The Ninja Reader

Ruby Oliver continues her journey to self-discovery in this second installment in E. Lockhart 's second installment in the Ruby Oliver series. Once more, we are given a harsh, but honest, view on the lives and dreams of teenagers nowadays.One of the things I love about books is when they manage to draw me in, make me emotionally vested, get me to root for one hero and hate the next as if I were an actual participant. I honestly wish a painful, horrible experience on Jackson for what he does to Ruby, and I really, really get pissed at Cricket, although both of them can't hold a candle to Kim. I honestly feel sorry for that girl. Jackson's obviously a horny jackass and Cricket... well, hasn't gotten that much limelight, so I can't understand her reasons, but Kim is just trying so hard to prove that she was right. I may not keep in touch with all of my kindergarten friends, but to start hating someone who has been by your side since pre-school, you have to be a sad, sad person. I get that she doesn't want to admit that she's wrong, but come on - is she really willing to throw away friendship for the sake of a guy? A guy who, I might add, doesn't seem to appreciate her. That's not an unfamiliar angle. My main complaint with popular YA novels is that best friends are portrayed as slutty, shallow ad mean, yet the book expects us to believe that they are the paragons for friendship. I'm so glad to have read a series where nobody is delusioning themselves.