Reviewed by Jocelyn Pearce for TeensReadToo.com

Jane's best friend, Ally, has always been there, and always been pretty much the same. She's never been a social butterfly or anything, but she and Jane have been through a lot at their all-girls Catholic high school, and now they've reached their senior year. One big part of being a senior at St. Teresa's is having a "Little." This means picking a freshman or new student and showing them around. On Big-Little Day, there is a forty-five-minute period when Bigs and Littles pair up, and having a good Little is definitely a status symbol for seniors.

As Jane fears, Ally does not do so well. She throws up all over the one freshman coming in her direction, and runs to the bathroom where Jane comforts her, sacrificing her own chance for a Little. Surprisingly, though, Ally does get a Little--a new sophomore girl named Lanalee.

Ally gets more than a Little. Soon after pairing up with Lanalee, she shows up at school with new hair, new clothes, a new cell phone--and a new personality. She's way more confident than before, but she's also blowing off Jane, her best friend. The new Ally is not necessarily improved.

There's more going on here than meets the eye, though. Who knew that selling your soul was actually possible? Well, now Jane and Ally do...but how do you stop the devil?

DEVILISH is a funny, fascinating, and unique take on selling your soul. It's wonderfully written, with interesting and lifelike characters that readers are sure to love and love to hate. The supernatural element in this story is nicely done, and keeps unraveling to the end, showing more and more of what's going on, even when you think you've got it all figured out. This novel kept my attention all the way through, and is sure to be a favorite of anyone who reads it! ( )

Maureen Johnson's books were recommended to me by a friend and fellow librarian, and this was the only one we had at the library. I found it fun -- but will have to search out her other books to get a better idea of Johnson as a writer. ( )

It's a really really good book. About evil.

Nice (really nice) protaginist, whom I liked (usually I don't like 'nice' protagonists). Realy cute some-sort-of-dead-or-an-angel-whatever-he-is boy. Bitchy best friend. Ex-boyfriend - total asshole. And Evil-in-the-flesh red haired girl with the power of Devil.
Hehehehe, sounds intresting, isn't it?

I like it. No, really. The way yhe girl tells this story sounds realistic, with a good drop of pain and hidden suffer.
At the moment I flipped the last page of this book I wanted to read the sequel. There HAS to be sequel! ( )

From the beginning, I have shied away from the YA shelves, mostly based on Twilight (which I enjoyed but didn’t love) and one failed attempt at reading a Sarah Dessen book. I don’t like vampires, I don’t like demons and I am really quite a few years past angst. Also, for the most part, I don’t really like love stories. In books, they’re too easy (or too hard due to aforementioned demons). In YA stories, the young women are painted as girls as opposed to strong people and I just don’t think that the right messages are being sent to our daughters.

That said, I would never ban a book based on content. I would, though, redirect.

Oh, look over here, I might say. Have you seen this book by Maureen Johnson? She’s fabulous. If I had a daughter, I would trade her in for Maureen. Wait no, I think that came out wrong. If I had a daughter, or a teen at all, I would, in a heart beat, send her right on over to Maureen. Yes, that was better. Why am I in love? Well, it really (really) is not based on the controversy surrounding The Bermudez Triangle but certainly the issue surrounding that conflict is part of the reason I dig her so much.

Here I am, getting to the point.

Take her book, Devilish. It’s the classic tale of Faust or Daniel Webster. Down and out character finds herself at the bottom of life and, oops, finds Satan or one of his minions, and there goes her soul in exchange for perceived happiness. I am a lifelong lover of Dorian Gray so this is a story I will never get tired of. While the myth and legend behind the story may not be batting a thousand on a truth scale, her teen ladies are real. They may have slight hang ups, there is obviously going to be some angst in any story but, the main concerns were academics, friends and demons, rather than boys. Sure there was an ex-boyfreind and an only occasionally reoccurring, adorable demon but it didn’t take the main focus. Boys in Devilish amounted to the way a sunset might be mentioned in another book. Jane, the protagonist, was smart but not gorgeous, witty but not popular. Sure, she was snarky and a bit of a rebel but that, in itself, is usually relegated to the male class clown rather than the female, for the most part. Even the evil demon, a beautiful, intelligent 200 year old high school student, put out a good name for female YA’s everywhere.

The storyline itself, followed the same vein. It was less focused on romance and more on calculus. Jane was interested in getting to Harvard where people were normal, rather than fitting in at high school where people were not. The writing is fantastic. I don’t think I’ve read anything that funny in a long time. The wit dropped a little bit in the end but I suppose it took a back seat when the action stepped in which is mildly understandable.

Needless to say, I could probably sit here and continue babbling on in a senseless way about how much I adore Johnson and her women but I will save that for the rest of her collection (which I may have purchased in its entirety, this past weekend). ( )

Full review at http://yannabe.com/2009/08/21/review-...

Summary: Seniors Jane and Allison aren’t popular, but they have each other. When Allison makes a dangerous deal to gain a little popularity, can Jane save her?

Review: This was the first book I read after my month-long Harry Potter revival, so I sort of expected to be let down. But this is Maureen Johnson, so I should have known better.

What I loved:

* Cupcakes—On the cover, in the story. Mmm. After I finished the book, I ran right out to our local cupcake shop to stuff my face.
* Hella funny—I don’t often laugh out loud while reading, but MJ is one of the few authors who can make me.
* 116-year-old love interest—Maybe this is my Angel crush showing a bit, but that’s hot stuff.

The only thing I would have changed is to add one more teensy clue about how Jane was going to save the day. There’s one clue halfway through, but my dulled mama’s brain didn’t catch it.

Have a little bite and see for yourself. In this scene, Jane’s best friend Allison just had an embarrassing day at school—of the vomiting-in-public variety.

And we have trolleys in Providence. That’s how we get around if we don’t drive. It was no shock that I found Allison waiting for the trolley or that I found most of our school waiting with her. In fact, it seemed like half of Rhode Island was waiting for our trolley.

Allison barely turned as I approached. It wasn’t cold. She just looked like she wanted to be unrecognizable. I think she would have gladly erased her entire existence and embraced that happy state of nonbeing that Eastern religions are always talking about. I stood by her silently. Unfortunately, my joining her only drew attention. A clump of weedy Sebastian’s guys started chin-upping in interest.

“Hey, barf bag,” one of them said. ( )