GIRLS: I STILL DON'T GET IT
Does the caste system of high school actually exist? I suppose we wouldn't have movies such as Mean Girls, Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, Dazed & Confused, The Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink, 16 Candles, and anything else John Hughes ever wrote, without its existence, or some semblance thereof. I was too busy goofing around with the only 3-4 friends I had and avoiding extracurricular activities, to no avail. I did speech & debate for a while, marching band for a year, soccer all four, but I never fell in with groups or felt that there was a hierarchy to be understood and followed. I don't recall any athletes receiving preferential treatment, although they did stick to themselves and seemed to have some kind of fantasy that they were all-powerful. There wasn't a queen bitch group that inspired hushed whispers when they walked in slow-mo down the hallway in short skirts while some salacious, wailing guitar solo played in the background.
My experience won't discount the existence of such a phenomenon. So it was with great interest that I picked up Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers, to plumb the depths of female (and the better-known male) social depravity. To some people, high school is life, and it's evidenced by what they do after high school, which is usually nothing. Peaked too early, champs! Imagine my pleasure at the cat fights and psychological warfare! Imagine my disappointment in the lousy presentation and story elements that detract from the themes and message to the YA crowd.
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| On Amazon, Some Girls Are $4. |
- Attempted rape
- Physical assault
- Drug & alcohol abuse
- Intense psychological torment
- using one's insecurities against them
- using an attempted rape and physical abuse as leverage
- Lots of locker vandalism*
- 150+ instances of the F word
- Teenage girls lashing out at others for no particular reason
- The horrifying proposition of getting through HS with no friends/allies
- Internet-based defamation and character assassination
*ONLY in high school is the locker a metaphor for the person, which is why it's okay to trash it to send a message to the individual. This doesn't happen at the gym, nor the bus station, but in high school, if you want to get to someone, you throw pig guts in their locker, or spray paint it, or whatever. AND IT WORKS EVERY TIME.
WE BEGIN WITH THE REIGN OF TERROR
Regina, the #1 sycophant to Queen B Anna, is shunned and targeted for revenge by her former "friends" after being accused of having sex with Anna's boyfriend. Regina finds her only recourse to seek the company of Michael, one of her many victims of vicious rumor-spreading over the years. Why? BECAUSE THERE IS A TWIST! Michael's mom (dead now!) was Regina's counselor! Then there's 200 pages of horrible deeds and psychological torment between Regina and a host of enemies while she tries to work out her complex feelings for Michael, who will probably never forgive her. Nevermind Regina's body issues and how she uses others' insecurities against them. I see where Summers was going with this - the morally ambiguous Regina, who is actually a dynamic, if unsympathetic protagonist, tries to navigate her sudden change in social status while coping with crippling isolation, and sees her morals challenged at every step, whether trying to find out how former victims Michael and Liz really feel about her, and as she plots revenge against Kara, Anna, Jeannette, Bruce, Josh, and about 74 other people. That's fine and dandy, but she's no Walter White.
Summers does demonstrate the inherent differences in how boys and girls handle conflict without resorting to egregious stereotypes. I say egregious because some of this is stock; the boys get physical and then it's over for the time being. The girls are out to destroy each other's spirits through whatever means necessary, and it's never over. From my teaching experience, this is fairly accurate. There are no definite lines here, as boys do some of the psychological stuff and girls get into fist fights too, but as a generality it's acceptable.
As a YA novel, it does raise issues that resonate with the YA crowd, and gives voice to the peer abuse that goes unseen by most, but it just seems so exaggerated that I can't buy it lock, stock, and two smoking barrels. I know this crap goes on because I'm dealing with a group of 7th/8th girls at my school these days who are circling and sniping, and much like this book, IT GETS OLD FAST.
AND NOW FOR A LIST OF ANNOTATED COMPLAINTS
Gratuitous use of expletives: I'm all for salty language, but the over-the-top use F and S and BS and golly gosh darn gets old after the first third of the book. Yes, teens curse. The words are powerful. They know that, I do, and so do you. It's a bid for authenticity that fails, or simply lazy writing. Some girls aren't into cursing like sailors, but then...some girls are.
Mixed messages. The narrator's life is a jumbled mess after her fall from the social elite, as it were, and perhaps the author's intent to convey this is through the numerous stare-downs, showdowns, and snippy interactions between Regina and the likes of Liz, Kara, Anna, Josh, Jeannette, and Bruce, but holy crap does this get confusing. There's so much going on between Regina and these people that I can't keep them all straight, and the quality of the story suffers, as they can't all be completely fleshed out. Some of these characters stay static; petty revenge is their only character trait. Liz stands out a bit for her perspective and relationship to Regina, and is explored in a painful way. Points for that. HOWEVER, even the interactions with Michael become tedious, with so many statements cut off by the other's anger or annoyance. They have a host of issues to work through, being that Regina destroyed his reputation at the school and turned him into a loner, a role he actually relishes while grieving the death of his mother, and for some reason he's the only person she feels comfortable around despite what she's done to him. If she's so afraid of being alone, WHY DOES SHE ALWAYS WANT TO SKIP SCHOOL TO BE ALONE. And what does she do on weekends? Her life is detailed Monday through Friday, as if the social strata of school is her life. For a lot of kids, it may be, but the ones I know? School doesn't represent that part of life. A lot of the plot seems stock, and the character archetypes aren't at all bent, but we're supposed to sympathize with this person and her situation. Some YA girls aren't into generic plots and characters, although they are comforting and predictable, so some girls are.
The writing isn't all that great, either. So many simple sentences. They just go like this. And this. I'll kill for variety. Regina offers these one-sentence "philosophical insights" that become their own paragraphs, and they ring so hollow I can't help but laugh. It's that kind of cynicism that YA go through (I did it myself), and just like me, they mistake this kind of thinking for deep pathos, when it's really a helpless complaint.
Summers uses repetition as a crutch rather than an enhancement. I'm pretty sure I saw the phrase "afraid of being alone" four times on one page. Some of the time I think it's supposed to be funny, but the repetition of repetitions is more annoying than effective. THAT IS A LOT OF FEAR. And each of the confrontations plays out the same. She's catatonic with rage so often that steam should be shooting out of her ears.
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| Some girls aren't as hairy as Wile E. Coyote. Some girls are. |
Oversimplified portrayal of adults. Every grown-up in this book is a clueless jerk. I understand that YA feel this way from time to time, but this borders on farcical overkill. Mom and Dad are drones. The math teacher is a pervert, and PE teacher is a drill sergeant with a hangover. The well-meaning secretary is worthy of only scorn. Regina can't connect with mom. Some girls are not ready for this kind of pigeon-holing. Some girls, like Courtney Summers, are.
This book won't f$%#ing end. COME ON. I have yard work to do. Can she just kiss Michael and stop being a moron? One of the better features of YA books is that characters remain in flux and do not change overnight, but this process is excruciating. I suppose that's my own bias coming to the surface combined with not being familiar with the structure of this kind of book. It just seems to be a collection of the same scenes with minute variations on repeat, which tiny bits of progress made and lost, and I want to scream, DO SOMETHING! And there's even a point in story where Regina tells herself the same.
At least we agree.
FINAL VERDICT
Unless Courtney Summers is some kind of secret genius who will makes us see the light by subjecting us to the endless suffering of Regina (probability? < 1%) we have here a stab at numerous YA issues that blizzards into a lumpy mess by the end. Girls: help me.
NEXT TIME, I YELL ABOUT
the adventures of a male outsider attempting to bridge the culture gap and find an identity, without going nuclear like our friend Regina. Let's just say there are some dark days in store for this dark dude!
BORING STUFF
Courtney Summers
2010 St. Martin's Griffin
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