240 pages
Source: ARC from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via NetGalley
April Bowers is Miss Invisible. Well, Miss Invisible with an oddly incurable bra stuffing addiction. She dreads starting sophomore year without her best -- and only -- friend Haley by her side. However, after a surprising incident that involves a cute skirt and some borrowed lip gloss, April finds herself invited to enter the exclusive clique of popular Britney Taylor. The thing is: no one gets to be that popular without a couple of haters. And April, desperate to attract the attention of the new boy she nicknames Mr. Hottie-Body Brentwood, is willing to try anything to improve her abysmal social ranking. But does that anything include tolerating the controlling Britney?
This book made me chuckle, at least at first. I was charmed by April’s snarky narrative and attitude. She was endearing in a younger sibling sort of way -- weird, considering the fact that she and I are both high school sophomores. As I got deeper into the book, I ended up getting more and more annoyed at April. She felt so artificial, along with all the other characters in the story. April’s friend Haley seemed especially fake. I would physically wince each time the two girls conversed on the phone. Their stilted conversations remind me of the script of some badly-written teenybopper TV drama.
The plot also lacked development. I know it’s impossible to fit every little detail into 200+ pages, but I felt that the humongous time skips in the story weren’t incorporated well enough. It was like walking down a flight of stairs and suddenly stepping through a missing step. Whoosh. Quite an uncomfortable feeling, you know?
Overall, The Lipstick Laws is a cute and slightly fluffy story about facing the mean girls of high school and accepting yourself for who you are.
Rating: 2
oh so unremarkable
