The True Meaning of Cleavage

Jess Horvath is about to start high school with her best friend Sari Aaronsohn. Like most kids her age, Jess is both excited and scared about the new year. She has her worst case scenario list (-My college advisor says I am unfit for college. She advises me to get a job at McDonald's instead. -Sari and I have no classes together. -I get Madame Balmain instead of Madame Beauvoir for Intermediate French. Madame Beauvoir est très gentile and shows Truffaut movies in class. Madame Balmain est une vache. -I have gym first period. I have gym any period. -Something really interesting happens to Sari and nothing whatsoever happens to me.), her best case scenario list (None of the above happens.), her enemies (the Prada Mafia), a geeky guy that seems to only have her as a friend (Danny Oriel), the most beautiful friend that has guys checking her out all the time (Sari), and an obsession with the Hollow Planet books (Hollow Planet: The Movie should be coming out next summer!!! but there's no release date yet). All of that, and a prediction for her new year from the Book (an old copy of David Copperfield that she swiped from school last year which she and Sari have decided has the power to tell the future). When Jess reads her predicted future, it does not look good ("Anxious to be gone"), whereas Sari gets a much better reading ("A new one"). As the school year passes, the predictions seem accurate - plus, a few of Jess' worst case scenarios come true; gym first period, Balmain for French, and Sari's life starts to get interesting while Jess' life is unchanging and boring. But what exactly is going on with Sari, and why is she keeping it a secret from Jess? Why do all of the girls like David Cole (the senior) so much when he already has a girlfriend? Can Jess manage to avoid Danny Oriel all year so that she isn't pushed down the social ladder even farther? And what exactly is the true meaning of cleavage?

Mariah Fredericks' first book, The True Meaning of Cleavage surprised me. I have a tendency to not read the back cover of a book or the snippet about a book until after I have finished it, or am at least halfway through since by then I will have read everything that the cover alludes to. This book was no exception. I like to be surprised by what I read. Well, if I had read the cover, I would have known it was about 9th graders, not the 11th or 12th I expected. I thought that this book might have romantic storylines and that the idea of cleavage would be explained in relevance to dating or a boy looking at a girl's chest as opposed to the "true meaning" given in the book. Although the story was ok and a quick read, it did not interest me as much as other stories that I read. If a story is like climbing a mountain in anticipation of reaching the peak followed by a shorter walk down to the summit (yes, I have forgotten the term I am thinking of so instead I am giving the definition and picture from my high school English classes), this story either peaks too early, or lacks in it's peak. There were a few moments of excitement but I don't think there was a real climax (ah ha! that's the word and according to wikipedia, I was talking about rising action and falling action) to help me make a better review of the book. Although I know when the climatic points technically were, there wasn't enough tension or drama to make it feel like a mountain's peak. I do admit that there were some points of the story that I really did like, but they don't cause me enough je ne sais quoi to recommend the book.

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