New Girl - Paige Harbison

Title: New Girl
Author: Paige Harbison
Pages: 304
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
Publication Date: 1/31/2012 (eARC provided by NetGalley/HarlequinTEEN)
Rating: ***

They call me 'New Girl'...

Ever since I arrived at exclusive, prestigious Manderly Academy, that’s who I am. New girl. Unknown. But not unnoticed—because of her.

Becca Normandy—that’s the name on everyone’s lips. The girl whose picture I see everywhere. The girl I can’t compare to. I mean, her going missing is the only reason a spot opened up for me at the academy. And everyone stares at me like it’s my fault.

Except for Max Holloway—the boy whose name shouldn’t be spoken. At least, not by me. Everyone thinks of him as Becca’s boyfriend but she’s gone, and here I am, replacing her. I wish it were that easy. Sometimes, when I think of Max, I can imagine how Becca’s life was so much better than mine could ever be.

And maybe she’s still out there, waiting to take it back.

After just finishing New Girl, I feel totally confused and have that thought of 'What...huh?'. I can't say that I totally hated this book but I can't say I loved it either. This was comparable to some kind of whirlwind that is filled with a bunch of what-in-the-world? with flashes and bits of things that keep you reading (this isn't necessarily a bad thing here).

New Girl (you won't be finding out her real name until the end of the book) has just started Manderly Academy and finds herself shadowed by a missing student: Becca Normandy. This book is told from New Girl and Becca's perspective, New Girl in present day and Becca before she went missing.

Okay, I have a few things good bit to get off my chest here. First, I really did not like New Girl or Becca, although half way through I started liking New Girl more and of course, Becca even less. New Girl really, really - and yes, I mean really - needed to grow a backbone and tell people to shut it already. That grated on my nerves something awful. She would let these other students talk to her so horribly and talk behind her back and wouldn't say anything. Luckily, that gets better eventually.

Becca. This girl obviously had no morals or any kind of decency or respect to anyone or herself. I am not even going into this one otherwise it will overtake the whole review.

Max and Johnny were semi-okay. I think they could have been better, but all in all not bad - when they weren't tied up around Becca anyway. Dana was a complete nut case and there were times I would wonder why she wasn't in some kind of counseling or therapy... or perhaps a strait jacket when she went into one of her screaming-crazy-Becca-obsessed fits (although later on I did develop some sort of sympathy for her).

With all that out of the way, I say again, I didn't actually hate this book. There was a great mystery to it, I had to know who New Girl was (not just her name) and I had to know what exactly happened to Becca and why on earth she was such a vile person. At the end though, I still felt like there was something to know that was left unsaid and was left feeling a little uneasy. I don't know if it was the overall weirdness of the story or what. It wasn't written poorly, but the story in itself was strange. I am curious now to read Rebecca which is what this story is based off of.

Overall, I would say read at your own risk. It's not one I would run out and demand people to read, but at the same time I wouldn't say never read it, just to enter with caution.