I really enjoyed this YA contemporary. It was light, fun and full of a great mix of characters, not to mention the fact that it helped reawaken my love for music.

The story is told from the P.O.V of Elise, a smart and funny sixteen year-old who is trying her hardest to become popular at school. She’s sick of constantly wandering the halls of her high school on her own and wants friends to share her school days with. When we meet her she’s studying-up on all things mainstream, like fashion and pop-culture. She hopes that if she learns all this stuff she’ll finally be able to join in with her peers. In actuality Elise hates all things mainstream and would far rather be hanging out in her grungy clothes, listening to the Muse. Elise’s dislike of all things mainstream is one of the reasons I liked her. I’m not one for anything mainstream myself and would much rather be listening to some metal with big chunky riffs and blistering guitar solos. You’ll never catch me in a pair of heels either, for that matter! Screw style, I go for comfort! It’s easy for me to say these things though, I’m not stuck in the drudgery of school life like Elise is. She just wants the loneliness to stop and is prepared to sacrifice who she really is to make it so.I don’t want to give too much of the story away so I’ll just say that things don’t quite work out like Elise had planned, but she accidentally stumbles on something even better.

For such a short book, a lot was covered. A lot of issues were touched upon, such as loneliness, bullying, love, but the central issue was identity and how self-abandonment is so often pursued, but ultimately results in an inauthentic life. So many of us are uncomfortable in our own skin and strive towards something we’re not just to fit in. What this showed is that once we accept who we are, life becomes infinitely easier and more fun.

I would have loved it if this went into a little more depth and expanded on some themes. A little less directness would also have been appreciated as, at times, it felt like things were being shoved in the readers face. I guess what I’m trying to say is a bit more show rather than tell would have been good. Another great choice, though, if you want something light.

I think the most amazing thing about this book is how many personal stories it's inspired to be written by reviewers on GR and Booklikes. It's just as heartbreakingly realistic as I thought it would be, and although I wasn't a bullied kid in school, I think the story of trying to find your identity, of trying all your life to follow the rules only to find out that the key to life is making your own rules, is about the closest to a universal human experience anything can possibly get.

Sometimes, in spite of all my bookish tendencies, I forget why I even read in the first place. Then I realize that I don't really have to search that hard, because any story, if it's well and authentically told, has the power to resonate with many different types of people regardless of what your literary preferences are. This is one of those books.

Other than that, I think everything that could possibly be said about this book has already been said.

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Ok, apparently not! One criticism I've seen for this book is Elise's hypocrisy as a first person narrator. Personally, I saw that as what happens when there is too much of a disparity between the way others perceive you and the way you perceive yourself. The knowledge of knowing deep down that you're a worthwhile human being, conflicting with the environment that's constantly trying to tear you down. Of course Elise is going to look down on her schoolmates even as she craves her acceptance, because that's how the zero-sum games of school environments tend to work. There's no room to realize who you are until you find that room for yourself. And Elise does, ultimately in a way I think is pretty realistic and inspiring as coming-of-age stories go...

Elise is naturally precocious. She loves to challenge herself with massive projects and she succeeded with almost all of them. But, she failed at the most important project of them all.

Elise was going to make herself popular. With a whole summer ahead of her, endless ambition and a burning desire to be anyone but herself, she launched into this project with more zeal and determination than any other. But all of her preparation was for nothing. Apparently, it is not so easy to change yourself, especially if you are loser destined to be perpetually tormented, teased, and taunted by everyone you meet. 
This loser was sick and tired of being a loser and would go to extreme measures to ensure that she would not have to endure another day being the most hated person in the world. 

Through those extreme measures, Elise finds herself outside an indie warehouse party. The music is great, the boys are cute, and no one knows her as loser Elise. Without the pressure of being herself, Elise might just find everything she was looking for.