The Revenge Playbook Review

The Revenge Playbook by Rachael Allen

“‘Tonight we did something no one else has ever done. We started something. And we’re going to finish it. We will steal that football. We will have our revenge. And we will change this town.'”

This was an enjoyable, fun read. It follows four girls: Liv, the popular girl who the football team labels a “slut,” Peyton, a girl no one really knows who faces rude comments from football players in her geometry class, Melanie Jane, the prettiest girl in the school whose football-playing boyfriend breaks up with her when she won’t have sex with him, and Ana, the girl who used to be friends with Melanie Jane until something happens to her at a party.

Whew. That was a long sentence.

I love books about revenge, Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian being my favorite. This book wasn’t quite as good as that series for one main reason. It’s written like it’s for middle grade.

“The two girls in front of me were in my geography class last year. I should totally say hi to them. It would be easy. I’m going to do it, like, right now. Well, maybe in a minute.”

“Ohmygosh, is she serious?! I open it. She is!”

That’s basically how this book is written. If I ever re-read it I’m going to keep a tally of how many times it says “like.”

It has a lot about slut-shaming and double standards, which I think it awesome.

“Because life isn’t fair. If it was, my dad wouldn’t have been able to break all the rules and have a perfect life while my mom who did everything right can barely keep it together. And still, she’s the one facing all this judgement, like if she’d only had sex with her husband more or been sweeter and cooked better it all would have been okay.”

“‘Sorry. Casey was distracting me,’ I mumble.

‘Are you kidding? She’s the one bein’ distracting. Look at what she’s wearing.'”

“‘And second of all, I want to know what the boys were doing in their class because you know for damn sure they weren’t talking about saving their flowers.'”

I think you get the point.

Star rating: ★★★ .5

xx, Sophie

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