The Julian Game

Title: The Julian Game
Author: Adele Griffins
Published: 2010
Genre: Contemporary
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Raye is a scholarship student at a prestigious school for girls. She is friends with Natalya, a sci-fi nerd, only because all the other girls have 'formed cliques from kindergarten'. After being given the chance to help out Ella Parker, the most popular girl at school, with a revenge mission to get back on Julian, Ella's ex, Raye poses as a Polish college student and forms an online relationship with Ella's approval. However, Raye finds herself falling for Julian. Raye now needs to stop her dangerous friendship with Ella, who can tarnish Raye's reputation on a whim, and somehow tell the truth to Julian before Ella's pranks go out of control.

I liked this book a lot. The plot was super realistic and these type of situations really do happen since I know people who're victims of cyber bullying. Although Raye gave into her emotions and wanted to be popular, towards the end she came through as a smart and strong girl, even if she didn't get the boy. Ella was a classic Class A *insert profanity*. Natalya however, was a character that I really enjoyed, 'cause not only did she support her friend after the whole fiasco, she supported Raye during her scheming with Ella even though Natalya wasn't fully aware of the details.

The dialogue was also pretty funny and I liked how the popular girls had weird quirks to them, especially Ella who bakes cookies and brings them to school at the beginning of each month (still doesn't mean she's nice!). Julian seemed like a nice guy but turned out to be...not so nice.

The whole theme of The Julian Game can be an eye opener of socialising online and how innocent fun can turn out to be dangerous. The conclusion was also not the usual 'happy ending' which I actually liked!

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