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TOTAL POINTS: 80/100 points
Storyline & Content (26/30 pts)
The book was awesome! Sometimes it was too exaggerated but it was fun and hilarious! Brooke Berlin, daughter of the famous Brick Berlin, has a new sister! The new sister--Molly--just wants to get along with everyone, but Brooke wants all the attention. Spoiled is a book about sisterhood and coming of age; it's a fun read, and it's fast-paced! Read the summary here.Engagement Level (15/15 pts)
There were events after events, it was very engaging. I was never bored reading this book.
Author’s Language & Writing Style (6/10 pts)
Well, I liked the authors' language, but sometimes it was too dramatic--maybe some of you enjoy reading books that are super dramatic--not me. Most of the time it wasn't too much exaggeration, so I love the book overall.
Message/Moral (13/15 pts)
I think there are a lot of moral issues and ethics in this book (e.g: Should you ruin your new sister's life or not?) and I feel like Spoiled was a satire to mock teenage angst dilemma :D
But of course, there are many messages in this book, but I believe the ethics thing works out best for this 1st book in the series.
Information (5/10 pts)
It was sorta informative, I learned some things but it didn't stick out to me very much. This is a book of engagement and fun, not informative!
Characters (8/10 pts)
Molly was believable, while Brooke was unrealistic at times. I guess the people I've met aren't as crazy as Brooke, so I don't really believe that there are people like Brooke Berlin. When Brooke started being vulnerable, I think Brooke was real. When it was Molly's thoughts of Brooke, I felt like it was just too much exaggeration. And... I also don't know if there would be parents who'd name their kid 'Arugula', but hey, that's just me ;)
Originality (3/5 pts)
I think the idea of the book is pretty original. I mean, I don't really see this kind of book covering the shelves of bookstores, but there are a lot of other books where there are a couple of girls started out by disliking each other, but ended up liking each other in the end. It reminds me of Gossip Girls, too. Or just girls in high school reading magazines, really.
Movie Material (4/5 pts)
I would LOVE to see this book in theaters! I could just picture this being a movie and it would really bring everything come to life. Spoiled is a real movie material!
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Words from the authors about how they wrote Spoiled together...
JESSICA: We originally started off with Heather writing the Brooke section, while I wrote the Molly parts, but we abandoned that plan about a week into it -- basically, we both wrote each character. Because what we realized, of course, is that regardless of whose POV we were writing in, in a given chapter, the other character was also IN that chapter, so we had to master both of them. So we really both wrote the entire thing. Basically, the best way to do that for us -- I know other writing teams may do it differently -- was to put together a very, very detailed outline, and then split the work into chunks, and then trade. Because we knew what was happening in the other sections of book, we could then work concurrently and out of order -- thanks to the outline, I knew that when Heather and I traded chunks to write through and edit the other's chapters, I wouldn't get a section where, say, someone was suddenly MURDERED or something. But working with another writer is definitely not half the writing work -- it's more like twice the work. Which is not to say that I would have it any other way. I think that having two sets of eyes on the writing made it stronger, and because Heather and I write together so often and have done so for so long in our day job, we already had a natural sort of mind-meld that made it easy for us to marry our work together.
HEATHER: Being terrified of missing our deadlines was our most powerful weapon, too. The outline helped that immensely because whoever finished a chapter first could just ship it to the other person and dive into whatever the next untouched chunk was. We also realized that there wouldn't be an even 50-50 split between Brooke sections and Molly sections -- and sometimes we'd switch POV within one chapter -- so it was much faster and cleaner and more consistent to assign it by chapter rather than by character. The only problems that ever arose were if we had a bit of an accidental mind meld in terms of where we set a scene, or the type of jokes we wrote. That didn't happen often, but it did happen. We work together so much that by now we also think alike, so it's only natural. But those problems were also easily fixed. It also helps that, while both of us are incredibly possessive of the overall final product, neither of us is possessive of anything we wrote individually. Our attitude us, make the book as good as it can be. If that means changing up some sections I wrote, so be it. It's very much a Tim Gunn thing: make it work, however that may be. I could see that being a problem for writing duos in general, but after all these years -- and also just how we're wired, as people -- we know enough never to take it personally, so it's never an impediment to the writing or to the relationship. Thank God. Can you imagine?
HEATHER: Being terrified of missing our deadlines was our most powerful weapon, too. The outline helped that immensely because whoever finished a chapter first could just ship it to the other person and dive into whatever the next untouched chunk was. We also realized that there wouldn't be an even 50-50 split between Brooke sections and Molly sections -- and sometimes we'd switch POV within one chapter -- so it was much faster and cleaner and more consistent to assign it by chapter rather than by character. The only problems that ever arose were if we had a bit of an accidental mind meld in terms of where we set a scene, or the type of jokes we wrote. That didn't happen often, but it did happen. We work together so much that by now we also think alike, so it's only natural. But those problems were also easily fixed. It also helps that, while both of us are incredibly possessive of the overall final product, neither of us is possessive of anything we wrote individually. Our attitude us, make the book as good as it can be. If that means changing up some sections I wrote, so be it. It's very much a Tim Gunn thing: make it work, however that may be. I could see that being a problem for writing duos in general, but after all these years -- and also just how we're wired, as people -- we know enough never to take it personally, so it's never an impediment to the writing or to the relationship. Thank God. Can you imagine?
