I found dirty laundry a really interesting book, I loved the way it was written going from 2 different peoples perspectives in each chapter. I also really enjoyed the story and found it really cool how the teen actress went undercover, pretending to be a boarding school student , the character she was cast as in her next big job. The book is about her time at the boarding school and all of the friends she makes as well as the fact that the head girl has gone missing and her and her friends plan to find her before its too late. I found that the characters really interesting because they were all kind of weird and as the story unraveled you find out more about them and what they had to do with the disappearance. Even though I loved reading this book and recommend it to teen girls there were some parts of the story where a bit too much was happening and I had to stop and think about what was going on just to clear my head abit. ( )

Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

Carli Gemz is going undercover. She's off to the Winchester School of the Arts to get into character for her upcoming TV series, Private Nights. She will have the son of the creator, Fellini Udall Newport (aka FUN) at her disposal as her personal assistant.

Fun has no desire to be the slave to Carli, whom he has to refer to as Sheila Smith, her character's name. Being her assistant is part of the arrangement his father has made with Headmaster Stanton to keep Fun at Winchester. Fun should've been kicked out for his graffiti art around campus. Instead, his girlfriend, Charity, was expelled for getting caught in the male dorm. Life is not fair.

Senior year starts out with the news that Darcy Novak, the basic do-gooder of the senior class, has gone missing. Fun's roommate, Nails, used to date Darcy and may be a suspect in her disappearance. Also in question is Darcy's most recent boyfriend, Kirk Bishop. Kirk's family has donated enormous amounts of money to Winchester, and he is able to get away with just about anything.

When Fun and Carli meet, they actually form a bond and the two decide to investigate Darcy's disappearance, each for their own reasons. As they stumble through the first part of the school year, the mystery around Darcy grows. More of their acquaintances come under suspect, and the two no longer know who they can trust.

Told in alternating voices, Fun and Carli reveal their thoughts to the reader as they try to figure out what happened to Darcy. They both have their own issues to work through, but they come to rely on each other as they days pass and the mystery is no closer to being solved.

DIRTY LAUNDRY bounces back and forth between the two characters. At times it was hard to keep track of who was doing the talking, but overall, the story was intriguing. Mr. Ehrenhaft was able to keep the intrigue surrounding Darcy's disappearance cleverly hidden up until the final few pages.

Fun and Carli were both creative characters with quirky personalities, but it would be nice to see their characters develop even more in a follow-up story. ( )

Carli is an actress who's sent undercover to a boarding school to research a role. Fun is the son of the show's producer, and he's forced to act as her "assistant" while she's there. The only glitch is, a student disappeared before school started, so the campus is crawling with rumors. Carli, with Fun's help, decides to tries to unravel the mystery. Told in alternate voices. ( )

Welcome to Winchester School of the Arts, a place where the dirty laundry of other boarding schools is sent, the kids who are too bad to go anywhere else.
Enter Carli Gemz ("games"), a beautiful girl sent by the producer of her new TV show to learn about boarding school and being bad.
Here's Fun (Fellini Udall Newport), the producer's son who is made to be Carli's assistant or else by his dad.
Exit Darcy Novak, one of the good girls at Winchester. She's disappeared and the cops and school are a little lackadaisical about finding her.
Now Carli is involved in finding Darcy, partly out of curiosity, partly to help her get out of a shame spiral, which is frequently has since her life is so perfect and she is so talented. And Fun is involved since he liked Darcy well enough and has to assist Carli in whatever she does. Welcome to Winchester where it's all Fun and Games.

I liked this book. It was so funny and strange at the same time. Fun was a great character and his relationship to Carli was pretty good. There were a couple of things that threw me though. One was Carli's roommate, Miranda, and Fun's "crush" on her. It was a weird detail and didn't really gel with me. Another was Fun's roommate, Nails. He bothered me which I know he was suppose to but I wished more had been explained about him.

I liked how they sort of accidentally solved the case. It was different from most mysteries where the "detective" intensely goes out looking for clues. The ending was a little wrapped up even for a mystery, but I'd like to see more from Carli and Fun. ( )

Pretty Good Book That Kept Me Second-Guessing Myself

Dirty Laundry
By Daniel Ehrenhaft
Pub. Date: December 2008
3.5 out of 5 stars
R - Profanity, Sexual References, Sexual Humor, and Violence
Recommended

While going undercover to research for her new TV show, Carli least expected to get caught up in a mystery. But when a girl goes missing, Carli can’t even think of standing aside. If the cops aren’t going to take it seriously, someone else needs too.

Fun isn’t happy with the arrangement. He doesn’t want to baby-sit a Hollywood brat, but if he wants to graduate he has to be Carli’s assistant. While Carli creates ideas of her own, Fun can’t help but harbor his own suspicions.

Neither of them planned to investigate a kidnapping. Neither were they prepared to face the outcome of their snooping…

Dirty Laundry was a pretty good book that I hope leads to a possible series, if not sequel.

Instead of describing the setting and characters as “bad”, I think a more appropriate word is “icky” They thought icky thoughts. They lived in icky rooms. They took part in icky activities. And some people were just icky, both physically and mentally. I believe the author wrote it that way purposefully and it did suit the story plot. I would have preferred it differently, but it worked out well.

From the beginning I had the bad guy pegged, but throughout the book I was forced to second-guess myself. The evidence was contradictory and the words sly and deceiving. Dirty Laundry is one of the few books that took a common “problem” and setting, but didn’t annoy me with its regularity.

The writing format and character voices were sloppy, but just quirky and funny enough to pull it off.

I’m hoping Dirty Laundry is just the beginning to a series or at least a planned sequel in the works. Yes, it could do fine as a stand alone but its plot and characters could easily live on in a few more books. That would enable a more gratifying goodbye.

Date Reviewed: March 30th, 2009

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