Some Girls Are: Review

Title: Some Girls Are

Author: Courtney Summers

Release Date: January 2010

Published By: St. Martin's Griffin

Pages: 246

Goodreads Rating: 4.07 stars

Review: Regina used to be part of the all-girl clique that ruled the school until rumors about her and the queen bee's boyfriend started spreading around. Now she's fallen to the bottom of the social ladder with only fellow misfit Michael Hayden as a friend - except he doesn't think of her as even that while she feels something more for him. But can anything even happen between them before her ex-best friends break them both?

Be honest: that summary doesn't sound really appealing, does it? It seems like a regurgitated plot formula spat out of every chick lit book ever and almost overflowing with cliches and unoriginality. A clique? The "Fearsome Fivesome"? Fallen queen bee? Romance with an outcast? Check, check, check, and check. And yet, even though this sounds like it's shaping up to be a stale book with a terrible plot and boring characters, we're forgetting one thing: SOME GIRLS ARE was written by Courtney Summers.

And everything she writes is a masterpiece. This book is no exception. I don't know how she does it, but each word that comes from her fingers is beautiful and lovely and sad. I found myself fully empathizing with Regina's situation, and Summers' words weaved a net around me that kept me completely entranced in the story. Every time I put the book down, I still felt a hollow ache in my chest for the characters and couldn't wait to pick the book back up again.

The plot sounds almost superficial, yet this book was anything but. The bullying going on was horrifying and raw, because while everything going on was so bad as to almost be unbelievable, there was an air of reality about it. You know as you read it that things like this can and do happen in real life.

SOME GIRLS ARE is a paragon of raw, painful, and beautiful contemporary YA. It's pretty much impossible to pick up this book without getting completely sucked in for as long as it takes to finish, because even though it hurts to read, you just can't put it down. The ending was a bit on the weak side, but the strength of the rest of the book more than makes up for it. If you're a fan of Courtney Summers or just never got started on  her books, this is for you.