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Monday, 10 May 2021

The Yearbook by Holly Bourne


Most likely to...be forgotten
Working on the school newspaper, Paige is used to dealing with fake stories. How popular girl Grace is a such an amazing person (lie). How Laura steals people's boyfriends (lie). How her own family are so perfect (lie).

Now Grace and friends have picked their "best" high-school moments for Paige to put in the all-important Yearbook. And they're not just fake. They're poison.

But Paige has had enough of all the lies in her life. And with the help of Elijah - the only boy who could ever understand her - she's going to reveal the truth.

Paige is a girl after my own heart. At least, the introverted, clinging-to-walls part of my heart, which, like Paige, I've mostly grown past. And like Paige, it was slow and painful and I took much longer than she did.

Of course, my school was also not as bad as this one. I was in shock reading some of the things these girls thought were ok, but sadly I had no problem believing it could happen. Kids that age can be vicious. (People any age can be vicious, but most adults can understand the long term consequences of their actions. Kids can't.)

Paige's home life broke my heart. I don't want to spoil too much of the story, but it was really rough, in an unusual kind of way. I felt so bad for her, and so happy that she had Aunt Polly.

The romance - well, I think they worked really well as friends. I was actually half expecting Red Pen to be one of the popular girls, to make a point about subversion, but it worked really well this way too. They made a great team and I loved their enthusiasm about books. (It's always the same books though! No one ever loves the less famous novels.)

I loved this book, I loved the comedy and the scary parts and the heartfeltness of it, I loved Paige's first tentative attempts to fight back and her huge dramatic gesture at the end. This is a great read and I will be recommending it.



The Yearbook publishes on the 13th of May, 2021. I received a free copy and am writing an honest review.

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