Victoria FultonRezensionen

This novel kind of played out like a typical teen horror movie. There was a group of friends: the obsessive leader, the popular, carismatic infulencer, the tech genius, and one in touch with the spirit world (against her will). The plot kept my interest, and I enjoyed the characters. I especially enjoyed hearing multiple narrators. Even though they didn't do simultaneously or multi-narration, it was cool hearing different narrators for all of the main characters. I wish it had been scarier, but I can only expect so much from YA. All-in-all, it was an enjoyable listen.

I got a free copy on NetGalley.

This book centers on Ellie, a writer for a popular teen show set in high school. She loves being a writer but doesn’t love her current project and her writing has started suffering. Her boss finds out that she has an upcoming high school reunion and tells her that she needs to go or she won’t get a promotion. She tells her two closest friends and coworkers about this and they create a list of tasks she must complete while there. Her boss finds out and agrees. The last item on the list involves her high school crush Mark. Which leads to the romance.

I liked Mark just fine but Ellie was not my favorite character. She was pretty mean to just about everyone. The whole conflict centered on her being afraid to face reality and just wanting to live in her fantasy. So thinking about dating Mark was fine but actually trying to date him was not. Instead, she would purposely be mean to him. When she was in high school, fine, but as a 28 year old, it felt super immature of her. I also just don’t really see them together. They felt more like friends to me than romantic interests.

I also didn’t love her ex best friend storyline. Roxy was not a great person and the ‘reasoning’ behind that was the fact that her family life was really bad. I hate when books use the bad upbringing as the reason a person is mean, hateful, etc. to everyone around them. There are so many people that have horrible childhoods that are good people. I think I would’ve enjoyed this book more if Roxy had been left behind in the high school flashbacks.

Ellie writes for a teen drama but is cynical about high school. Her boss tells her she must go to her 10-year reunion and get a fresh perspective. Her friends set up a game for her to do while back home for her reunion--10 things to accomplish during the reunion. Ellie is not thrilled to go back as her ex-best friend hooked up with her crush on graduation night. But she goes back because her boss dangles the carrot of a promotion for her to attend her reunion. Can she do it? Does her perspective change?

I enjoyed this book. It was fun no matter what you think of high school reunions. People are not what she remembers them being. Ellie does run into her ex-best friend, Roxy, and her crush, Michael. She tries to live down the drunken message she sent to Michael in college where she is not supportive at all. She is snarky with Roxy but also supportive. They cannot go back and get those 10 years back, but they mend what they can. When Ellie gets back to California her boss has several surprises for her.

This is a fun read. You know all these people.

Ellie is now a write on a very popular high school-based TV show. But years ago, she was in high school and in that in-between group of not popular, but not, not popular group. Her producer finds out about her class reunion and thinks this would be a great idea to reignite Ellie's writing and if she goes the result will potentially be a promotion to co-executive producer. With the help of two friends, Ellie is given a list of things to accomplish with her high school classmates - based on what they were voted in high school. While home, Ellie first runs into her high school crush, Mark, and then her former best friend, Roxy. Ellie begins crossing things off her list with her Mark, but also while discovering that no one is the same as they were in high school. I very much enjoyed this book. Thanks to NetGalley and Forever publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

I hated high school.

Getting the opportunity to write for what has become a popular tv show right out of college has been great for Ellie. Not so great, it's a tv show about highschool, something Ellie doesn't want to remember. When her ten year high school reunion invitation gets fished out of the trash at work and her boss is dangling a promotion to co-executive producer if Ellie goes to the reunion, she's trapped. Armed with a bucket list drawn up by her two LA bestfriends, Ellie's reluctantly ready to take on high school again.

“We'll call it Ellie Is Cool Now,” Vic says.

Told all from Ellie's point-of-view, Ellie is Cool Now was a chik-lit easy read that had a cynical, leaning mean tone as Ellie goes back home and judges the hell out of everyone and everything. I found myself glad that she was never one of the popular kids in school because she would have been an absolute monster. Ellie recognizes that she's judgmental, admitting it over and over, and while she had flashes of maybe she's going to grow from this, the ending pretty much left her the same as when she started, except she got a happily for now.

This is why I didn't want to be reunited with my past.

Too busy judging everyone, Ellie never let herself fit in, except with her childhood bestfriend Roxy. As they get older, though, and home issues with a sick and mean mom, Roxy starts to become self-destructive and turns to alcohol, eventually sleeping with a lot of classmates, earning her the Most Likely to Brighten Your Day yearbook crown. Teens can be fairly self-centered, so I didn't blame Ellie for being too wrapped up in her own head to really be there for Roxy but when they meet up again as adults, Ellie still thinks and says some pretty mean things to Roxy. This is partly from the hurt Ellie is still carrying around after seeing Roxy make-out with who Ellie thought she knew was her big high school crush, Mark. Ellie had chances with Mark senior year but when she likes someone, she treats them like dirt, due to insecurities and fear. Her attitude toward him in high school had adult Mark claiming he never even knew Ellie liked him.

“I liked you,” he says softly.

When Ellie gets back home to small-town Midwest for the reunion, she runs into Mark and Roxy fairly quickly and the reunion actually happens in the first half. Her bucket list consists of ten objectives, make-out with the Prom King, create art with Most Artistic, get your high school crush to help with at least one of objectives, etc. We get introductions to old classmate secondary characters and just about everyone is described as an alcoholic or BLW (Boring Life Wife) with one or two exceptions. I think Ellie's inner thoughts and observations were supposed to come off snarky funny but cynical and judgy bleed through it all with plain meanness.

The fantasy was always so easy. Real is so much harder.

The second half was Ellie and Mark flirting and connecting, while Ellie tries to get over the fact that only a week ago Mark broke off his engagement and is still living with his ex-fiancee and trying to reconnect with Roxy. Mark seemed nice but when his ex-fiancee referred to him as spineless, it was hard not to agree from his background story. There's some help from Mark with a couple of the bucket list items but it's mostly Mark and Roxy drama. The ending had Ellie showing no growth and going back to LA and we get a couple pages of “Three Months Later” that wrap up what's going on with Roxy and a reveal that leads to the happily for now.

I've gotten myself tangled up in the middle of an unexpected, unpredictable mess.
And I think I like it.

I don't always have to like the characters I'm reading about but when the story is told all from one character and it's a mixture of genre chik-lit and romance, I usually like to see growth in the main character and leave with a feel good feeling. How Ellie acted in the end, in regards to Mark and how she was still seeing and talking about people, I don't think she did change from that cynical first page character. There were a handful of moments throughout the story that she had self-awareness thoughts but her actions and thoughts at the end made those seem like not sticking flashes in the pan. Ellie might not have been popular but she had “mean girl” down pat. If you're someone who has to like the characters they're reading about or want to see character growth, this would be a tough read but if you like pretty constant mean snark (the only showing up two times very quickly pizza delivery guy couldn't even escape with being referred too both times as “pimply”) this had that in spades.

This is a great YA 2022 haunted house book with a group of teens staying the night.

The heroine is a writer for a TV show that showcased high schoolers. The heroine is forced to go to her high school reunion after her boss dangled a promotion if she attended it. After her friends came up with a bucket list that the heroine should do during the high school reunion. And as the heroine attends the reunion, she is determined to accomplish everything in the bucket list and become a 'cool' person.

The premise of this book sounded amazing, but there were some details that made the book not be amazing. Firstly, I couldn't get behind the female main character. At the first chapter, her dislike of her high school years was so overwhelming that it didn't endear her to me at all. I can commiserate about the high school label, but her feelings about it was a turnoff. I did like the friendship between the female main character and her childhood best friend, and how that relationship turned around in this book. As for the romance, I was not a fan with the relationship between the female main character and her love interest. I did like the bucket list aspect and how that came about. Overall, I liked the cover and the story could have been better.

** Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions and thoughts in the review are my own. **½

1) There is something that bothers me about using someone’s tragedy as a “twist” in a novel. It always bugged me how Elisa Lam was used for supernatural enthusiasts to have fun with, when it was clearly a mental health issue and it pisses me off when people think something like that is to speculate and have fun with. Call me sensitive, I guess.

2. I guess I’ve been reading too much YA, but the book starts off talking about TikTok, feminism that’s just stupid takes (Which I love but young people tend to take it too far or make it unimportant, which doesn’t help the movement. Who cares if someone says “guys”?).

Although. Beautiful cover. Usually books look kind of bland in the horror/thriller genre but this one definitely caught my eye.

“The dead and the living don’t coexist in harmony.” So true. The Ghost Gang (Chrissy, Chase, Emma & Kiki) are always on the hunt for a new place of horror to tape a Ghosthunters type video for their YouTube Channel. Introducing Hearst Hotel, aka Horror Hotel, where a girl goes missing & is found dead at the hotel. What then begins a mission to discover the secrets of Hearst Hotel becomes a race for their lives. Chrissy is psychic and sees ghost. She is the key to discovering the truth behind the murderous Horror Hotel, but can she and the rest of the Ghost Gang get out alive. Definitely a mix of TikTok wanna be stars & GhostHunters. Should be 3.5 stars, for how slow/confusing the story started. But if you are a horror buff like me, you’ll enjoy the nods to The Shining and all things that go bump in the night.

Reminiscent in some ways of the movie Ghostbusters, this adventure follows four teens who have come together because they have a fascination/connection with ghosts and spirits. Chrissy can't avoid them unless she's wearing a beanie (sometimes two) to block them out. Chase, the videographer in the group, is the driving force behind their YouTube channel and is determined to get their number of followers to the magic million mark. Emma is the geek who has assembled their ghost hunting and measuring gear, while Kiki is the human bling thanks to her Tik-Tok presence. When they decide to investigate the suspicious death several years before of another young woman with psychic ability, the journey lands them in what they think is an overnight stay in a seedy, but famous hotel in L.A. Add in creepy entities, both living and dead, and you have quite the fun read.