I was a huge fan of Megan McCafferty's Jessica Darling series, and I couldn't wait to get the galley of this one (thank you, NetGalley! And the publisher, and the author!) There is a clear audience for this book - I'm not sure how it would be received by an older or younger group, but for those of us in the Oregon Trail generation, this book hits the sweet spot. Cassie Worthy has just completed high school. She's a nerd, but she's got a plan. She and her boyfriend, Troy, will be attending universities across the street from each other in New York City, planning to immerse themselves in the World of Knowledge while also having fun. Until Cassie gets sprayed by a rogue mister from Bath and Body Works - and it turns out the girl has been sneaking around with Troy. Cassie is suddenly unmoored, but over the course of the summer, she finds her way into all sorts of new adventures, learning about herself and who she is in the process. A confection that mall-lovers will adore, complete with a fun treasure-hunt subplot and several unlikely friendships.

This was a really fun read! The book has some really fun parts, and really good dialogue! I haven't read anything by this author besides this book but will definitely be looking up her other series! Very cute book, and I would definitely recommend!

I received this ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review

I had such high hopes for this book, as I loved her Jessica Darling series, I read through it multiple times. This was completely forgettable. The plot was lacking, the characters were unappealing. The only reason I'm giving 3 stars is because I only got about 60% of the way through before shutting down. Maybe the ending redeems it some.

Hmmm… When somebody told me, why don’t we take an exciting tour to travel around 90’s memory lane so you got the references easily from your childhood and some part of teenage era: I answered myself ( yes, I don’t have an intellectual imaginary friend and I’m not drunk enough so I offered myself a tour and I took it): “Why not!”

Results: Going back to time, Matthew Broderick is still young and dated Jennifer Grey who was playing his sister on the movie: Yes you got it right: Ferris Bueller days or day off. (Later it turned into a show with new cast members and it sucked!) 90210 was still good, the characters were still young, annoying but relatable, they didn’t fire Shannen Doherty yet and we’re still listening mixtapes, singing Madonna’s songs, doing loco-motions with Kylie, watching bad romance between Maddie and David on Moonlighting (Yes, Bruce Willis had hair once upon a time and he was not a jerk, okay, he was still jerk with adorable lopsided smile) and Marky Mark is still a bad boy/worst rapper who hasn’t made disastrous Transformer movie yet.

So yes, book’s time frame is right. The characters seemed interesting. Some dialogues were smart, snappy. But… yes here comes the irritating BUT part: I felt like watching a movie I gave 5 point at IMDB and wasted my time.

The plot intrigued my attention: taking place in a mall, living inside Cassie Worthy’s head, seeing her making new friends, finding new job, interested in treasure hunt after surviving from a severe disease, living in quarantine, finding her boyfriend cheating on her when she was sick, getting fired from her job and of course let’s add some romantic vibes into this story.

So I impressed with the start but as I resume my reading, I started to get bored with the dialogues trying so hard to be catchy but the words turns into full of clichés, illogical jargons, not so funny phrases. And of course I really wondered why Cassie had to repeat her inner screams, making “arrghhkk” sounds so much. Did she have a problem with her vocal cords or didn’t she have any idea have to express her feelings?

And the characters, well, without enough back stories, it was so hard to relate with them. Maybe this story is not for me and it addresses younger generations ( at least younger than 18) but mostly I found it boring, shallow, flat and a little raw. I think the story needed more work because I felt like I ate tasteless, uncooked meal. It needed more development, work and back stories, not to be released before any rewritings or editing.
I think I was expecting more from this author.

So I gave 2.5 stars and for the love of 90’s soul, I rounded up to 3. But that’s it. I love some parts and I only loved the heroine but I have to say this is not my cup of happy hour drink!

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books to send me this ARC COPY in exchange my honest review. I wish I could like it more.

So, I was born in 1997. I was alive for the end of the 90's, but I don't recall any of it. Therefore, I know very little about 90's culture in general, much less 1991, the year this novel is set it. However, I was excited by the prospect of a book set entirely in a mall, which were a staple of my childhood, and to learn a little about the early 90's!

And I have to say, I was not let down. This book is a treasure.

Let's get into it!

CHARACTERS
The Mall has a moderate cast of characters, told in the first-person perspective of Cassie Worthy, recent high school graduate and only child of two dentists. She suffered from a case of mono in her final month of high school, but she's set to work at America's Best Cookie in the local mall with her boyfriend Troy all summer, before both of them go to New York for college. Cassie is a full, rounded character from the start. She has snappy narration that's both easy to read and sounds like (what I imagine) an actual teenager in the early 90's would sound like. She's booksmart, but not people-smart, and goes through real growth over the course of the novel.

Then there's the secondary characters: Troy, her boyfriend, her coworker Drea (and Drea's mom), Cassie's parent's, and a plethora of other mall employees and shoppers. Nearly all of the named secondary characters feel just as real as Cassie, especially Drea and Cassie's mom. They have hopes, dreams, and likes, and all in all are very well written! I think Cassie herself was my favorite character, though.

PLOT
So, the plot's easy: Cassie works in a mall, is planning for college, and there's a treasure hunt running throughout the middle. Yep, a treasure hunt in a mall. I don't want to reveal too much of the plot here, as it's best experienced first-hand, but I will say that all aspects of the plot - as well as the subplots of Drea's college dreams and Cassie's parents' relationship issues - work very well together. Nothing feels thrown in randomly.

WRITING
In my opinion, The Mall is very well-written. Cassie sounds like her age, and McCafferty has found a balance between description and action that works well. The novel reads very easily, and it's easy to read quickly.

RATING
I give The Mall five stars! It's awesome

RECOMMENDATION
If you remember the 90's, like the 90's, or really enjoy malls (or just YA books in general), I totally recommend this book! It comes out June 9th, 2020.

Rejoice, rejoice for the first relatable YA novel I’ve read in ages.

This light, delightful novel takes us back to 1991, when malls were in their heyday and pegging your jeans was all the rage.

Half the fun of the book is mall nostalgia for those old enough to be familiar with the references but young enough to still take interest in YA books. I wish there had actually been more mall store name drops in this (can I get a Merry Go Round shoutout? Ups and Downs? Wild Pair?), but what’s there is fun and clever, as is the treasure hunt that forms the bones of the plot.

Even better than the trip down memory lane, however, is McCafferty’s refreshingly normal, relatable protagonist. Most YA would have you believe that teenage girls think about absolutely nothing but boys, exist in a perpetual state of melancholic angst, and are always victims of unspeakable tragedy.

While there is a place for those things in the genre, they’re so pervasive that McCafferty’s Cassie Worthy, an interesting young woman with relatable problems and interests, almost felt like a YA white whale. And I was delighted by her.

Sure, Cassie cares a LOT about boys. We all do at that age. But she also cares about school, and friendships, and her summer job, and her family, and music, and, and, and...

Point being, I really appreciated a YA author who acknowledges there’s more to teenage girls than crushes and crying.

More than anything else, this is a novel about friendship. The relationship between Cassie and Drea is the central one, and it makes for a fun, not-too-heavy read that also subtly imparts valuable lessons about loyalty and relating to those who aren’t exactly like you.

Thank you for restoring my faith in the YA genre, Ms McCafferty.

Megan McCafferty is one of my all time favorite authors. I can't get enough of all of her coming-of-age novels and loved this one just as much. While Jessica Darling will always be my number 1 gal, there's definitely room for Cassie Worthy in my heart. The plot is a little less heavy than Jessica Darling, which gives the MC a bit of a juvenille feel.

This is a YA novel but anyone who grew up in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s will find a part of themselves in this book. Pineville is every suburban town in America with a mall. The place to hang out and work at, if you didn’t have a mall you saw it in all the teen movies of the time. Cassie has her life planned and has worked hard to succeed until she is sick with mono and doesn’t see her boyfriend, Troy, for 6 weeks. This is the start of a summer where Cassie learns who to trust and believe in and how to be true to herself before she heads off to Barnard in the fall.

Clever dialogue, cute story, fun read! Easy to reccomend, for a larger age range than I was expecting.

The Mall by Megan McCafferty is essentially a love letter to a mall, and I'm so here for the nostalgia feels she's summoning. In 1991, Cassie has a summer job at the mall with her boyfriend before she heads off to college. She's pumped to work alongside him at America's Best Cookie, but her plans quickly take a different direction. Along the way, Cassie gets drawn into a mystery involving clues connected to Cabbage Patch Kids. Again, so great with the nostalgia on that one. What follows is Cassie figuring out love and life at the mall. Much of that is navigating the balance of what she'll be leaving behind with the excitement of getting out and moving on. For women of a certain age (e.g. a book blogger in her late thirties), this hits a certain kind of way throughout. Cassie's story is literally told through the stores of the mall. As I read, I was picturing the malls and stores of my youth, and I didn't realize how much I loved and missed that. Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced look at this June 2020 release.

Well, this one sure brought me back! As a Jersey Girl, born and raised, growing up in the 80s and 90s, I couldn't ask for a book that gave me more nostalgic feels than "The Mall"!

I went to Sam Goody, I worked at the Garden State Plaza, and I dreamed of getting out of my small "village" after high school. I literally worked at Bath and Body Works! Spraying cucumber melon on strangers was my jam! Obviously, I related to Cassie on so many levels., including the heartbreaking first love breakup. Rude.

This books is sprinkled with 90s pop culture references on every page, and they all made me roar with laughter. Everything from "90210" job rankings to Z Cavariccis was thrown into this book, and I devoured it all. I loved the treasure hunt. It was ridiculous and whimsical.

This book is basically Season 3 of Stranger Things for girls.

My only complaint about this book was Cassie's lack of experience, despite having had a long-term boyfriend. Call me a hoe, but that's NOT how I remember growing up in New Jersey in the 90s. I was third in my high school class, and even I was rolling my eyes at her "plan", so it's not a geek thing since I was one, too.

I loved Drea. Fun, funny, witty, daring, beautiful and talented, all in one package. You couldn't ask for a more fun character with which to hunt for treasure. And her mom and their store? I thought it sounded so cozy to be Drea. Ever want to crawl up into a character's life and live there? That's me with Drea.

Cassie's parents both being dentists was funny to me because my brother and his wife are both dentists. The scene in the book where they simultaneously refer to teeth as "number 8 and 9" could have been stolen right out of my brother's living room. Cute plot point.

I definitely recommend this young adult book to young adults and children of the 80s and 90s like me. It was incredibly fun and whimsical.

I loved the prominence of mono in the book. I remember everyone fearing and contracting mono in high school. I envied their ability to stay home for months and watch crappy tv. I love that Cassie is fresh into a mono recovery. So relevant for the time. What was it about the 90s and mono anyway? Do kids still get that?

I actually liked this wayyyy more than I was expecting to. It was a quick fun read full on 80s and 90s mentions.

At first I found Cassie, the narrator, a little annoying but then she grew on me. Her growth and Drea’s through the book was believable and honest. I wanted both of them to succeed.

I’d give this book a 3.5 stars but will be rounding up to 4.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am exactly the same age as Cassie - graduated high school in 1991 at age 17 - and also from the suburbs of NYC. The entire time I was reading this book, I was envisioning the mall of my own youth, the food court, the Sam Goody, the stores in the mall where I worked at that age. All of this made this book so fun for me to read!

Full disclosure - I have read most of the author’s previous work and loved it all. Thankfully I can add this book to the list of books that I love. Set against the backdrop of the mall in the 90s, with a supporting cast of teens who work in the various shops, this book captures the era perfectly. From the fashions to the music, the food court to the hook ups, this story draws you in and makes you feel like you not only know the characters, but the shops too.

This book is set in the same universe as the Jessica Darling series, with cameos for those paying attention.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was sad when it was over (but the ending was satisfying!).

I'm a huge fan of the Jessica Darling series, so it was fun to come back to Pineville with Megan McCafferty—the humor and rompy plot made this a fun, fast read, even if I didn't quite fall in love with the characters and voice the way I did in Sloppy Firsts.

Cassie is ready to start her final summer in Pineville working in the mall with her boyfriend after missing out on all her final senior year activities due to mono. But when she arrives for her first mall shift, she’s assaulted by her boyfriends new girlfriend, is fired from her job, and is too ashamed to tell her parents the truth. So begins her summer at the mall, working a behind the scenes job with a former best friend, looking for treasure, and trying to her over her ex-boyfriend. The life lessons and personal growth make Cassie a likeable narrator that you want to see come out on top, and the 8 weeks before leaving for college prove to be just what she needs.

**Review will be posted on my blog closer to publication date, May 25, 2020**

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read this eARC.

Talk about taking me back to the 90’s and basically my childhood! This story which is mostly set in a mall, is all nostalgia and fun. Cassie Worthy, is actually dealing with a few things in her life like breaking up with her boyfriend of two years, not having a place to work and then dealing with her parents divorce. But she finds herself a new job and getting through this disastrous summer by going on a treasure hunt. A treasure hunt in a mall you say? This story is a fun homage to “the mall”, which was our social hub once upon a time, a long, long time ago…in the 1990’s.

What I Liked:

*The cover and it’s neon pink color just captures the feel of the book. Love it.

*I may be a little biased, but I was a pre-teen/teen in the 90’s! So everything in this book, like the Sam Goody music store 😂 (cassette tapes and cd’s – wow), the food court, ALL of it just took me down memory lane. The mall was the place to be!

*I really enjoyed the characters like: Drea Bellarosa, Cassie’s not-so-new summer friend, is pretty awesome. She pops off the page, I could see her in her fashions and hear her honking laugh. They made unlikely friends but they were good for each other. “Sam Goody”, who’s name we don’t know until the end was so reminiscent of my love of all things music back in the 90’s and discovering bands – etc. Love that Cassie had a summer fling with him and Gia’s mom was fantastic too, she had such personality!

*The treasure hunt in the book is such an 80’s/90’s adventure – like the movie Goonies. But it added a fun element to the story, and it helped Cassie concentrate on something other than her life seeming to fall apart. It brought Cassie and Drea close together and I’m glad Cassie earned a friend through it all.

*Cassie transforms during the summer with Drea’s friendship, the treasure hunt and hooking up with boys. I’m glad she found her backbone when it came to her douche of an ex-boyfriend Troy and the plan. Cassie’s a smart girl and was definitely not someone who was going to sit back and take Troy’s treatment of her, but from a lot of nudging from Drea, she learned to love her true self.

Things That Made Me Go Hmm:

*This is a really light-hearted quick read – at times I thought maybe too light hearted but I think the focus on Cassie and Drea’s friendship was the right call. I was more interested in their relationship than Cassie finding a new boy to be a rebound. I like that though she had all these changes during the summer, it never changed her plans for college and her future.

Final Thoughts:
The Mall is a nostalgia filled read for us who grew up in the 90’s. I think for readers today who are fascinated with that decade, this book would definitely give them an insight to our days gravitating to the mall. The book is a fun, quick read and will make the perfect summer read. I could definitely see this as a tv show and I’d totally watch it.

This fun book was a quick read and the perfect antidote for some of the heavier research reading I've been doing of late. A coming of age novel set entirely in a 90s mall. A confection with some resonant messaging.

I love 80's-90's themed books. When I read the plot i knew I had to read this. The 80s references were awesome. I didn't like Troy very much. His character was just irritating for the things he said.

I would recommend this to anyone who lives 90's flashback to malls and 90's music taste in marky Mark and the funky bunch

This book takes place in the 90s when the mall was at its peak. It follows Casdie and he life at the mall the summer before she starts college.
I loved this book. It was definitely a page turner. The characters were well written and relatable.