Katie Finn

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Initially, I wasn’t going to read this book. It just didn’t necessarily sound like a Christina book and the reviews made me even less certain it would be my sort of thing. However, the fact that Katie Finn is Morgan Matson came out and, having loved Matson’s Since You’ve Been Gone earlier this year, I couldn’t resist Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend. North fucking west that title takes forever to show more type. Usually when a book surprises me, it tends to be for the worse, but Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend was a big surprise for the better. Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend is a perfect read when you’re in the mood for something fluffy and reminiscent of a CW drama.

Some narrative voices just pop to life for me immediately. Gemma’s does this. On page one, I knew that I would probably love this book, barring some sort of plotberg nonsense, which thankfully did not happen. To be honest, Gemma’s not the most likable character. I don’t feel any real sympathy for any of her plights, because she’s the orchestrator of her own downfall in most every instance. She’s not especially nice, clever, or witty. Gemma is best described by the examination of her handwriting she did as a child, which revealed that she “acted impulsively with little follow-through.” That’s Gemma. We’ll come back to this in a bit.

There’s a lot of humor in Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend. The book opens with one of the most fantastically embarrassing dumpings. Gemma had been with her boyfriend Teddy for about two years and then he dumps her in the Walmart, shortly before they were supposed to go away for the summer to volunteer together. Since Gemma has to pull out of the program, she ends up getting shuffled off to stay with her father, who’s in the Hamptons for the summer. While a summer vacation to stay in a producer’s mansion in the Hamptons (not her dad’s) might sound like a dream, Gemma wants little less, because returning to the scene of the crime is never a good idea.

In the summer of her eleventh year, Gemma did something terrible while she was in the Hamptons. For spoiler reasons, I won’t tell you what that was. You might know that I hate the intentional withholding of information trope most of the time, but Finn doesn’t draw out the suspense on what Gemma did for all that long, thankfully.

The thing to know about Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend is that it’s a bit ridiculous. Everything in this book hinges on Gemma pretending to be her friend Sophie Curtis, in an obviously misguided attempt to reconnect with Hallie, a figure from her past summer. Add to that her feelings for Hallie’s brother, Josh, who values honesty above all else, and you have the makings for CW-level melodrama. Sophie’s plan is idiotic and doomed to failure from the very start. You either accept this and go along for the ride or you probably will not enjoy the book.

What made this work for me, though, is Sophie’s character. While her idea is patently absurd, she also didn’t think it through. Remember? She’s impulsive. Josh saw her holding a cup with the name Sophie on it, assumed her name was Sophie and she decided to run with it, later sort of regretting that choice but whatever it was done so full speed ahead. Plus, Gemma is one of the most skilled people at denial ever. You see this element of her personality over and over again, starting with her reaction to her boyfriend dumping her. As much as Gemma lies to others, I think she’s even better at lying to herself and imagining things will work out in her favor, even if anyone else could have told her (and even did tell her) that was not the case.

Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend entertained me from the first to the last page. I’ll be anxiously awaiting the next long-titled, drama-filled installment in this series. It’s a departure from what we know of Morgan Matson, but the excellent character-development and writing remains consistent. show less

I haven't read the first book in the series, Novel 8. So I went in not sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised with what I found! It was cute and fun and fluffy and just the perfect summer read. The social network talk in the beginning of each chapter kept me entertained. It is very much like twitter, so I found it easy to follow along with.

I enjoyed the main character, Madison. She is your average teen dealing with high school drama. I sympathized with her friend problems. I went show more through the same thing when I was in school. But I liked how Madison dealt with all her problems instead of sweeping them under the rug. Madison and her boyfriend, Nate were sweet together.The romance was great, but the best part of it was seeing a realistic teen relationship. What's Your St@tus? Also has some mystery and suspense added to the mix. Masidon is the head of the prom committee, and has her hands full with things going wrong. Everything blows up on prom night, and the characters have to work together with the help of Status Q (the Twitter in this book) to pull off a crazy heist. This part of the story reminded me of Heist Society by Ally Carter, which I enjoyed.

What's Your St@tus was like an ice cream sundae. Lots of sugary sweet goodness all put together in one place. If you like cute reads with some mystery added, What's Your St@tus will be right up your ally. show less

When I first read about this book online, I was prepared for a flimsy little read about a girl who has a problem, fixes it and in this case, finds the hacker, and everyone lives happily ever after. The book exceeded this judgment for sure. It was totally unpredictable. And it misled me to the wrong suspects. I had so much fun just trying to figure out who it was myself.

As a user of Facebook myself, I have to say that it made me think about just how much information is on that and what show more someone could do to me if they ever decided to hack into my account. Quite frankly... it's a very scary thought. This novel teaches that perhaps our whole lives should not be online, and we should learn to protect ourselves.

I loved reading the little profiles incorporated into the novel-- made it a lot more fun and with the storyline. Great book! show less

Katie Finn’s Top 8 is a light, highly entertaining look at life for high school junior Madison MacDonald, a whip-smart girl with a bevy of close friends and a gorgeous new boyfriend, Jason. Fresh from a vacation in the Galapagos Islands, Madison returns stateside only to discover someone has hacked into her Friendverse (read: Facebook, MySpace) profile and completely changed her profile.

And broken up with her boyfriend. And said terrible things to her “friends,” who promptly unfriend show more and alienate her. And posted the most unflattering, somewhat incriminating photos of Madison — and others — imaginable.

What follows is Madison working eagerly to get to the bottom of who did this — who disliked her so much that they would purposely set out to destroy her reputation, friendships and relationship. And as a little slice of the times, it all involves plenty of cyber-research, interrogation and the help of unexpected allies. By the end of the book, there’s quite the shake-up among Madison’s top 8 friends . . . and that’s probably a good thing.

Despite my early reservations about being "too old" for a novel like this, I really, really liked Top 8. Finn’s debut novel was funny, fast-paced and felt like a genuine high school experience with dimensional characters. As a narrator, Madison was intelligent, witty and someone to root for — basically, a cool girl. And though her friends could be a little taxing on the brain (particularly Lisa, whose Francophilia translates into her constantly spewing French sayings), overall? Well, I liked these kids. And got to know them.

The mystery surrounding who hacked Madison’s profile was the story’s anchor, and what propelled me through the plot. With a number of “suspects,” all who appear to have good cause to hurt Madison, I truly didn’t know who did it until the pieces came together toward the end. And by that point? Well, I was all kinds of invested -- and in love. Nate, who happened to travel with his family and the MacDonalds on their Galapagos adventure, makes a reappearance partway through the story — and he won me over immediately with all his broody hotness. Nate is my personal archetype for awesome teen love interests in novels.

Fans of young adult fiction looking for a quick, light and undeniably fun read need look no further than Top 8. I’m not going to hit the hay tonight with visions of Nietzsche, philosophy and changing the world in my head, but who cares? Sometimes, girls just want to have fun. show less