THE CLIQUE books

I haven't read them, but they've been around for awhile. They're part of the same trend that spawned the Gossip Girl series, although the Clique books are more Mean Girls than sex.

Whereas the Gossip series is more sex and relationships, and revels in it, the Clique series is supposed to be a little condemning of superficial and snobbish behavior, but I don't think there are any real consequences.

Until someone better informed weighs in, you might just want to pick one up from the library and read for yourself. Either way the books aren't my style, but I've had a couple friends who have read books from both series because they're younger siblings were reading. They thought they were "cute"--self-indulgent and guilty pleasure, good beach reads.

Garbage more like it. I read an article in the New York Times Sunday Book Review about YA books, and YA books are looked down upon by a lot of people who are ignorant about them. And I have one theory: Books like those. I don't see how the Clique books are condemning snobbery. Instead, they seem to glorify it in a wholesome manner with no consequences.

I hated the books. I picked them up because I wanted to see what the big fuss was at school and I got 10 pages in before physically throwing the book across the room. Books like this disgust me. Who gives a damn about rich spoiled brats? Not me, for sure.

I think the point is that the main character is a regular girl who is being picked on by the awful spoiled girls. A step-sister or something? It seems like maybe she began to merge into one of the other girls though.

I haven't seen anyone reading one of those books in ages, and I don't remembe anything about them, but I do always see them on the shelves at Target.

Is this the same thing Tyra Banks is presenting a film of?

My daughter wanted to read these, so I picked one up and read it. I read the whole thing waiting for Claire to put the snobs in their place, but no, she becomes one of them! So disappointing.

I think these are fantasy escapism for teen girls. Wouldn't it be great to be able to buy anything you want and rule the school?

I passed it on to my daughter along the The Penderwicks. I just wanted to show her how a talented author (Birdsall) can fully develop a character in a few pages, while even after four books, the Clique characters are so flat.