Confessions of a Hater by Caprice Crane

Hailey Harper considers herself to be invisible.  She's always been in the shadow of her perfect older sister, and at school she and her friends... "were invisible enough not to matter... but not enough to escape the ridicule of the cool kids when they did happen upon us" (Hailey 4).  She is less than thrilled when her dad gets a new job across the country, and her family moves to Hollywood.  Then, Hailey finds her older sister Noel's journal called "How to be a Hater" with tips on how to be popular, strong, and self-assured.  It turns her life around.  Hailey uses it to reinvent herself, gets the guy, and becomes friends with other Invisibles to try to dethrone the popular and mean girls.  She ends up taking it too far and massively screws up.  Hailey has to regain her friends and the trust of the boy she likes, all the while her family seems to be falling apart.

This book is good, but not great.  What drew me to it was the cover and artwork and the description of the story makes it seem extremely interesting.  I did enjoy reading it but unpredictable endings are what make stories awesome.  When the author leaves you guessing as to how the conflict will be resolved you're never bored while reading it.  This was a predictable story and a message that's been conveyed many, many times.  I'll be honest, there were certain sections in the book that would just drag on and make you question why the author included them.  Even though I thought the idea and message - a very important one, albeit - has been told many different times, Hailey is a heroine you'll want to root for and has funny friends and enemies you'll love to hate.  This book is hilarious too and a little snarky.  Hailey is a very opinionated narrator who's very fun to read about as she finds herself in the mess of high school.  Reading this book is like reading a diary, or having someone tell you a story.  It's clearly written in the voice of the main character, who you get to know very well as the book progresses.

I would recommend this book to any teenage girls in middle school, but mainly high school, as a high school reader will be able to directly relate to this book and Hailey's experiences.  If you like realistic fiction and coming of age stories, this is for you too.  If you want to read something new and innovative and so gripping you will have trouble putting it down, Confessions of a Hater is not the book you should be grabbing.  This story was cute and I did enjoy reading it, but I feel like the message has been worn out and the plot was predictable.

Reviewed by Christine.