Review: Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood by Eileen Cook

Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood by Eileen Cook

Popularity is the best revenge.

In the final weeks of eighth grade, Lauren Wood made a choice. She betrayed her best friend, Helen, in a manner so publicly humiliating that Helen had to move to a new town just to save face. Ditching Helen was worth it, though, because Lauren started high school as one of the It Girls--and now, at the start of her senior year, she's the cheerleading captain, the quarterback's girlfriend, and the undisputed queen bee. Lauren has everything she's ever wanted, and she has forgotten all about her ex-best friend.

But Helen could never forget Lauren. After three years of obsessing, she's moving back to her old town. She has a new name and a new look, but she hasn't dropped her old grudges. She has a detailed plan to bring down her former BFF by taking away everything that's ever been important to Lauren—starting with her boyfriend.

Watch out, Lauren Wood. Things are about to get bitchy.

Review:

This was my first experience with Eileen Cook and it definitely won't be my last! Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood was an intriguing and well written novel and left me unable to put it down until the last page.

Revenge is a tricky thing, and Cook wove it perfectly into her sophomore YA novel. Helen was a surprisingly relatable character, and it was easy to see why she had to do what she did. While her actions weren't good, they were understandable. Readers were sucked into Helen's world and hated Lauren just as much as Helen did. Lauren was a cruel, egotistical girl who only cared about being at the top, and didn't care how she got there. After tearing down Helen in middle school, Lauren swiftly rose to the top of the social ladder once Helen moved away. I loved how Helen came back with so much self confidence and power. She was pretty, smart, nice, and ready to ruin Lauren Wood. While Helen thought she would never let anything get in the way of her "warpath", things did, and Helen had to learn a lot about herself as well during the course of the novel.

She made a friend and even met the perfect guy, and she came really close to ruining both relationships with her obsession with destroying Lauren. While I hated Lauren, some of the things Helen did to her were truly cringe worthy and I had to wonder- how far will she go? Helen was determined, and as each prank went farther and farther I couldn't put the book down, I had to know what was going to happen to both Helen and Lauren.

The plot of Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood was fast paced and engaging, Eileen Cook is a great writer that has a way of drawing you into the book, I felt like I was living the story with Helen. While this is a mainly a novel about revenge, it's also a novel about love, family, friendships, honesty, and being true to yourself. I highly recommend reading this, it's definitely not the light, carefree read you might be expecting. I can't wait to read Eileen's previous release, What Would Emma Do?, and I'm looking forward to reading her future novels as well!

Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

January 5, 2010/Simon Pulse/224 Pages/Young Adult

Source: Publisher (Hardcover)

Other books by this author: What Would Emma Do?