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| TITLE: The Break-Up Artist AUTHOR: Philip Siegel PUBLISHER: HarperTEEN PUB DATE: Apr 29 2014 |
Some sixteen-year-olds babysit for extra cash. Some work at the Gap. Becca Williamson breaks up couples.
After watching her sister get left at the altar, Becca knows the true damage that comes when people utter the dreaded L-word. For just $100 via paypal, she can trick and manipulate any couple into smithereens. With relationship zombies overrunning her school, and treating single girls like second class citizens, business is unfortunately booming. Even her best friend Val has resorted to outright lies to snag a boyfriend
One night, she receives a mysterious offer to break up the homecoming king and queen, the one zombie couple to rule them all: Steve and Huxley. They are a JFK and Jackie O in training, masters of sweeping faux-mantic gestures, but if Becca can split them up, then school will be safe again for singletons. To succeed, she'll have to plan her most elaborate scheme to date and wiggle her way back into her former BFF Huxley’s life – not to mention start a few rumors, sabotage some cell phones, break into a car, and fend off the inappropriate feelings she’s having about Val’s new boyfriend. All while avoiding a past victim out to expose her true identity.
No one said being the Break-Up Artist was easy.
After watching her sister get left at the altar, Becca knows the true damage that comes when people utter the dreaded L-word. For just $100 via paypal, she can trick and manipulate any couple into smithereens. With relationship zombies overrunning her school, and treating single girls like second class citizens, business is unfortunately booming. Even her best friend Val has resorted to outright lies to snag a boyfriend
One night, she receives a mysterious offer to break up the homecoming king and queen, the one zombie couple to rule them all: Steve and Huxley. They are a JFK and Jackie O in training, masters of sweeping faux-mantic gestures, but if Becca can split them up, then school will be safe again for singletons. To succeed, she'll have to plan her most elaborate scheme to date and wiggle her way back into her former BFF Huxley’s life – not to mention start a few rumors, sabotage some cell phones, break into a car, and fend off the inappropriate feelings she’s having about Val’s new boyfriend. All while avoiding a past victim out to expose her true identity.
No one said being the Break-Up Artist was easy.
- Source: Goodreads
Rating:
“Once people get into relationships, friends and rational thought get tossed aside.”
Being an avid reader, there would come a time that all your favorite genres won’t do it for you. At this point, it means you need a break from the norm. I was in a bad case of this when I stumbled upon The Break-Up Artist. I was so blatantly in a reading slump! With the kind of light, easy story that The Break-Up Artist offered, thank goodness it got me out of it.
I had a sense of déjà vu during the beginning of the book. It reminded me so much of Lindsay Lohan’s movie Mean Girls. I watched it with a few of my cousins back in high school because, well… you guessed it: we were bored and had nothing better to do. While it may not have been a stirring story, it was entertaining at the most.
Anyway, The Break-Up Artist has a relatively similar story. Only this time Becca’s revenge plot, although focuses on a particular then-friend, works on more than just one couple to break up.
At first I thought Becca was just another single girl bitter over the fact that she’s not part of the “couple crowd.” A crowd to which this high school world deems as the “popular group.” Sounds pretty petty to work on a story, yes? That’s what I thought so too… until I reached deeper into it that I realized her agenda may have been wrong but her job did have its perks. And it would’ve gone better if she didn’t get her love advices and ideas from the wrong person.
Becca’s character isn’t one you would consider a lovable protagonist. You might even come to a point that you’d dislike her. But one thing I found admirable about her is that she had a well laid out character development, putting into perspective how short this book was.
This is a story of friendship, family and love situated in a way that brought about a sweet realization for our main character than she needed to go through a downfall for the betterment of herself.
And guess what? [SPOILER ALERT] she doesn’t get the guy… in a good way.
*Thank you, HarperTeen and NetGalley for allowing me to view The Break-Up Artist.
