Lily Anderson
St. Martin’s Griffin
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Trixie’s rivalry with Ben goes all the way back to first grade. Now in senior year, there’s no undoing those long-standing battle lines. Until Trixie’s best friend starts dating Ben’s and the group forces them to call a truce. But letting go of her dislike is easier said than done, even when it turns out Ben might possibly be hiding surprisingly pleasant qualities beneath his ridiculous mustache. But when a cheating scandal leaves Trixie’s BFF expelled, Trixie’s determined to rally the troops and prove her bestie innocent. The investigation may shatter her newfound alliance with Ben.
Trixie and her friends attend a school for geniuses, so their classes are far more advanced than the usual high school fare, and each month the entire class list is posted according to GPA ranking, fueling some pretty competitive tension. The social world within the school is really well-developed. I wanted to take some of the courses mentioned. I felt like I could picture the hallways and cafeteria and understand the complex relationships between the characters. B. Calistero = super awesome. I loved the way he turned out to be a pretty crucial part of the story and a link between Trixie and Ben.
Trixie and Ben definitely had great chemistry. Even when they hated each other, it was absolutely electric. Even when the hate shifted, the tension never slipped. I loved their geeky banter. Some of the references I followed pretty easily (Firefly Forever!!!) and others were not hard to decipher (Marvel vs. DC… I’ve been on the periphery of enough of those battle lines.) The enthusiasm and rivalry really sucked me into the story.
Trixie’s two best girl friends were a little harder for me to grasp. I liked Harper, but I felt like I never really got Meg. I loved enough of the other characters that it didn’t matter. I worried about the cast size as I’m often overwhelmed and confused by stories with tons of named characters, but I think I was able to keep everyone straight because they each had pretty specific roles or identities.
Other than the use of strong language, the story is pretty clean. The quick banter and geek chat made it a really fun read. The romance is definitely swoon-worthy.
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.
Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. Meg references some social experimenting with boys, but no details on what precisely her experiments entail.
Spiritual Content
Trixie and her friends celebrate Halloween by attending a Harvest party and Haunted House.
Violent Content
None.
Drug Content
None.
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