I hereby confess I was expecting Secret Society Girl (Secret Society Girl) to be good but not so freakishly good, here I am desperately waiting for Secret Society Girl 2 – Under the Rose to be shipped at my door (carefully avoiding spoilers).
From Goodreads:
Secret Society Girl takes us into the heart of the Ivy League’s ultraecxlusive secret societies when a young woman is invited to join as one of their first female members.
Elite Eli University junior Amy Haskel never expected to be tapped into Rose & Grave, the country’s most powerful—and notorious—secret society. She isn’t rich, politically connected, or…well, male.
So when Amy receives the distinctive black-lined invitation with the Rose & Grave seal, she’s blown away. Could they really mean her?
I know nothing of secret societies or Ivy League Us colleges and I found the whole secret societies’ rituals a bit absurd but Diana Peterfreund could have written about everything and it would have worked for me.
This is a story with zero paranormal activity and yet there is mystery.
It’s that kind of YA that it’s perfect for a twenty something, we have a smart heroine like Amy Haskel who is obviously over some of the typical young teen issues (I can’t take no more whining), an intelligent high-achiever girl who values friendship and struggles over making the right choice when it comes to friendship, love & secret societies (of course).
Amy is one of the smartest, most compelling heroine I ever came across to.
What does Amy have to deal with?
* War and Peace by Tolstoy (a book I actually loved but Amy is not really into russian literature);
* being tapped by the oldest, most powerful secret society in the world and then being almost discarded by the previously mentioned society based on the crime of being a girl;
* getting on with her life in a college where ambition is the new black;
* old friends and new friends aka Lydia and hottie Malcolm Cabot:
“I looked up to see Malcolm Cabot standing over my table. A senior, a popular party boy, and the son of a state governor, Malcolm Cabot and I didn‘t run in the same social circles. My friends stocked up on popcorn and had Sex and the City marathons, while his crowd liked to drive down to ―The City for marathon sex weekends”
* new enemies like Poe:
“I‘m sorry, the jerk said. His head was bowed as if in contrition, but the position just made him look like he was doing that evil looking-at-me-through-his-eyebrows thing so popular on horror movie posters. ―Can we start again? He stuck out his hand. ―I‘m Poe”
* her more-than-a-friendship-not-yet-a-relationship with Brandon:
“one of those true geniuses that dotted the campus population, the kind that could compose concertos on breaks from discovering the cure for cancer. His raison d‘être was applied math, but he spared enough time to fit in his knack for writing appallingly good short stories, and to compete with me for magazine editorships (I‘d only just barely beat him out for this one). No scrambling for internships or resume stuffers for Brandon. He just went around being quietly brilliant, unapologetically dorky, and universally well liked” (isn’t this whole paragraph brilliant?)
a guy who is a dream but I have that well know feeling that yeah Brandon is perfect but lacks that certain something (I hate that feeling, it always brings troubles);
* George Harrison Prescott, a very attractive guy Amy should really stay away from:
“George Harrison Prescott was not only the most beautiful man in my class in Prescott College (and no, that‘s not a coincidence about the names), he was also a Player with a capital ―P”
Diana Peterfreund’s writing reminds me of Megan McCafferty (there is no Marcus Flutie but one of those boys is bound to have a special place in Amy’s heart, I second Brandon but he sounds a bit too safe).
A second opinion:
The Book Smugglers (this review it’s awesome)
My grade: 4/5
Em
I’ve been wanting to read this series but as usual, the books aren’t available here. I may have to order them abroad or ask the local bookstore to order them for me.
Sounds like such a great read! A good summer beach-y book. I’m reading The Carrie Diaries right now and I thought your description, “a YA book for 20 somethings,” would be a perfect description for this one as well. Thanks for sharing!
It is exactly that. I know that Chachic loves the Jessica Darling Series as much as I do, Kate are you perhaps also a fun?
Peterfreund’s style and Amy’s mind vaguely reminds me of that but there is no Marcus Flutie here (:
Mwa-ha-ha-ha!
Can’t wait to follow your progress through the other three books.
I adore this series. On the same level that it sounds like you adore the Jessica Darling ones.
Nice review. I love running into books set in college. It’s such an awkward literary genre b/c usually it’s either too old for YA and too young for adult … it’s hard to write well. I may have to add this to my list
I love this series!! After the first one, I immediately went out and bought the rest so that I didn’t have to wait. Finished the series in a week. Amy Haskel’s is my type of heroine!
I ordered the second book already , today I went to the Book Shop but NADA…when it comes to YA here in Dublin there isn’t a great selection.
I never thought I would say this, but I want to read this!
Thanks for the linkage!
I LOVED this series, and it had the most perfect ending as well. I hope you get your hands on the remaining books soon!
Li
I really liked this series. I think the third, Rites of Spring Break was my favorite out of all four, but they’re all really enjoyable. I can see where you get the comparison to Megan McCafferty too. I know it might be blasphemous but I think I might like the guy she ends up with even a little more than Marcus. (Trying to maintain spoiler-free for you!)
YES. I prefer him to Marcus as well. By a long shot actually. But that’s me.
Oh Gosh! I can’t wait to start the next book, it’s somewhere in a post office (I hope), to summarize the way I feel about Marcus Flutie:
http://emilyandherlittlepinknotes.com/2010/05/08/marcus-flutie-crush-analysis-jessica-darling-series-by%C2%A0megan%C2%A0mccafferty/