The Rivals

This was not the cover of the copy that I read. This was, and I did not enjoy it. I thought it was strange how quickly they re-branded Daisy Whitney’s “Mockingbird” series. The original cover actually compelled me to read it. The simple, mysterious bird in the sea of coyly smiling teenagers and torsos. The “new” cover for The Mockingbirds falls prey to that trap.

But this isn’t a blog about aesthetics or marketing.

This is a blog about words.

The Rivals continues in some sense where The Mockingbirds left off. A new school year means a new season for the Mockingbirds. A cheating ring overlaps with an adderall pharming ring at Themis. Tension is tighter than ever between Alex and the indifferent school administration. Whitney is excellent at creating realistically infuriating characters. No book has fired me up more than The Mockingbirds as Whitney tackled the topic of date rape. She attempts the same high-stakes attitude with The Rivals, but the story misses the mark. Adderall pharming and cheating rings don’t quite reach the same level as date rape. Whitney does not try equate date rape and adderall pharming/cheating rings together, but without the high stakes…I lost the reason to care. Also, Whitney was juggling a love triangle and the emergence of a competing justice system at Themis. Plot juggling is not at its finest.

With all that said, I will be disappointed if Whitney does not write a third book in the Mockingbird series. Whitney used the direct plot of this book (the adderall pharming ring) as a vehicle to get to the real plot (the competing justice system) and now I need to know how everything fleshes out. I haven’t heard any rumblings about a third book on the internet though, so I am a bit worried.

Thumbs: 1 out of 2.