Review: Invisible by Marni Bates

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It's not easy being best friends with a celebrity. . .

I'm invisible at my high school and I'm fine with it. It's kind of inevitable with a name like Jane Smith. But when the school newspaper staff insisted that I write a cover story, I decided to find out just how much scandal one geeky girl could uncover. 

Except I never expected to find myself starting a fist-fight, auditioning for the school's Romeo &Juliet musical, running away with a Romeo of my own, befriending the most popular girl in school, or trying to avoid one very cute photographer, who makes it impossible to to be invisible. . .

Jane Smith has survived three years of high school without making a single enemy, all by keeping a low profile. Not even her three best friends, Kenzie, Corey and Isobel, can say the same. But with Corey dating the lead singer from ReadySet and Kenzie in a relationship too, being invisible tends to be lonely. But now she's written an article for her school newspaper that has accidentally snagged the attention of some celebrities. Turns out, people get really upset when their innermost secrets are splashed all over the front page. And new her well-ordered life is being blasted to hell, with results that are wildly unexpected.

I read Ms. Bates YA debut Awkward (my review) last year and absolutely loved it! So I was quite excited when I learned she was planning to make it into a series. I was waiting for the right moment to read this one and oh my goodness, I was not disappointed at all! The hilarity of the first book was continued here and I giggled my way through the story in a matter of hours. In fact, I stayed up way too late to finish it it all in one go. I know it's a great story when I can't put it down. :)

Poor Jane. You know that phrase "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it"? She learns exactly how true that is! Feeling left behind, she decides to make some changes. And boy does that one little decision get the ball rolling downhill and at top speed! Jane is sarcastic, hilarious, friendly, and just a really nice person. She's a great girl, only she doesn't realize it. Her shyness and desire to stay in the background hinders other people from seeing her real self. But she slowly finds her way into accepting herself and her friends for who they are. Her slow emerging into someone that she's not afraid to let others see was well crafted. She doesn't make one decision and suddenly become a whole new person. She's always been that person, she just never knew it.

The guy who pushes her out of her shadows and keeps her on her toes, the girl she thought hated her who ends up helping her out, her best friends who seemingly forget she exists, they each have their spot in Jane's life and they're all great secondary characters. But really, this is Jane's story alone. She has to learn to call the shots in her own life, and to accept the consequences of her own actions, whether bad or good. While there is a little romance here, mostly it's a story of friendship and finding oneself.

Overall, this is a cute and funny story. There were a few moments near the end where I felt things were wrapped up a little too quickly and easily. Especially considering all of Jane's analyzing and worry over some situations. But those were small irritations and mostly I was smiling ridiculously while reading it. A light, quick read that promises lots of laughter and fun! Good for entertainment with not much depth and perfect for the beach. :)

Detention is nothing like The Breakfast Club.

I sat down in my hard plastic chair hoping there would be some group bonding, maybe a little dancing, a few heart-to-heart moments set to eighties music. John Hughes shouldn't have given me such high expectations. I stared at the graffiti carved into my desk, isolated in a room full of slackers, while a bored-looking Spanish teacher focused more on paper grading than on inmate guarding. Most of the kids were either listening to music or texting their friends, probably about the overwhelming lameness that was detention at Smith High School. With nothing better to do with my time, I flicked my iPod onto shuffle and started working on the newspaper story.

There was quite a ruckus in the cafeteria this week.

Ruckus? That was my big opening line?