You Choose, You Lose.
The Diabolical Depths of Revenge of the Wannabes.
A quick aside from Lisi before we get started:
GLUs, I have never felt more connected to Victor Frankenstein than I do now. Much like the young scientist in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, I, too, am horrified by my creation. Massie was a full-blown monster! Has she matured over the years? Softened? Been therapized by a team of highly-trained specialists? Puh-lease? Can you picture Massie in therapy? I’ll tell you this much: 2025 Massie is still a monster. Thanks to decades of experience and Gucci Concetré de Beauté Multi-Use Concealer, she's just gotten better at hiding it.
Okay, over to you, Ellen!
Hey, GLU’s! Welcome back to Book Club! This week, we continue our journey with REVENGE OF THE WANNABES. Massie’s moral compass has vaporized at this point in the story, and she is nosediving into the deepest depths of evil. Here’s a refresher:
The barn on the Block Estate is being converted into a home gym, and Kendra Block allowed the girls to have a paint party during their Friday night sleepover. Massie discovers that Cam likes Claire (not her!) and makes Claire choose between Cam and the Pretty Committee. Because a girl can’t possibly have friends AND a crush. That’s hoarding! But Claire likes Cam so much. He’s been burning her CDs and even wrote her an ah-dorable love note [Insert nostalgic sigh.]
Enter Massie. Jealous, she tells Claire to prove that she’s done with Cam. How? By giving her the love note. Claire does (ugh!), and Massie destroy-drops it into a bucket of paint. Claire is heartbroken, but, hey, she’s finally in the Pretty Committee!
Not rough enough for you?
Massie tells Alicia to join the sleepover. Upon arrival, she’s blindfolded and led to a mural they’ve painted that illustrates Alicia’s betrayal. [Insert the snapping sound of a woodland creature walking into a metal trap.] If the mural isn’t clear enough, check out Massie’s Current State of the Union.
Of course, Alicia is hysterical. She trips and falls on her way out, and the girls laugh at her—buh-rutal! But this novel is Revenge of the Wannabes, remember? Alicia may be on the ground after her fall, but that beta will bounce back with a revenge Clique of her own, and she’s going to Alpha for once.
Let’s discuss:
Was Massie’s stunt with the note and paint bucket derived from jealousy? Is she trying to gauge Claire’s loyalty to the Pretty Committee with an initiation? Or is something more vulnerable at play?
Alicia is heartbroken. Is this about social status? Shame? Or does she miss these monsters?
If you could time travel and talk to poor Claire, how would you help her navigate this conundrum? Is it possible for her to have it all? If not, who should she choose?
LFG (Let’s F-ing Gossip)!
Xoxo Lisi & Ellen
1. I think, like most of Massie's choices, that making Claire destroy the note was largely due to her insecurity (in this case, that a boy would pick Kuh-laire over her). She was so embarrassed after the Chris Abley sitch (which honestly, she shouldn't have been-- he was ah-bviously too old for her, and he was a creep for leading her on and flirting with a middle schooler), especially because she was def using his "crush" on her to elevate her status within the PC, and when he turned out to have a girlfriend, I'm sure Massie felt threatened that her friends would think less of her. She makes a point of not telling them about Cam until she's 100% certain her likes her, and when she finds out he doesn't, she feels her Alpha status is threatened. If Kuh-laire has a boyfriend before Massie, what will her public think of her? Massie is so, so driven by insecurity, which I never picked up on when I read these books in 7th grade. As an adult, it's very clear that she's a well-managed pit of anxiety.
2. Alicia has never been humiliated before, especially not on such a cruel and large scale. I think she's realizing that she is not guaranteed a seat at the table, and also terrified that Massie caught onto her scheme so easily. Leesh has never been on the other side of the PC's cruelty, and I don't think she thought that was ever possible. But, deep down, she does love her friends, and watching them so easily destroy and replace her (with Claire, of all people) definitely makes her look inwards and begin to question everything. Basically, it turns her into the anxious side of Massie, now hyper-aware of everyone's opinions on her at all times. Ex-hausting.
3. Re-reading these books has me wanting to shake Claire by her shoulders and tell her to focus on the friend who truly accepts her, Layne. But, I also noticed Claire has a surprising amount of disdain for Layne's quirks, even if she claims to not mind them. I never noticed how similar she and Massie are, in that they really struggle to let their guards down and turn off the constant stream of judgement, both towards themselves and everyone around them. Being hyper-aware of your own flaws makes people who aren't bothered by theirs (like Layne) seem frustratingly clueless, even if they're perfectly content in who they are.
That being said, Claire should've gone for Cam as soon as she realized he liked her. He made her feel so comfortable with herself, and he liked her for exactly who she was. I think if Claire opted to ditch the PC and spend her time with Layne and Cam, she would've had a lot less drama in her life... but the more I read, the more I think Claire secretly enjoys the drama. I love how her friendship with Massie ends up developing, but after the first book, I cannot imagine a world where I would even try to befriend Massie after all the straight-up bullying she put me through.
1) Oh, this whole scene was brutal. It's tough because Alicia betrayed her friends when she switched the votes, but the mural stunt felt so much more personal. I see it as Massie testing Claire, Dylan, and Kristen's loyalty to her side of the alpha war. She wants to ensure that they will not jump over to Alicia's clique, so she devises this plan to humiliate Leesh to really test them all. Hurt one friend to appease the other. And Claire having to destroy the note broke my heart (and was bonus points on Massie's loyalty test). Massie knew how much Claire liked Cam, and needed to ensure she was always first.
2) I think more than anything, Alicia is sad that her friends turned on her so quick, in such a harsh way. We don't often see these vulnerable moments with Leesh, but I really felt for her here. This was the turning point for her. Before, she was entertaining this idea of her own friend group, and now she was ready to really go all in on a full blown opposing clique.
3) If Ask a GLU was around during Claire's time, I would hope she'd had used it because there are so many times in these books I am YELLING at her to make a different decision! At this point with Massie, I don't think she could have had it all (Cam & the PC). But she needed to reflect on why Massie was asking her to choose. Cam didn't have any stipulations around his relationship with her, so why did Massie have so many? I know, in middle school we probably weren't considering our friend's intrinsic motivations, but it would have changed so much!