It was very PLL, but I was okay with that. I love guilty pleasure books like that. Sometimes I got confused bc there were SO many characters, but eventually I sorted it all out. It was a cool mystery withou being overly dramatic. I had fun reading it.

I have no idea why it took me this long to read this book!! Maybe it's because I read[b:Ten|11958033|Ten |Gretchen McNeil|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1332152297s/11958033.jpg|16920256] and was like MEH. Well, thank you ARC August! This is much improved over Ten. I mean, it isn't my favorite book I've ever read, but I love books like this!! It's a little Pretty Little Liars, a little Prep School Confidential. It's a mystery that's not taking itself too seriously. It's drama without being too much.

My favorite part about this book was that these 4 girls aren't friends. Some of them don't even like each other, but for the greater good, they come together to publicly humiliate bullies. I found the concept (while a tad unbelievable) incredibly interesting. As for the characters-- Kitty is the leader and class VP, Margot is the loner and smart computer girl, Bree is the bad-ass and senator's daughter, and Olivia is the actress and popular girl. They all bring something different to the table and it works... except when they start to turn on each other.

There are a lot of characters in this book. Bree has a bestie named John (who is also main suspect), there's the popular crew, the theater crew, a weird boy named Ed the Head, a new kid named Logan, teachers, parents, suspects, targets, a volleyball team. Several times I had to flip back and figure out who certain characters were (also the names Kitty and Margot weirdly get mixed up in my brain, so there was that).

This book was pure fun and entertainment. I need books like this every now and again and I feel like there's been a void in my life ever since I gave up reading the PLL series. Because of that I had a great time reading this & flew through it pretty fast. I really wanted to KNOW!! But sighhhh, I guess I have to read the 2nd book, [b:Get Dirty|16005224|Get Dirty (Don't Get Mad, #2)|Gretchen McNeil|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1412612324s/16005224.jpg|21769476], to find out since the answers were not a-coming in this ending.

OVERALL: I love and need more YA Mysteries like this that are fun and suspenseful. I loved the girls (when I could keep them straight), loved that it kept me guessing, and loved the light feel this had to it. Totally recommend.

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Four girls, all from different cliques form the group called DGM, which stands for "Don't Get Mad!" leading to the rest of the statement and the title of the book, "Get Even." The four girls, Bree, Olivia, Kitty, and Margot meet regularly and use evidence they find about people in school to get revenge for mean or unfair things that they have done to others. Their latest triumph is to show an embarrassing video at a school assembly about Coach Creed who had been bullying students. Their next target was Ronny DeStefano who had made a video of himself taking advantage of a girl who was evidently under the influence and not thinking clearly until he turns up murdered in his own bed. What follows is a series of events that not only makes their group the number 1 suspects in the murder, but they also begin to question each other.

The beginning of Get Even is a little hard to follow because so many characters are introduced all at once, and this made it even more difficult because the story is told in third person omniscient point of view, but despite a rough beginning, the book becomes more and more intriguing as it goes along. The generic manila envelopes delivered sporadically to each girl containing new clues to the mystery not only add secrets being kept by each girl but also background to their characters. Overall, an enjoyable story. Beware - this book ends in a cliffhanger with many questions left unanswered. ( )

Well my initial thoughts are, that was just pretty silly. Secondly, it has a too strikingly familiarity to Jenny Han's Burn for Burn and Pretty Little Liars, both of which were much better written, in my opinion.
I realize that this is a young adult book and I am not exactly a young adult, however this one at times smacked more like a book for 12 and 13 year olds, the dialogue at times, made me cringe. And the overuse of dude or some form of douche had the same effect.
The premise of the story was great and had such potential. Four girls who don't seem to know each other, other than being in the same school set out to even the playing field. Those who have wronged, bullied, whatever, will get the same back. Too bad Jenny Han already did that first. We all have that need or dream to wish some form of revenge on those that have wronged us, but the DGM spent more time talking about revenge than actually putting it into action. When you get right down to it, there was all of one act of retribution, a pretty lame one, the second was halted. And now what happens to that video with Mika? Do we really think that erasing a hard drive solved it all? That no one else has seen or has copies? And the mysterious envelopes is right out of Pretty Little Liars, I almost expected them to be signed by A.
The whole thing just seemed really unrealistic, same with some of the people. The four were typical; your minority, your girl from the wrong side of the tracks, your outcast, and your rebellious poor little rich girl. The beginning bunch of pages were confusing and frustrating as there were so many characters to get straight. By the time I got the characters straight I didn't care any more and just wanted it to end. And the coach? What was his deal? Who acts like that? And Father Uberti? He just seemed everything a priest shouldn't be. I don't know a lot of priests that would yell "what the hell" to a bunch of students.
I kept wanting to stop reading it, it's a pretty quick read, and I hate not finishing a book but I found it torturous . I should have gone with my instincts.
And I have to say, I hate books that just end with no conclusion. I have many books that I have loved that are part of a series but the endings aren't like watching a tv show where you have to watch the next one to find out the answers. That is why I stopped reading the Pretty Little Liar series, it's like the song that never ends. Sadly I had already purchased the second one in the series before I had read this one, I think it will likely gather dust. ( )

I expected this to be a cute little predictable YA mystery but it is SO MUCH MORE! A suspenseful and truly unique mystery thriller. There is never really any resolution at the end of Get Even and it just leaves off with a huge cliff hanger, which I love! Very excited for the next book in the series and can't wait to uncover more of the mystery! ( )

This book was even better than I thought it would be! I was feverishly turning pages trying to solve the mystery and eventually ran out of pages. Now, I'm anxiously anticipating the release of Get Dirty ( )