Can you imagine being the new girl and having to stay at the meanest girl in the whole school's house?? Then, just not fitting in and getting picked on by her harsh friends almost every minute of the day?? Well, that is what Claire Lyons had to go through in The Clique by Lisi Harrison. Massie Block and her friends: Dylan, Alicia, and Kristen set out to “destroy” Claire. Eventually Claire gets tired of it and decides to mess with their lives. She gets into the clique for a little while, and then suddenly the original clique members figure out exactly what she did. So they set out to (once again) “DESTROY” her!!! Overall this novel is very interesting and most girls (ages 12 and up) can relate to it.

The Clique is about Massie Block and Claire Lyons mostly. Massie Block is “The Dictator” of OCDS ( Octavian Country Day School), she has four BFFs: Dylan (who is Massie's wanna-be, and is either sucking up to Massie or drinking her diet shakes), Alicia (who is oh-so-“sweet” and is great with the adults, so she usually gets whatever she wants!!!), and Kristen (who is a major smarty-pants, and can have you crying within the first five minutes you see her). All of them team up against Claire Lyons (who is the new girl from Florida, and doesn't quite fit in) and try to make her life as miserable as possible (because Massie, their leader, told them to). Eventually Claire gets tired of them, so she goes into Massie's room (while Massie is out walking her dog), and logs onto her IM chat room. She talks to all of her friends, tells then Massie's secrets and tells them mean things (that she knew Massie would never say but if they thought Massie was saying them on the chat then it had to be true). They quickly turn against Massie (who has no idea what is going on) and turn to Claire as their new “BFF”. She is finally in the clique but it won't last because they quickly find out what has happened and once again make Claire's life as miserable as possible.

Compared to other novels created for young girls (ages 12 and up), this novel has a more real-life feel to it, because it gives real perspectives of what REALLY happens in friendships (how mean girls really can be). I t shows what can happen when you go behind your friend's back, talk about her ,and get her friends to go against her. The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants, by Ann Brashares, is about 4 girls who have never been apart until this summer. They find adventure and still stay in touch, even though they have very busy schedules. Although, full of surprises, this novel never feels real enough. Usually there is some fighting in a friendship, which is what makes the friendship stronger.

There are many good things about this book. The Clique shows just how harsh girls can really be. A lot of girls can relate to many of the characters in the book (so they will be able to see how they deal with things), it can show girls how NOT to deal with their problems (because they see how messing with people in a bad way can ruin your life), it can show that you have to be careful about who your friends are because they can end up backstabbing you in the future, and it is a very interesting book that keeps you wanting to read more(it is very hard to put this book down)!!

Although, this novel has plenty of good things about it, it also has some bad things. This novel can give a bad first impression about middle school, it can tell girls to deal with their problems by messing with peoples lives(because some girls will take this book as a way of living), it has some bad language, and some of the language used can be offensive to some of the girls reading the novel.

This novel does a good job of showing just how harsh some girls can be and it shows real life situations and how they can be dealt with (properly). This novel is for girls (only) and for girls that like very girly books and fighting and backstabbing. Overall this novel is very interesting and most girls (ages 12 and up) can relate to it, and it is very interesting and most girls will find it very hard to put this book down after they start reading it.