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Thursday, October 9, 2008

Top 8 by Katie Finn

Madison MacDonald is just your average teenager; she attends her local high school, hangs out with her friends, has a (new!) cute boyfriend, and is part of the popular Friendverse network that just about every teenager has a profile on. This isn’t anything out of the ordinary until the day she gets back from vacationing in the Galapagos with her family only to find that her Friendverse profile has been hacked and utterly changed.


Unfortunately for Madison, the damage goes beyond the new bad songs posted under her ‘favorites’—her hacker has been writing nasty comments to and about her friends! Some awful secrets have been revealed about pretty much everyone Madison knows and more than a few unflattering pictures of Madison and others have surfaced as well! With only a handful of friends left on her Friendverse profile (and goodness knows how many in real life!), her boyfriend convinced that she broke up with him, people left and right hating her, and the class couple broken up, things do not look good for Madison.


The good news is that her three closest friends believe that she was hacked and did not write all those revealing comments herself, but the bad news is that not many others believe her, and her boyfriend, Justin, is now dating someone else! Many people are hurt by what Madison’s hacker posted about them—harsh comments that Madison knows that she may not have said to their faces, but did say behind their backs to others, or at least had thought to herself. Madison wants to know who did this (and her boyfriend back)! The hunt for Madison’s hacker is on!


Despite making a list and doing a bit of investigation, Madison doesn’t get very far. However, she does met this cute guy who she had actually previous met during her vacation in the Galapagos. But she mustn’t think about him, after all, she’s still trying to get Justin back! When most of her leads don’t get her very far, it looks like Madison might have been looking in the wrong direction all along…


I found this book rather predictable, but Top 8 does have some good morals/lessons behind it. It’s definitely more hurtful to speak about people behind their backs, and it’s a good thing that Madison learned a few lessons and matured a lot by the end! The format of Top 8 with the Friendverse profile and comments views was great as well! It really enhanced the story!

I also really like the title—it really fits for this book, but isn’t too ordinary or common, and after reading this book, I think it might have a bit of foreshadowing to it as well!

6 comments:

Lenore Appelhans said...

OMG - I LOVE that she vacationed in the Galapagos. That was my favorite vacation ever. Does the book have many scenes there, or not really?

Alea said...

I think it's funny that there is a whole book based around myspace/facebook social networking. I wonder if there are others?

Dominique said...

Lenore - They just mention the fact that she went to the Galapagos but no real scenes there; most of the book is about when she gets back and the hacking incident! But it's cool that you went to the Galapagos! Wish I could visit sometime too :)

Alea - yeah, I hadn't really encountered any books that were based around a social network this way but I especially loved the Friendverse profile pages--they were really cool & really complemented the story!! :)

Shooting Stars Mag said...

it does sound like a cute book.
nice review. i hate books that are too predictable, but sometimes it's still good...definitely seems like something worth checking out!


lauren

Shooting Stars Mag said...

it does sound like a cute book.
nice review. i hate books that are too predictable, but sometimes it's still good...definitely seems like something worth checking out!


lauren

Unknown said...

OMG! I totally related to when Ruth was saying how it's hard to be Mad's best friend when she's always complaining and people think she's perfect! I luv the book!!!!!

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