Rosemary Graham

This book was actually pretty good as far as readability and likeability of the main character. The only problem I had was the fact that the story told had very little to do with the premise put forward in both the title and the blurb on the back cover.

Kelsey is forced to move across the country to Berkley, California, after her parents divorce. She spends a miserable and lonely 8th grade year in a posh private all-girls school, so when she catches the eye of super-hot, celebrity skateboarder dude C.J. Logan over the summer, she realizes how lucky she is. She begins freshman year at East Bay High as the girlfriend of the coolest guy on campus, the benefits of which include insta-popularity and the envy of every girl in school.

But life as C.J.'s girlfriend isn't all it's cracked up to be. Sure, he's cute, and their makeout sessions are hotter than hot. But C.J. doesn't seem to know that there is a world outside of the skatepark. When C.J. begins to take Kelsey for granted again and again, she comes to realize she's really nothing more than a glorified groupie with the formal title of "girlfriend". She breaks it off with C.J. and looks forward to moving on to better things.

As you might expect, a self-centered guy like C.J. doesn't take getting dumped so well. He uses the internet to spread all kinds of lies about Kelsey, and she begins her sophomore year as a social outcast once again. Somehow she has to reinvent herself as something other than C.J.'s girlfriend while facing the disapproval of her peers for breaking the number one commandment - thou shalt not dump the skater dude.

I liked Kelsey a lot. She had an amazing amount of confidence, and when she decided that life with C.J. was a lot more lonely and boring than fun, she didn't angst or waste time trying to find reasons to stick with him. She broke it off cleanly and honestly and moved on. Too, despite her miserable year at the all-girls private school, she wasn't a whiner or a complainer. She took her low social status in stride and tried to make the best of it.

And this book read easily and quickly and kept me turning pages. The writing was very good - the dialogue very natural and the pace quick.

My problem with this book - the reason it didn't earn 5 stars - is because the premise of the book was never truly explored. I expected for C.J. to unleash pure hell on Kelsey after she broke up with him. And while he did say some pretty nasty stuff about her on his blog, I never felt the full repercussions of how the damage to her reputation affected her life. Part of this is because we never got a full picture of what life with C.J. was like. Kelsey "tells" the readers how she was very popular and got to go to all of the parties and stuff, but the reader is never shown her life as the girlfriend of the BMOC. When she fell from grace, again we are "told" that she got dirty looks and people who used to gush all over her now ignored her. But her life didn't seem that horrible afterwards. She still had her best friend, Amy. Guys still talked to her. She didn't have to eat lunch alone or endure slurs yelled at her in the hallways. There simply wasn't much focus on either before or after, and I never saw that Kelsey was horribly treated all because she decided she didn't want to be with C.J. I never got a good picture of life was like for her before or after, so the whole "thou shalt not dump the skater dude" was somewhat misleading.

I would recommend this read to anyone for a fun, light story. Just don't be disappointed that the book doesn't quite live up to the premise it promises to explore.… (meer)

The book was great! It was about a girl who moved to California before 8th grade. She went to an all girls school and was the least popular. Then she went to a high school and was the girl friend of the greatest skater dude in high school.
Review by: ?

loved it................. not the best ending but really portrays how many teens feel
really portrays the way many teens feel!!!!!!!!!
Review by: Vanessa

It was awesome!!!!
Review by: ally

its a great book 4 teens, u should definetly read it!!!!!
Review by: s.t.

not bad, a little cheesy. the ending was confusing.
Review by: Jessica

It was one of the best books I've read. It really portrays how teens feel. Rosemary Graham wrote an awesome book! If you get the chance i would read this book! Also DOUBLE IDENTITY is an AWESOME book... *jessy… (meer)

I almost passed on Rosemary Graham’s STALKER GIRL. I couldn’t help but think it might be just a bit too creepy.. a bit too weird... for my tastes. When I browse contemporary YA titles, I generally look for topics and characters I can identify with, and, when I think of words to describe myself, stalker typically doesn’t come to mind. Then I stumbled upon the book trailer and it somehow lodged itself in my mind; I decided to give STALKER GIRL a try. It took only a handful of pages to completely draw me in and I was shocked at what I found.

It turned out that I identified with Carly more than I ever could have imagined. In an interview with the author, I read that STALKER GIRL was originally titled SHE WASN’T ALWAYS LIKE THIS. While I love the straightforward final title and its ability to lure potential readers into browsing the description, I prefer this first incarnation. Like STALKER GIRL, it draws me in, but it also transforms Carly into a more relatable character right from the start. Yes, the main character is a stalker, but she wasn’t always like this. Of course, the reader discovers this as the novel progresses, but, at least in my case, I think I would have been more apt to pick it up right from the start with this title… I would have wanted to know why she had changed.

Understandably, there’s a stigma surrounding the word “stalker.” For me, stalkers just are. There is no before or reason to their creepy, unacceptable behavior. In some cases, like Carly’s, there is a before. And it’s a before that I feel many can relate to. It begins as innocent curiosity. Your serious relationship has ended, perhaps abruptly, and that person you’ve shared so much with has moved on. What does she have that’s so appealing? Why her and not you? Maybe you’ll just look at her Facebook page and glance through her pictures… it’s harmless. Right? But you can’t stop thinking about him. About her. Maybe if you just saw her, you’d understand. So you snoop a bit more and find out that she’s made plans to be here at this time. You’re just going to go for a glimpse… But you still can’t stop.

Of course, most of us wouldn’t take it this far. We’d have friends who would tell us he’s not worth it, that she isn’t even very cute, and that there are plenty of fish in the sea. But if you’re alone, if those thoughts keep bouncing around in your head… multiplying… intensifying - would you be able to hold yourself back? Or would you find that things have twisted in your mind and you now somehow think it might be alright to watch just a little more…?

If Graham had only shown Carly after the breakup, I might not have identified so strongly with this story. But Graham handled this intense material with skill. The novel is divided into three sections: after the breakup, leading up to and during the relationship, and the consequences of Carly's obsession. It was the middle section, which comprises the bulk of the volume, that made Carly three-dimensional and a character with traits I could identify with. I drew parallels between Carly’s personality and mine, but was cognizant of our differences as well. I appeared to share a number of personality traits with Carly: jealousy, a tendency towards almost obsessive attention to certain subjects or objects (like books). I found myself analyzing why I’d never wound up in Carly’s position… After all, she’s not crazy, at least, not in the traditional sense. She’s been through a lot, her mind is completely overwhelmed, and things just … start to go a bit haywire.

What I mean to say, is that I understand Carly. I found myself wanting to reach out and help her, guide her, let her know she wasn’t alone. I thought I’d feel protective of the new girlfriend, the stalked, but, in the end, I didn’t. Yes, I understood her feelings as well, but it was still Carly that I felt the connection to. Perhaps it was simply Graham’s phenomenal writing that cast a spell and pulled me into Carly madness… or perhaps it was the fact that we all have that small, dark part of ourselves that threatens this crazed behavior... and Carly’s fate.… (meer)

Carly's life is getting pretty craptastic. Her dad's second wife is pregnant, which means that their big summer trip to an archaeological dig in Turkey is off. Her mom is splitting with her longtime boyfriend, which means that (a) they have to move and (b) Carly's getting to spend a lot of time helping to take care of her younger sister, Jess. At first things look better when she and Jess head off to camp (Jess as camper and Carly as cooking assistant) when Carly meets a guy, Brian.

She falls for Brian pretty quickly and the feeling seems to be mutual.

Except when they head back to the city, it's hard. He lives in Brooklyn and Carly now lives on the extreme limits of the Upper West Side, so they're at least 45 minutes away. And his band starts to get more attention and Carly...well, she gets jealous.

That's all backstory. The REAL story is that after she and Brian break up and he starts to see someone else, she goes off the rails. Really, really far off the rails: she stalks his new girlfriend. It's not so much to scare her or hurt her--she just can't help herself.

I enjoyed this book. I feel like with the internet and especially Facebook, it's really easy to start stalking someone. Seriously--who hasn't looked up an ex through Google or Facebook or something?

At first, I totally got the compulsion to see what the new girl looked like, how she acted, what she did. But then Carly got insanely creepy in one night of the worst possible choices ever.

Still, Carly was a very likable, relatable girl. It's probably hard to do in a story like this, because how do you have someone do insanely creepy things without being Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction?

Recommended.… (meer)