Thoughts before reading:
Sounds fairly generic, plot-wise, but maybe Mary Anne will surprise me for once. So far she's a little better in this series, if for no other reason than the fact that she finally dumped Logan!
The basics:
Mary Anne apparently works on the yearbook now, and everyone there has been working on the superlatives feature. Mary Anne starts to feel down because Cokie's giving her a hard time about Logan, and because she's not the "best" or "most" anything. She's just ordinary old Mary Anne. All of this puts her in a bad mood, and she decides to let it show instead of just making nice all the time. (Ha, I love how she sees herself so differently from reality. She always lets her bad moods show, and she makes sure everyone's aware of them and feeling sorry for her.)
This leads to Mary Anne giving Richard attitude when he buys her a headboard for her new bedroom without asking her first, then again when he drags her through model homes. Richard then complains to Sharon about how moody Mary Anne is being, which makes her angrier.
A rumor starts going around at school that Mary Anne begged Logan to take her back and he said no, because he was in love with another girl. The girls figure out it must have been started by Cokie, and start plotting revenge. (Logan does let Mary Anne know he's been hanging out with Dorianne Wallingford though, so there is some basis for that part.)
When the time comes for the yearbook staff to count the ballots for the superlatives, a lot of them are missing, and the remaining ones have Cokie and her friends winning in every category. They tell the yearbook teacher, who calls for a new vote, then the BSC girls spread the word about what Cokie did all over school.
Shortly after, Mary Anne misses her curfew when she's at Kristy's, and ends up grounded for two weeks. She also mouths off to Richard, basically saying who cares, because it wasn't like she was out drinking and smoking, among other things. This means she'll be missing Cokie's upcoming party, which she really wanted to attend to get her revenge. At some urging from Kristy, she decides to sneak out! (She sneaks right past Richard and Sharon and out the front door too. Pretty ballsy.)
At the party, Cokie calls Mary Anne pathetic, prompting Mary Anne to finally tell her off. Everyone cheers.
Richard catches Mary Anne sneaking back in, and they start arguing until Sharon steps in to scold them both for lashing out at each other because they're scared. (Richard's being overprotective again because of the fire, Mary Anne's bothered by her nightmares.) The family sits down to talk for hours, with everyone agreeing to be more open. Mary Anne's grounding is reduced to one more day.
From all this, Mary Anne learns it's ok to get angry and fight back/stand up for herself.
Timeline:
Doesn't say, but time has been very linear in FF, so it must be March.
Misc. thoughts:
*The "new Mary Anne" says shocking things, such as "duh" and "whatever"! OMG! It was simultaneously hilarious and bizarre to hear a BSC member mouth off to their parents and act like a teenager. By far the best part of this book. I loved snippy Mary Anne.
*Mary Anne also got snippy with Kristy, which was a funny scene because Kristy was completely unbothered and barely noticed.
*This book mentions one of the Schillaber twins, for the first time in forever.
*Kristy also encourages Mary Anne to sneak out! I'm loving the fact that everyone actually acts like teenagers now, finally.
*I felt bad for Richard during their whole conflict, not Mary Anne, so I guess this means I'm now officially old, haha.
*The superlative winners mentioned:
Best Artist: Claudia
Best Athletes: Abby and Logan
Wittiest: Cary and Alan
Most Likely to Succeed: Emily
Most Intelligent: Emily
Most Likely to be President: Kristy
Most Likely to be Seen in Dark Glasses in Beverly Hills: Stacey
No surprises with any of those...
*Ghostwritten by Nola Thacker.
*I hate superlatives on principle. This book also made me wonder if my middle and high schools had a Most Beautiful category like SMS does, because that's pretty fucked up. What a message to send to kids, especially at these insecure ages.
Books mentioned:
*Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
My rating:
2 stars. Painfully dull plot, but not without its moments. Mary Anne sneaking out was funny, as was her newfound attitude. I definitely enjoyed those scenes, if not much else.
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