of Five

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