They say you should never judge a book by its cover. I'm famous for doing so though, and this is how I came across The Ruling Class by Francine Pascal.
I came across the book while browsing the very small book section of young adult books at my local book store.
By the looks of the attractive cover, I assumed immediately that it was going to very similar to the movie Mean Girls, starring Lindsay Lohan.
The cover features a pair of legs, wearing a gorgeous pink tie up pair of stiletto's.
The book has 3 main characters. The way it is written, its almost like taking a peek into all three of their diaries, which I have always found cool. It satisfies the voyerism'ness in me.
First we meet J.S., whom is the most popular and beautiful girl in school. She's the girl every other girl wants to be, or be with. She is referred to as the leader of the R.C.'s. (short for ruling class) which consists of about 4 or 5 more extremely beautiful girls. They're nothing more than a shadow of J.S. though.
Next we have Myrna Fry. She is like a puppet on strings, and has forever longed to be in with the R.C's. She even at times in the book thinks she is part of the group when all she ever was, was a pushover, or someone for the RC's to use.
Myrna is in denial about it though, and even when J.S. and the rest of the R.C's were nasty to her, she thought it was just poking fun because that's what girls do when they're so close to one another.
Basically Myrna is the idiot who follows the pretty girls around, thinking that they actually like her. We have all known a stupid girl like this one time or another in life. The dork that longs to fit in, yet doesn't. That's Myrna.
Next we meet Twyla Gay, she is sort of our main character. Twyla is the new girl. Most of the story is surrounded around her. She comes from a poor family and all she longs for is acceptance.
She immediately attaches herself to Myrna Fry because she became aware that the R.C's were just using her. She figured if she became friends with Myrna she'd also have an in into the popular crowd, and that perhaps they would actually like her.
But then...something bad happens...
How was Twyla to know Ryder was J.S's boyfriend, or boy toy?
Noting really works out as planned for Twyla in the beginning of the book, and when the R.C's play a nasty prank on her so horrific, to the point where she was almost raped by a group of guys, is when Twyla goes from wanting to fit in, to her wanting to get the ultimate revenge on the R.C's.
Twyla plans her revenge, but for the most part her master plan is really freaking lame, and top that off with J.S. having the entire school making fun of her really makes things difficult. Not to mention that having Gay as a last name certainly didn't help Twyla either.
After you get your introduction into all of their lives,(or shall I say, thoughts, the book switches from Myrna, J.S's and Twyla's point of view) which is very amusing seeing how each girl has a total opposite thought of the last girl, yet the thoughts of each of them mesh in to one another in order to create the story.
My Thoughts:
It's a wicked book, and your going to enjoy how the writer has put it together. Some parts you will be feeling sorry for some of the characters, and other times you'll be laughing out loud- at them. (Especially when J.S. takes her great fall on the bar while dancing over lip gloss). There's even little traces of romance in the book as well...yep they always throw in romance in teen books.
Ruling Class also has some really good cat fights, and if you're a fan of the movie Mean Girls, its almost like a new group of them. I feel it could possibly be a sequel to the movie. Only they'd have to spice it up a bit, as some chapters did tend to drag on.
The pranks pulled by the R.C's and Twyla Gay were cool, and comical. But they lacked from reality of how mean girls could 'really' be in junior high school.
I'm hoping that Francine Pascal writes a sequel to the Ruling Class. I would love to see what happens after. The ending sort of just left you wanting more, and asking questions, which I didn't like.
Ruling Class is a fast read. I read it in only 2 days, so you can tell how absorbed in the reading you can become with this book.
Although I enjoyed the book, I still think that there could of been some parts that seemed more realistic too teen behavior. Some scenes were just too over done, making it seem a little...fake.
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