Review:
I received a copy from Netgalley.
An enjoyable story about a girl who takes her own styles of vigilantism against the bullies in her high school only to realise revenge isn't always the answer, especially when things take a turn for the worst and go too far.
Sam's dad went to prison just before Sam went to high school. He had an affair with her best friend's mom. The best friend Jessica, found out and whilst spying on Sam's dad and her mom discovered Sam's dad's criminal activities. Sam's dad went to prison, Jessica's parents broke up. Sam's mom took off leaving Sam in a trailer with her Aunt Lorretta Jessica turned on Sam and refused to have anything to do with her. As high school progressed Jessica became the Queen Bee of the mean girls and she and her friends took to making Sam miserable. Even though Sam had nothing to do with her dad’s criminal activities or the affair Sam is relentlessly bullied. Sam has a ray of light in her best friend Jeremey who sticks by her and shields her from the bullies as best he can.
The school has a “secret” society, The Society (not the most creative name) but this group is the cream of the crop of the high school they attend. The most popular students are members and there are all sorts of benefits to being part of The Society. Sam knows she never had a shot in hell at the Society, but as Jessica is the queen bee – Sam decides the Society is perfect place to get her revenge on Jessica and the other mean girls.
So she formulates a plot and hacks into the Society website to manipulate it to her own needs, enlisting some of the nicer people, inviting them to join and complete the required initiation tasks she has redesigned with the intent of humiliating Jessica and the mean girls while getting the benefits The Society offers for her own friends.
All goes well at first, but like most revenge plots, the course of vigilantism doesn’t always run smoothly. Jeremy finds out Sam’s plans and is furious with her, imploring her to think about what she’s doing. Sam stubbornly refuses to listen as the mean girls are getting their comeuppance and Jessica’s reputation is going rapidly down the toilet. No one’s been hurt, so where’s the harm?
Given Sam’s situation it’s easy to understand why she feels the way she does and if she can do something about the people making her miserable, why not turn the tables on them and give them a taste of their own medicine? However, she’s not only manipulating them, she’s manipulating other people as well to do the tasks for her rather than doing anything herself. She’s the mastermind behind things. That’s not so bad, right? There’s a fine line here between what’s right and wrong and even though Sam believes she’s right….there’s definitely a morality issue here.
There’s also some weird side plot about Sam getting involved romantically with a motorcycle riding boy Ransom – whose sole intent with Sam becomes very clear right off (even though she can’t see it)
But things with Sam’s revenge plan get worse and people do start getting hurt. And on top of all these things with Ransom aren’t going as she thought and her feelings for Jeremy are changing. Jeremy’s uncharacteristically jealous the second he comes across Ransom. But as things become more and more chaotic with Sam’s plans and get worse and worse, she finally realises – what am I doing?
Spoiler but something I was surprisingly pleased with.
[spoiler]
Sam actually turns herself into the police after a very serious turn when Jessica actually gets hurt and winds up in the hospital. While I didn’t always agree with Sam’s twisty turny plotting, I was quite impressed with her when she manned up and turned herself into the authorities willing to take full responsibly for her actions.
[/spoiler]
All in all, an enjoyable read with interesting characters, and a believable plot.
Thank you to Netgalley and Entangled Publishing, LLC for approving my request to view the title.
Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1455297/review-the-society
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