Birthday Vicious (The Ashleys, Book 3)

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Ashley spencer considers her birthday to be the most important event next to . . well, okay, it's just the most important event, period. Hello. So when the invite list is cast and the custom embossed invitations are sent, it's a who's-who list of San Francisco's best tweens. If people don't yet know whether they are in or out, this party is sure to draw the lines of coolness in the most permanent of inks. Ashley intends to prove that there's a reason she's been at the top of the social food chain her entire life, and she's not about to be unseated by some lame website ranking. She'd also like to solve the problem of losing her boyfriend. Will all her birthday wishes come true? Or is it more like it's her party and she'll freak if she wants to?

Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...

2 out of 5 stars

very disappointed September 10, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

WARNING SPOILERS AHOY: IF YOU ARE A KID THIS REVIEW WILL PROBABLY RUIN THE WHOLE BOOK FOR YOU, IF YOU ARE A PARENT YOU SHOULD PROBABLY READ THE BOOK FIRST BEFORE LETTING YOUR KID READ IT

Let me preface this by saying i have never read any book by Melissa De La Cruz nor have I read the first two books of the series. However I have read the 1st 8 books of The Clique 9-Book Set (the clique) (i would give the books 4-5 stars, I liked them very much, also I've read several other teen series in high school settings) Before I cracked open this book though I came on Amazon.com and read the summaries/reviews of the other two to catch me up on the plot. Oh wait... it turns out there isn't one.

It's literally like Melissa's publisher came up to her and was like "Hey, that series, The Clique by Lisi Harrison is doing really well, you think you could make something exactly like that for the preteen market for us?" and Melissa was like "Umm... okay!" The one difference is that instead of Upstate New York the setting is San Francisco and the token minority is Asian instead of Latina.

The story seems to borrow heavily from Mean Girls (Special Collector's Edition). The 'new girl in town' character Lauren, actually a poor girl (who magically goes super rich overnight and gets a head to toe makeover thanks to her dad making it big on some internet scheme) who was bullied by the Plastics, no wait i mean the Pretty Committee, no wait, I mean Heathers, No wait... oh yeah, that's it, The Ashleys! is now out for revenge Lindsay Lohan style by infiltrating the Ashleys and trying to destroy them from the inside...sigh...

Anyway, so in this episode the main Ashley, the white, blonde one is having a birthday party and of course it has to be a total ripoff of My Super Sweet 16. She spends the entire book freaking out and being selfish. For example her mom is very sick and pukes all over the the party planner's office (and dog) and all Ashley can think about is "OMG! MY PARTY NOO!" i don't really understand how Melissa De La Cruz expects her readers to sympathize or relate to or care about this creep of a girl?

Thee there is Ashley Li, called Lili, even her parents call her Lili for some reason. Her storyline is that her boyfriend and his clique want to go camping in the middle of nowhere and apparently their parents let them WITH NO ADULT SUPERVISION, a bunch of 12 year olds, 3 boys 3 girls... RIGHT. Not even on planet Mars will that ever happen, i don't care what kind of artsyfart drugged out hippie parents you have. Apparently Lili's parents are OMG SOOO MEEEN! for not letting her go so she has to go purchase camping gear from... Nordstroms and sneak out and go anyway... like Nordstroms seriously sells camping gear... WHAT? One more thing about lili's story, Melissa brings in two girls and they are both just absolute creeps with no personality. it's really disappointing when the only reason an author creates a character is to have them be a 1-dimensional bad guy.
* PARENTS - in case you are wondering, the entire night is very chaste, the girls sleep in one tent and the boys in another and there's absolutely no hanky-panky whatsoever.

So then we have A.A. Ashley Alioto. She is the tall brunette and her mom is a jet setting supermodel. A.A. was the nicest character in the book and I don't really have much to say about her. her storyline was basically that she had had a fight with her male best friend//designated love interest Tri in the previous book and was so mad at him that she didn't want to really speak to him, so every few chapters there would be a confrontation in which Tri cornered her and said "A.A. there's something i have to tell you." and then magically something would happen at the last second in which he wold get thwarted and have to try again later. I suppose it was meant to build up anticipation to the point where he finally gets to confess his undying love for her but it was just so lame and stale I was just like come on just get on with it already!

The final character is a new girl, Sadie who just came back into town. Once upon a time when Lauren was a lame-o loser, Sadie was her BFF, now Sadie is still lame and Lauren is torn. In the end Lauren transforms her into "A cool girl" which apparently involves DYING A 12 YEAR OLD GIRL'S HAIR BLONDE AND MAKING HER PUT ON BLUE CONTACT LENSES OVER HER BROWN EYES. WHAT??? Blue contact lenses. i never thought I'd be offended by a children's book but i am!

I feel bad when i have to give bad reviews so if a book sucks i usually don't even bother. I also feel bad like the author might come on here and read it and her feelings might get hurt. I would have never bothered even reviewing this book but I'm kinda required to because I got it from the Amazon Vine program. I will not be reading the rest of the series. I think Melissa De la Cruz would be better off writing about high school or college aged girls or better yet, just chick-lit for grown women. She keeps throwing in luxury brand names into the darn book as if those designers even make child-sized clothing. PLEASE! Don't even get me started on the fact that her Ashleys all have matching $3000 YSL shoulder bags that they use as schoolbags, seriously, if we're going to go that far off the deep end, why not Hermes Birkins?? why don't they just get their butlers to carry their books around for them? come on now this is beyond ridiculous!

Also she had a teenage chauffeur for the main Ashley named Dex who is a complete ripoff of the teenage chauffeur Django for Anna in The The A-List Collection (The National Bestselling).

I'm just really disappointed. i suppose i naively believe that authors should be required to come up with original material rather than regurgitate crap that's already out there that wasn't even really that good to begin with...

5 out of 5 stars

Good Read September 9, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Ashley Spencer is every young girls' nightmare and dream of being. Rich, pretty, and powerful this is one young lady that will not take no for an answer in any situation.
Ashley is about to have a birthday and of course Ashley will have the most expensive and top-notch party her school has ever seen, or will she?
It appears things are not running as smoothly for Ashley as they have in the past. After all, how could she ever tell her friends that her boyfriend dumped her, her mom just revealed some terrible news (at least for Ashley it is), and her party may be canceled? Horrors upon horrors.
To top it off someone had started a terrible blog trying to pit her best friend against her? Surely no one could take Ashley's place as the most popular, prettiest girl in town, could they?
You get the picture I'm sure.
In this work young readers will see, hopefully how life doesn't always play out the way we want it to. The author weaves in problems, even in this have it all young girl's life. Perhaps Ashley has learned some important life lessons, but I'm not totally sure of that. We will have to see.
This was a good book that young girls will enjoy. It is written on their level and gives some insight into situations they may well have to handle. It also shows how some people are not able to handle popularity and how it actually brings out the worse in them instead of making them better.
All in all this was a very enjoyable read.

2 out of 5 stars

My daughter's mini-review September 17, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful

To be honest, I haven't read this book. I probably never will, as it's not something I'd enjoy (obviously). But my daughter read it, and her opinion was: "It's ok. Nothing great, kind of boring, but ok".
When asked for some elaboration, she didn't offer much, but just said she would like her opinion to be heard. Ok, it is.

2 out of 5 stars

Middle School Teenagers can't be this shallow, or are they? September 19, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

While this book wasn't all bad, it wasn't all that great either and trust me, I really wanted to like it. After all, I remember fondly (ok, not always fondly) being a preteen who wanted some of the same things these characters do (a "cute" boyfriend), or simply wanted to fit in. I think everyone can attest to how difficult growing up is. So, when I selected this from my Vine Newsletter, I thought it would be the perfect thing to allow me to return to my younger years, for at least 200 pages.

Melissa de la Cruz has the perfect formula for a great series: young girls who are confused and facing puberty, love sick, struggling to understand why they feel certain things and why, dealing with various friendships, dealing with parents who are madly in love or contemplating divorce. Cruz basically has a vehicle that could really address some fundamental issues faced by young girls and offer some solutions. However, what was a little too over the top for me was the constant use of designer brands that these young girls "must" have. I mean several of the Ashley's (those elite "in" girls) are walking around with YSL bags and some other very trendy, very expensive accessories (Blackberries, IPODs, IPHONE) that I would never in a million years pay for, especially for my young teenager. Because so many others have reviewed this book, including a detailed breakdown of the story, I will spare you. What I will say is that I would have probably had more to say had I invested in the characters. Not only did I not really like any of them (they were a little too superficial) but also I did not find one redeeming quality in any of them. AND I kept getting them confused (their names were too similar and they all acted alike. I know that I am probably the only one who could not distinguish A.A. (who has a boyfriend but really likes some one else), from Lili (who sneaks off on a camping trip because she wants to spend time with her boyfriend), from Lauren (who is juggling two boyfriends and secretly wants to bring the Ashley's down by transforming her friend into a trend setter) from Ashley (whose only desire is to have the best 13 year old party ever...and of course it is going to cost a fortune....more than a small wedding!). And the fact that her mother is pregnant is a mere annoyance.

My concern, as a mother (although I have two boys and this book is directed towards girl), is that this book glamorized girls being mean spirited/cruel solely for the purpose of being labeled "cool" or joining the "popular group". And while I think most will feel that this is a light view of teen life, what about offering something to bring those kids on the fringes together. [Don't get me wrong, there was some attempt to do this. Just not enough.] Cruz could have accentuated the positive things about being a teen or middle schooler besides $600 purses and expensive/exclusive parties that require the girl to change clothes several times to keep up appearances. Perhaps having the characters finally realize how meaningless some of this stuff is, would be smarter than glamorizing the negative.

1 out of 5 stars

Unredeemably shallow November 2, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

Lime green vomit. Looking "unbelievably hot" at age 13. Strip Hall Queens. Ho's. Kids being spiteful and, yes, vicious to one another. OK, I'll just come out and say it. Social messages or not, this book has no redeeming qualities that I could find. Any "lessons" that kids are supposed to absorb here are too deeply buried in the trash. With all the good young adult literature out there, Birthday Vicious is a waste of money and time that could be spent on something worth while.

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