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Sometimes life gets messy.

After a rocky start in Spoiled, Brooke Berlin and her newly discovered half sister, Molly Dix, have settled into something like sisterly love, but the drama is far from over.

Now that Brooke’s caught a taste of fame and her movie star father’s attention, she wants to launch a blog that will position her as the ultimate Hollywood insider. But between schoolwork, party-planning committee meetings, and spa treatments, she hardly has the time to write it herself…

Enter Max McCormack, an aspiring author with a terrible after-school job pushing faux meat on the macrobiotic masses of La-La Land. Max reluctantly agrees to play Brooke’s ghost-blogger for an impressive salary, and the site takes off, but how long can their lie last? In person, Brooke can’t live up to the intellectual wit of openbrooke.com, and Max soon begins to resent hiding her genius behind a bandage dress-wearing blonde. Can the girls work together to stay on top, or will the truth come out and ruin everything they’ve built?


PS: You might want to check out my review of Spoiled before reading this one.

Messy is written in the hilarious, sarcastic and witty manner that is the trademark of the Go Fug Yourself girls. Every page is infused with priceless jabs at both factual and fake Hollywood stars, most of whom–being the unplugged teen that I clearly am– I’ve never even heard. But here’s the catch: I laughed anyway. I didn’t even know who they were talking about and I laughed anyway. Okay, laugh is a weak word to describe my snorting-slash-snickering-slash-rolling-around-on-my-bonbon-strewn-floor-clutching-my-stomach. But, as Brooke Berlin would say with a generalizing sweep of her manicured hand, “details.”

As accurately described in my current poll (which you may find a little to the right of your screen and graciously vote on), Messy is the quintessential beach read: light, fun, and knock-your-socks-off hilarious. Old Hollywood clichés inadvertently compliment high school clique melodrama and up-and-coming It Girl debauchery as our two main characters learn to become dependant of one another in the hopes of bettering their futures. There is no saying more appropriate than Hollywood Is Like High School with Money in cases like these– especially when our read focuses not only on high school, not only on Hollywood, but on a high school in Hollywood whose students are more artificial than Glow‘s twisted sense of humour.

Well, all the students but Max McCormack (otherwise known as Kermit), of course. Yes, Max– what with her green hair, consisting-almost-entirely-of-black wardrobe, and serious writing aspirations– is certainly the square peg in Colby-Randall Preparatory School’s very round, very flaky hole. Her rebellious disposition has always led her to believe certain truths: bottle blondes, stupid celebrities and spoiled brats were simply meant to be mocked. However, this disposition cannot help her now, in the face of a desperate need for money, an overly-tempting, well paying job, and– this is the worst part– Brooke Berlin.

Some of you may be wondering what kind of job could even come near tempting the anti-establishment Max. I’m going to dash all of your hopes right this instant by saying that, contrary to popular belief, it does not involve egging Jennifer Hudson’s house (although this, too, would be completely satisfying for all parties). This job involves different key words, such as ghost, writing, and blog. Now, being a blogger, myself, I utterly delighted in the scattered postings of the girls’ witty blog, www.openbrooke.com. Or should I say Max’s witty blog? Brooke obviously has no idea what she’s talking about. And Max is growing tired of letting the glamazon hide behind her words.

Brooke is admittedly my favourite character. Although I most certainly am not the shallow fake most would claim her to be, I can absolutely relate to her need to constantly be wearing an attractive ensemble and drive to find the perfect pair of shoes. However, let’s not assume that Brooke is this afore-mentioned shallow fake. The youngest Berlin has piles upon piles of insecurities, doubts, hopes, and dreams (most of which do involve fame and fortune, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here). In Messy, Brooke has most definitely become the realistic and at least quasi-deep person that she failed to represent in Spoiled.

As you may have guessed, although Messy is the claimed sequel of Spoiled, it’s more of a companion than anything else. Despite the fact that Molly does make brief appearances in certain nostalgic scenes, she has stepped off of the stage in order to allow her best friend and sister to take her place as protagonists. I’ve heard rumours that Brooke’s BFF Arugula may be the centre of Cocks and Morgan’s next book, but the person who I’m hoping to see more of is Shelby Kendall: self-proclaimed enemy of both Brooke and Molly.

Nevertheless, such a novel would not be complete without two of my favourite mandatory ingredients: drama and boys. And what better way to incorporate both than a delicious twist on the classic love triangle? When the unconventionally short and unconventionally bookish Taylor Swift (his stage name is Brady Swift, for obvious reasons) comes into the picture, our two protagonists become dazzled and not slightly giddy. The melodrama that ensues is best left for the actual reading of this book, but I will say that it is very intense, terribly evocative, and highly enjoyable.

Messy‘s obvious hilarity and delectable drama warrant 4.6/5 stars. For all in need of a light, creamy, and somewhat candy-coated escape.

 

Oh, and enter my current giveaway for a chance to win Burden of the Soul! You only have one day left.

I’ll keep you posted,

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