The Winner: the one that took me right back to my own awkward teenage years, The Mall
But I wanted to add honorable mentions for a couple of YA thrillers that I truly enjoyed and that stuck with me, Five Total Strangers and Even If We Break
Cassie Worthy is back! After a nasty bout with mononucleosis that meant she was quarantined through the ending of her senior year, including prom and graduation, she is back to spend her last summer as a kid working at the mall. But at one of the top jobs of the mall, America’s Best Cookies. She has a plan for the summer, staring with the summer together with Troy at the Parkway Center Mall before they head to New York for college in the fall.
But then she was brutally attacked walking in the mall. She was just walking along with Troy when a short firecracker of a girl jumped out of nowhere and attacked Cassie, spraying her in the face with Bath and Body Works’ Cucumber-Melon spritz. Once Cassie was able to wash the spray out of her eyes, nose, and mouth, she realizes what just happened: Troy’s new girlfriend made herself (and her rabid jealousy) known, and she spilled the beans about Cassie’s losing her job.
No boyfriend. No job. No plan. And this late in the season, it’s too late to find another job that will rate high on the 90210 Scale of Mall Employment Awesomeness. There are just no Dylan McKays left. Cassie is going to have to settle for a David Silvers, or worse, a Scott Scanlon. She scours the mall looking for help wanted signs, but there are only so many rejections a girl can take before she stares into the deep waters of the mall fountain and wonders what’s next. That’s where Gia Bellarosa finds her, and that’s where Gia saves her.
Gia is the owner of Bellarosa Boutique and the mother of Cassie’s best friend from elementary school Drea. She accepts Gia’s job offer to do the books, and in the days to come, Drea shows her the side of the mall that no mere civilian ever sees. As Cassie moves past her broken plans and learns to embrace change, she discovers friendship with a Jersey girl, romance in a music store, and a scavenger hunt through the mall that you have to read to believe.
Megan McCafferty’s The Mall is technically a young adult book, but if you are of a certain age (as I may be), then reading this novel is like reading your high school diary. It is a delightful reminder of the age of Aqua Net, Orange Julius, Sam Goody’s, Dynasty, Ponderosa, Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, and of course, B. Dalton.
I absolutely adored this book! For me, it was one of those books where I finished it and immediately wanted to start it all over again. The characters charmed me, the plot was hysterical, and the setting is everything. For anyone who was a teenager (or close enough) in 1991, the mall was everything. For those of us who are (ahem) old, The Mall is a trip back in time to tall bangs and shoulder pads. For those unlucky enough to be younger, this is a time capsule that you should mine for information about why all those older people around you are so strange. Either way, this is not to be missed! NOT TO BE MISSED!
Egalleys for The Mall were provided by St. Martin’s Press (Wednesday Books) through NetGalley, with many, many, many thanks.
