Book Review: The Lifeboat Clique by Kathy Parks

Title: The Lifeboat Clique

Author: Kathy Parks

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Pages: 336

Format: E-book

Published: March, 2016

Price: $10.05 -> Rp136.479 (Amazon)

Rating: 3 / 5 stars

Date started: May 19, 2016 - Date finished: May 22, 2016

Synopsis:

Some people might say that Denver had a death wish. Why else would she have dared to sneak into a Malibu beach party where she’d be surrounded by enemies, namely including her ex-BFF Abigail?

Oh yeah. Croix. Denver never thought in a million years he’d ask her out, but who was she to question this miracle of fate? Well, that wasn’t the only surprise fate had in store.

During the party a tsunami hit the coast of California, wiping out everything in its path. Denver and a handful of others escaped death by holding onto the roof of the house and were swept out to sea. Of course, one of her fellow castaways was none other than Abigail, who could barely stand the sight of her.

Now that she’s floating in the ocean, stuck on a small boat with the most popular kids in school and waiting to be rescued, Denver wonders what might kill her first-dehydration, sunstroke, or the girl she used to think of as a sister?

A hilariously dark and twisted story that sparkles with a remarkably fresh voice, The Lifeboat Clique is Kathy Park’s irreverent yet insightful novel about how to survive in the most unthinkable circumstances.

Review:

Denver is a nobody. At school she's in the lowest social strata at Avondale, she has no friends and she doesn't belong in any clique. She wasn't always like that though. She used to be friends with one of the most popular girl in school, Abigail, except when they were friends Abigail wasn't popular. Abigail and Denver bonded over Abigail's ambition of becoming a soccer star just like Mia Hamm and Denver is always there to support Abigail by filming her games. Their friendship turned sour when as Abigail and Denver became close, the marriages of their parents ended. Ironically, their parents' marriages ended because Denver's dad is in love with Abigail's mom.

After their parents had split up they didn't exactly grew apart but they aren't as close as they used to be. One day, Abigail decided to throw a party since her mom wouldn't be around and she had the house all to herself. Abigail asked Denver to come and film the whole party. Little did Denver know this party would be the end of her and Abigail's friendship. Since that party, Abigail and Denver weren't friends anymore. Abigail rose up to the social ladder in Avondale and became one of the popular kids, the mean girls clique with Sienna and Hayley. Meanwhile, Denver became known as a snitch and a traitor to the whole entire school. Thus, resulting in her not having any friends.

One day, a guy whom Denver has always had a crush on, Croix came and talk to her and told Denver to come to a party Abigail is hosting. Even though Denver isn't actually invited to Abigail's party, she came anyway because Croix invited him and she wouldn't miss the chance to hang out with Croix. Of course when Denver arrived at the party, nobody wanted her there and the only consolation for Denver is that she is going to spend time at this party with Croix. When she finally had that chance to spend time with Croix, catastrophe happened. A tsunami hit Los Angeles. The good news is, Denver managed to survive with a bunch of other people from the party. The bad news, she survived with the mean girls clique who hated her including Abigail.

“Ironic, isn't it?"
"What?"
"Here I am, trying to survive WITH you, when before my whole plan was just trying to SURVIVE YOU."
"I'm not sure what that means. And I wish you'd stop talking in puzzles and just say normal things, because I've had a big shock. This morning I was looking at a YouTube video of a hamster eating a tiny burrito and now I'm floating on this stupid raft and my friends are dead so just keep that in mind.”

I rarely read new releases as soon as it came out but when I watched Epic Reads' YouTube channel and saw Margot's book haul, she was raving about how this book was a mix between Mean Girls and Castaway (if you guys know me I really like the Mean Girls movies). So I immediately jumped into this book with high expectations that I'm going to love it. It didn't live up to my expectation but I enjoyed it anyway.

First of all for me it was like a mix between Life of Pi and Mean Girls. For me those two movies would be the more accurate representation of what this book is about. Let me start by discussing the writing of the author, Kathy Parks is a debut author and this is her debut novel. In terms of her writing one thing needs to be applauded, which is the way she balanced humor dialogues and catastrophe scenes in the book. I also really like the author's sense of humor, its really sarcastic and kind of dark.

Oh I almost forgot to give her props of thinking about this kind of story. I mean I've never read anything like it before. Next thing I wanna talk about are the characters of this book. The mean girls in this book I felt had a little bit of trait from the girls in the Mean Girls movie. Sienna and Abigail definitely got traits of Regina George and Hayley was kind of a mix between Gretchen and Karen. I suppose you could say that Denver is like Cady but to me she doesn't resemble Cady one bit. I feel Denver is much more stronger than Cady in person. Denver is witty, sarcastic, resourceful and overall don't give an F to things. You'll know it when you read the book and see that despite not having any friends she isn't a weirdo or like depressed about being hated by the popular kids. Denver brings to life the dark and sarcastic humor of the author.

On to some of the parts that I didn't like about this book. First up, I felt at times as if this book feels draggy. I kind of needed to push myself to finish this book because I was curious about the ending. Second, some of the things that the characters did to survive in the story seemed to good to be true. When I was reading these parts I asked myself "could it really be that easy?". Other than those two things I liked the rest of the book.

For sure would recommend it to readers who likes sarcastic humor and contemporaries.

That's all for now!