The Quick Cut: Three teen girls find themselves at the center of the drama after rumors at their private school cause chaos.

A Real Review:
Thank you to Hyperion for providing the ARC for an honest review.

Anyone who has gone to high school can tell you how synonymous rumors are with the experience. Whether the truth is a secret or someone made something up, it's almost a guarantee that at some point, rumors will circulate about a topic that everyone is interested in. Most times the damage they create is minor but what happens if they get out of control? This is the case at Foxham Prep.

Foxham Prep is a very fancy and expensive school for the elite in the Washington DC area. However, the price tag doesn't eliminate the timeless school tradition of rumors and they are running rampant right now. The senior class president Bryn went off the rails over the summer and intentionally got in an accident with other students, including her now ex-boyfriend. Now everyone wants her to resign as class president and the only friend she has is Georgie, a classmate who lost a lot of weight overnight. Bryn just wants the rumors to end and to get her best friend Cora back. What happens when the rumors are about you? Can you turn it around after it's taken everything from you?

This book is well over 400 pages, which would usually make me uninterested in reading it. I'm not a big fan of long books. However, this is the exception to the rule with this story about the toxicity of rumors and bullying. It may take it's time to build up the plot and get to the punchline, but it is well worth the wait. The authors do such a phenomenal job writing a story that doesn't pull it's punches and feels quite true to life. It is both heartbreaking and exciting at the same time. Important trigger alert: this story can get dark and discusses bullying, sexual assault, drinking, and drugs.

The story is told from the perspective of three girls: Bryn, Georgie, and Cora. In the beginning, Bryn and Georgie are friends with Cora being the popular girl with all the power. As the plot changes, their relationship to one another shifts with one another and the entire school population. It's interesting to see how their reputations change too as the rumor mill changes it's top story. My feelings on each character changed so much from the start to the end. Once I got to the end, it left me wondering if the impressions of people in my own life are based on fact or fiction.

Bryn is painted as the girl spurned. Her boyfriend cheated on her and by the end, she's painted as the bad guy who loses it all. She's going through her own issues behind closed doors with her parents too at the same time. It is a portrayal that points out eloquently how you never know quite what anyone is going through behind closed doors. Sometimes a moment of what appears to be insanity can be in actuality the culmination of a lot of problems coming together.

Georgie is the newly skinnier girl at school who suddenly gains attention. She's always been a smart, quiet girl who quickly becomes a part of the social scene she didn't know about before. Seeing her try to change her image and lose control of it is an emotional rollercoaster. Her life spins put of control and it's so hard as a reader to watch it unfold. I related to her so much in the beginning that I did get caught up in her story.

Finally, there is Cora. She used to be Bryn's best friend and is the cheer captain. She's popular and has everything that Bryn wants back. I was never popular in high school, but with this story you get a glimpse of what it is like to be socially gifted and try to hold onto that. Even as a popular girl, she struggles with stories running rampant about her life and trying not to let it mess with her head. I used to think the popular kids didn't have anything to worry about. This story shows just how wrong that assumption can be.

A powerful portrayal of how toxic rumors are and how they can ruin lives.

My rating: 5 out of 5

I wasn't into this book in the slightest. Most of the characters are unlikable and don't really represent modern day teenagers. Cyberbullying is a problem that teens face but a situation this extravagant isn't common. The way the story is written seam's to globalize all teenagers as social media and rumor addicts which can be true. But it would have been nice if their were more teenage problem's included that aren't about popularity or social media.

The thriller elements weren't all that intriguing, mostly because their aren't many suspects options so the revelations all feel bleak. Because of all this the plot felt lackluster.

The only thing I enjoyed from this novel it's the multiple media used like showing the posts and the comments, it helped visualize the plot.

Overall, I didn't enjoy this book because of it's characters and their depictions of modern day teenagers, the lack of thrill and suspense and the lackluster plot.

Thank you NetGalley, Disney Publishing World, Hyperion, Dhonielle Clayton and Sona Charaipotra for the arc.

**Disclaimer: I received a free early access copy of The Rumor Game by Dhonielle Clayton and Sona Charaipotra through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity.

The Rumor Game by Dhonielle Clayton and Sona Charaipotra is a young adult contemporary novel.  It features the perspectives of three teenage girls who attend a prestigious private school in the United States.  Each girl is dealing with life and relationship issues while also dealing with the rumour mill at their school.  It is set to be published on March 1st, 2022.  I rated it three stars on GoodReads.


Here's the summary from Goodreads:

All it takes is one spark to start a blaze.
At Foxham Prep, a posh private school for the children of DC’s elite, a single rumor has the power to ruin a life.
Nobody knows that better than Bryn. She used to have it all—the perfect boyfriend, a bright future in politics, and even popularity, thanks to her best friend, cheer captain Cora. Then one mistake sparked a scandal that burned it all to the ground.
Now it’s the start of a new school year and the spotlight has shifted: It’s geeky Georgie, newly hot after a summer makeover, whose name is on everyone’s lips. When a rumor ignites, Georgie rockets up the school’s social hierarchy, pitting her and Cora against each other. It grants her Foxham stardom . . . but it also makes her a target.
As the rumors grow and morph, blazing like wildfire through the school’s social media, all three girls’ lives begin to unravel. But one person close to the drama has the power to stop the gossip in its tracks. The question is—do they even want to?
From Dhonielle Clayton and Sona Charaipotra, authors of the Tiny Pretty Things duology (now a Netflix series), comes the edge-of-your-seat social thriller everyone will be talking about.

This novel is perfect for you if you love a twisty, angsty young adult novel.  I sometimes absolutely love that vibe, but this one just didn't work for me.  I still had a good time reading it, but it wasn't my favourite thing that I read this year.  I think that more has to do with the storyline of it than anything else.  This particular brand of drama wasn't my favourite.

I liked the characters well enough.  I didn't love the choices they made, but I could understand why the choices were made.  It's a complicated chain of events that they got themselves into and I wish that maybe things had gone a little bit differently.  I think Cora was probably my favourite of the three.  In general, I did feel for each of them because they all were struggling with things that normal teenagers struggle with and I wanted them to be okay.

The story had good tension, and there were good twists and turns that I really wasn't expecting.  I liked the summary of rumours between chapters and the comments from other characters in the story so we could see their takes on things.  It made the story feel a little bit more well rounded.

This novel will definitely have its audience, it just wasn't me.  If you were intrigued by the story, then I definitely think you should check it.  I still had fun reading it, but I'm not the target audience.

This book was intense. Each of the main characters had their own traumas and flaws (and yes some flaws are completely avoidable and childish but they ARE children)

Formatting note: I'm sure it will be fixed in the final, but the scrapbook and news article pages were very difficult to read.

I particularly liked that all of the parents were present (read: not dead) and able to give consequences for stupid ideas, something that is missing in many YA books.

I know it’s a teen book but it was TOO teen-y for me. I love a good YA book but I found myself wondering “why” things were happening and not understanding where everything fit in. Additionally, I get wanting a culturally diverse story but it felt like a lot of it was really hung up on certain cultural aspects that didn’t necessarily benefit the story as a whole.

This book was ok. Not awesome but I can see some of my students enjoying it. I always like an alternating narrator, but this was just felt a little too confusing to keep track of

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of The Rumor Game in exchange for an honest review.

Hey hey hey so this might not be The Rumor Game's fault because I'm genuinely starting to think? I've outgrown YA contemporary narration styles? But I'm still a teenager for a few more months so for now I'm just going to pray these are stiffly written teenagers and that I'm not somehow already out of touch

I admit that it took me a while to get into this book. That may be due to what has been going on in my life, though. The characters are complicated. The story shows that rumors are not innocent and can have very real consequences.

Review:
This book is a marriage between Gossip Girl and a boarding school thriller. It was interesting and compelling story with some twists I did not see coming.
I liked the voiced of this writing duo - they wrote some interesting characters without making them too sterotypical and I was hooked from very early on.

Synopsis:
All it takes is one spark to start a blaze.
At Foxham Prep, a posh private school for the children of DC’s elite, a single rumor has the power to ruin a life.
Nobody knows that better than Bryn. She used to have it all—the perfect boyfriend, a bright future in politics, and even popularity thanks to her best friend, cheer captain Cora. Then one mistake sparked a scandal that burned it all to the ground.
Now it's the start of a new school year and the spotlight has shifted: It’s geeky Georgie, newly hot after a summer makeover, whose name is on everyone's lips. When a rumor ignites, Georgie rockets up the school's social hierarchy, pitting her and Cora against each other. It grants her Foxham stardom . . . but it also makes her a target.
As the rumors grow and morph, blazing like wildfire through the school’s social media, all three girls’ lives begin to unravel. But one person close to the drama has the power to stop the gossip in its tracks. The question is—do they even want to?

reading this book felt like watching a car accident in slow motion…you knew the collision was coming but you were watching the build up for hours. the rumor game centers around cora, bryn, and georgie in the fall of their senior year of high school.

bryn’s life has fallen apart after an accident this summer, losing after thing she had: her friends, family, and sense of self. cora’s life becomes the center of attention when rumors start circulating about her long time love. and georgie, just trying to figure herself out, is completely caught in the crossfire.

the premise of this book completely drew me in, but i found it to be predictable and the ending didn’t quite hit the note i was looking for. still an interesting enough read for those fans of gossip girl with a touch of mean girls

This high school drama book follows elite students at a private school in Washington DC, where rumors show just how easy it is to spread lies about others and have it be believed.

It reminded me a lot about Mean Girls and other classic teen movies, but with the updated technology, which made everything much more heightened and faster to spread.

The book deals with some serious issues, but I appreciated how therapy was seen as something good to assist with them. A good step to share that many go to therapy for different reasons.

There are lots of twists and turns, but even though the novel was longer than I expected, I felt like everything made sense and I didn’t think things got dragged out, which can happen sometimes in novels like this. Instead it felt more realistic.

Highly recommend this book!

this was an arc so no spoilers!! honestly this book was… not it for me. the premise felt a little basic (spreader of rumors tried to mess everything up), and the big heavy-hitting plot moments came from what i felt were traumatic moments not properly dealt with. in ya i feel that it’s very important to discuss these issues, however to throw it in towards the end of the book and never truly resolve it felt purposeless and like a grab for attention from readers to me. overall not my favorite book.

Awesome book! I think I’d you’re a fan of Ace of Spades then this is a great pick. It held my interest from beginning to end. One of the best books I’ve read this year.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. The Rumor Game discusses the implications of online bullying and social media with privilege and body image discussion as well. The lead up to the ultimate pay off was a bit messy and long and I wish it could have been shortened and maybe some characters and storylines chopped for clarity and tightness of plot, but overall a decent story.

I think this book wanted to be many other different books that already exist, and sadly I didn't feel like it pulled any of them off that well. What could have been nuanced and interesting fell flat in my opinion. Perhaps I'm not the target demographic but books like other authors that offer a similar feel/story/characters I very much enjoyed.

Dhonielle Clayton and Sona Charaipotra as co-authors? Yes, please! I downloaded The Rumor Game with high hopes, as my students love mysteries, multiple narrators, and anything infused with social media. Check, check, and check! Filled with drama, intrigue, back-stabbing, and juicy gossip, teens (and, ahem, adults like me) are going to fly through this. I already have three copies in my to-buy cart.

Co-authors Clayton and Charaipotra create a fascinating yet terrifying look at high school within the world of social media. Being popular seems so important to some teens at Foxham Prep, perhaps even enough to lie. For cheerleader captain Cora, class president Bryn and new 'it' girl Georgie, it turns out that popularity may not be worth it after all, when some students when others do far more dangerous things than just make up rumors.

Thank you Lyssa, Disney-Hyperion and NetGalley for the fabulous ARC

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney publishing for providing this eARC to me in exchange for an honest review.

I’d give this book 3/5 stars. It’s your typical high school drama story (which I love) but I felt it went on a little too long. The first half of the book was a lot slower than the second.

The Rumor Game follows 3 high school female seniors at a high class private high school. Each with their own issues to sort out (TW: eating disorder, cyber bullying, sexual assault). The chapters alternate between the POV of each girl, and it was rather easy to follow.. I will say, because I feel like this is the typical high school drama, it ended up being slightly predictable in some aspects. I don’t know that I’d necessarily recommend this to people, but it was a quick read!

The Rumor Game was a fun, twisty ride. Would recommend for those who likes a little mystery. I enjoyed the alternating perspective and liked the use of social media screen grabs to fill out the story. TW: Fatphobia, Sexual Assault, Bullying.

I love both of these authors, but this book just didn't work for me. It was so long, all the twists were revealed early on, and the characters were all pretty unsympathetic. I also don't think it did a great job of dealing with Georgie's weight and body image. The premise of this book had promise, but it really failed to live up to their first collaborative duology.