One of my favorite things about reading YA Contemporary novels is that they transport me right back to the hallways of my high school. Some authors nail the entire experience so well it is like I am reading pages out of my journal, and not merely some abstract creation from someone else’s mind. The characters are believable, their interactions and emotions realistic (both good and bad), and the relationships are pitch perfect.
Sara Bennett Wealer’s debut RIVAL might just be the best I’ve come across yet. First the Jacket Copy:
Meet Brooke: Popular, powerful and hating every minute of it, she’s the “It” girl at Douglas High in Lake Champion, Minnesota. Her real ambition? Using her operatic mezzo as a ticket back to NYC, where her family lived before her dad ran off with an up and coming male movie star.
Now meet Kathryn: An overachieving soprano with an underachieving savings account, she’s been a leper ever since Brooke punched her at a party junior year. For Kath, music is the key to a much-needed college scholarship.
The stage is set for a high-stakes duet between the two seniors as they prepare for the prestigious Blackmore competition. Brooke and Kathryn work toward the Blackmore with eyes not just on first prize but on one another, each still stinging from a past that started with friendship and ended in betrayal. With competition day nearing, Brooke dreams of escaping the in-crowd for life as a professional singer, but her scheming BFF Chloe has other plans. And when Kathryn gets an unlikely invitation to Homecoming, she suspects Brooke of trying to sabotage her with one last public humiliation.
As pressures mount, Brooke starts to sense that the person she hates most might just be the best friend she ever had. But Kathryn has a decision to make. Can she forgive? Or are some rivalries for life?
I read a review that said this book tackles topics never done before in YA. I’m not sure if that is totally true—while the choir angle is definitely not overdone, I have seen other stories involving similar worlds, and there is no shortage of books dealing with friendships gone horribly wrong—BUT I do believe I’ve never seen these topics handled so authentically before in YA.
The friendship and fallout between Kathryn and Brooke is the central conflict of this story. The misunderstandings, jealousy, backstabbing, plotting, laughter, social hierarchy, confusion, crushes, heartbreak, silliness, and waffling portrayed between the two is a guaranteed time warp for any reader. Sara sucks you in on page one and never lets you go as you flip flop between the two POV’s and piece the clues together to find out what turned these one time best friends into mortal enemies.
The backdrop of the singing competition is perfect. The secondary characters are fun. Brooke’s scheming BFF Chloe reminds me exactly of a girl I went to school with and the adorable boys in this book are sigh worthy. I love the parent relationships in this book and Brooke’s older brothers. And in the end, both girls get what they need.
I highly recommend RIVAL for every teenage girl and every woman who has ever been one. I can’t wait to see what Sara Bennett Wealer has up her sleeves next!
