Book Review: Uninvitedby Leah Spiegel and Megan Summers

Uninvited (South Hills Sidekicks #1)
by Leah Spiegel and Megan Summers
Publication date: February 11th 2012
Genre: Humorous Young Adult Chick-Lit
Format Acquired: Paperback from authors (thank you!)
Purchase: Amazon

When Alley started her senior year at Upper East High in the South Hills area, it was supposed to be the usual drag of hanging out with people who spent more on one outfit than Alley did on her entire wardrobe. That was until Kirsten, a girl in their clique, suddenly goes missing and the only people who seem to care are her friends. All evidence leads to the new comer Shane, a cocky and self-pretentious person in Alley’s opinion, but the police seem uninterested so she and the rest of the girls start a little investigation of their own. But they are nowhere closer to finding Kirsten than when they started and now they had the police’s attention; just not in the way they expected. The girls have to start over and discover that maybe it wasn’t an outsider who took Kirsten, but someone within their own clique who has something to hide; a secret that just might have gotten Kirsten killed.

I didn't like the general direction the book was going. So this girl goes missing and Alley's bestfriend, Val, decides it's up to them to crack the mystery. I thought it would be cool and fun because it started out pretty well but as I read on it turned into a series of really bad decisions. 

The most annoying factor for me was how Alley felt more like the sidekick in the story. She constantly saved her bestfriend's ass and had barely anything to do with the story until she had to step up near the end. It was always her bestfriend coming up with ideas on how to find their friend. They weren't good ideas but at least she made an effort. Val kept coming up with crazy ideas that only got them in trouble (it's like watching Hanna do stupid things on Pretty Little Liars) but Alley didn't do anything to stop her. She always went with the flow which frustrated me to no end. Her bestfriend may have been an idiot but at least she had more personality! Alley was just so bland that it made me wonder why she had to be the protagonist.

It was surprising to see this labeled as a 'humorous YA chick-lit.' It wasn't exactly humorous for me. A lot of the supposedly funny things that happened were slapstick - basically Val tripping and taking something or someone with her. In fact, Val was such a klutz that she fell down a lot. So much that it got annoying and pointless. I hate it when there's a character who fits the 'dumb blonde' stereotype perfectly. It's so cliché! And reading a book where the dumb blonde outshines the main character isn't such a pleasant experience. 

I honestly thought that I could bump up my rating to two stars once the big revelation came because I love that part in a mystery. Unfortunately, that didn't do the trick because the ending wasn't wow-ing. That's it? That's what you're leaving me with? I think hints dropped before the last quarter of the book made the explanation uninteresting by the time I read it. I was expecting some kind of shocker but I was only left disappointed by then. 

This book is clearly not for me. I didn't like any part of it. Not the plot, not the characters, not the slight romance (that could've been good but way underdeveloped), and especially not the humour. Not even the cover! It's cute but I like covers that actually has something to do with the book. To me, this is a mash of a lot of potentially good things that need polishing. It just wasn't gripping. So... 1 star.