Friday, November 14, 2008

Top 8 by: Katie Finn


Total: Two and a half stars (Tolerable)

Katie Finn's debut novel, aptly called Top 8, tells the story of Madison MacDonald, who comes back from a family vacation to find her Friendverse profile hacked. Friendverse is basically the unwanted love child of MySpace and Facebook, incorporated elements of each into some weird mis-matched that somehow worked out okay.

Madison is sort of a floater at high school. She has several really close friends (all, of course, in her Top 8 on Friendverse), Ruth, Schuyler and Lisa, but is friends with everyone including the theatre kids, the computer nerd, the 'It' couple, some of the inner circle, and jocks.

Before break, Madison had it all: cute boyfriend, starring role in the school play, tons of friends.

Now? Not so much. Madison's been hacked and the Fake-Madison said some terrible things, she even broke up with Real-Madison's gorgeous boyfriend!

Review:

Well, this was okay. It was in the same vein as At Face Value , but I liked that one quite a bit more. Frankly, Finn's novel was a bit tiresome.

The ending, aka the Whodunnit?, (by that I mean who hacked Madison's profile) was completely obvious from the context clues. The ending was very clean cut. No ties were left loose and it was too unreal. Life isn't like that!

Worse than that, sometimes it just plainly didn't make any sense. I wasn't sure if some lines/paragraphs were supposed to be off-kilter jokes or if they were just...off-kilter. Some heavy editing, maybe even a change to the ending, would've helped.

That being said, Top 8 was filled with other inconsistency. At times Madison is a beautifully flawed characters, whilst in the next chapter she's a too-perfect Mary Sue type. Sometimes, Madison seems like a real, honest to God, high school student. Other times, her school/home life is just nonsensical and non-fitting for a teenager.

I think that Katie Finn should continue writing, because she obviously has some talent, but buying another book from her will be a hard sell for me.

14 comments:

the story siren said...

haven't read this one..... i've heard mixed reviews on it. i enjoyed your take.

Ms. Yingling said...

Facebook type stories and reality type stories-- I'd like to get one or two for my middle school library just because they will be amusingly dated in 20 years. I'll look into the other title. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

uhmmmmm,,,, your comment was very HARSH,
i bet you couildn't write any better.
i personally loved this book. the answer was not obvious so just chill out and trie to be a little nicer okayy?

Unknown said...

I have only read about 100 pages of this book and I love it!!! I have not been able to put it down!!! In my opinion, read the book because it's a super good book and the person who wrote the review... you should get a better job because you stink at this one!!!!

Anonymous said...

I cant stand it... actually looking for a synopsis because I only want to know the ending.
please refrain from name-calling just because you don't agree- say you don't agree and leave it at that. name-calling just makes you seem immature and ignorant, especially if you misspell the words.

Anonymous said...

i absolutly loved this book! in fact i have already read it twice!!

Anonymous said...

Love this book! I stayed up til 1 am reading it! I couldn't put it down!!

Anonymous said...

come on,
the person who wrote this book should take it easy!!!! never abuse katie finn!!!!top 8 was AWSOME!!

Anonymous said...

Great book! Actually read it this time, okay?

Anonymous said...

I honestly thought some of the comments on this review we're a bit nasty. Don't put other people down.

"uhmmmmm,,,, your comment was very HARSH,
i bet you couildn't write any better.
i personally loved this book. the answer was not obvious so just chill out and trie to be a little nicer okayy?"

This was very rude to the person writing the review, it was only coming from his/her side.

"just chill out and trie to be a little nicer okayy?" Well from what you have been saying eg: "i bet you couildn't write any better" i think you should be a bit nicer. Also, if i were you i would consider getting spell check on your computer.

Use a helpful criticism like the person writing this review has. I have just started reading the book, and totally agree with the person who has written the review.

Anonymous said...

My personal opinion was that anyone who says that the person who took the time to write this is wrong for stating their opinion is just as wrong for being rude. I loved this book and am waiting in anticipation for the sequel, What's Your Status? And yes, I do not agree with the reviewer but I am not going to tell her she is wrong for having an opinion because she is not. :P anybody who wants to get angry at people who take the time to write a review of a book FROM THEIR OPINION is rude and conceited!!!!!! :D

Anonymous said...

ya reading this book so far so good it's a young adults easy read what grade r u guys in :D

Anonymous said...

the book is awesome...nuff said.

Anonymous said...

look, i really liked this book, but i sorta understand where this reveiwer is coming from (SORT OF). I mean, i dissagree that the ending was predictable, but it was a little far fetched. I'm gonna give this book 3 and 1/2 stars. if anyone cares. which they probably don't.