How to Break a Boy By Laurie Devore

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Keep your enemies close, but your friends closer.

Olivia Clayton has mastered the art of tearing others down to stay on top. She and her best friend, Adrienne, rule their small southern town like all good mean girls do--through intimidation and manipulation.

After Olivia suffers a family tragedy and catches Adrienne sleeping with her boyfriend, Olivia is over it. She decides to make a change--but it's impossible to resist taking Adrienne down one last time. Up to her old tricks, Olivia convinces golden boy Whit DuRant to be her SAT tutor and her fake boyfriend. But when it starts to feel real, Whit gets caught up in Olivia and Adrienne's war.

Olivia may ruin everything she touches, but this time she won't go down without a fight--not if it means losing Whit.

And definitely not if it means losing what's left of herself. How to Break a Boy

DNF on page 127

First off, this is no where near the angst-light contemp I was expecting. I knew there was going to be a mean girls aspect, but this was just too much for me.

I didn't like Olivia at all. And yeah, I settled in for the redemption set up, yet it never came in the pages I read. Instead, I found a MC who outs one of her BFFs to the entire school to get back at another BFF, a shit load of slut shaming, and threatening sexual assault to 14yo girls who want to be cheerleaders.

Olivia and Adrienne aren't mean girls, they're toxic af and I completely lost the interest in seeing Olivia work it out. Obviously from the reviews that are up already, I'm in the minority.

**Huge thanks to Macmillan for sending me the arc**

1250082862 no boys were harmed in the making of this book 1250082862 This book is SO HARD for me to rate. There were things I loved about this, and other things that I really fucking hated about it. This is honestly one of the weirdest reading experiences I’ve ever had and I don’t really know how I feel. All I can say for sure is that this is DEFINITELY not for everyone, and I’m not even sure it was for me. What a strange book. I 100% want to read more from Laurie Devore in the future though because even though I didn’t necessarily like this book all that much, I was HOOKED from start to finish. 1250082862 How to Break a Boy had me up til 1 am yelling WHAT ARE YOU DOING and YESSSSSSSS at literally every single character besides maybe Claire who is a total marshmallow.

This is a book that demands a pack of beer, a bowl of popcorn, and a box of tissues.

**Honestly, with the release coming up on us, I've been thinking about this book A LOT (a friend was yelling about the ARC I sent her and I ended up mentally and EMOTIONALLY revisiting it). Devore is one of the BEST new voices in contemporary YA. Some of her scenes are so raw, but there's also plenty of humor and good lord WHIT, MY CINNAMON ROLL SON.

Anyways, so looking forward to any future titles from this author. Stellar. 1250082862 If I were to pitch this book I'd say it's reminiscent of Mean Girls. While some compare it to Pretty Little Liars I have to disagree. PLL is more juvenile and superficial whereas How to Break a Boy is much more powerful. And the pranks are downright cynical.

How to Break a Boy was not the light, fun read I thought it would be. It was addictive and I did like it in the end though. This book contains the most frustrating and unlikable protagonist ever. Olivia Clayton is a mean girl. She has intimidated and scared the student body into respecting her and she and her best friend Adrienne rule their school. I was shocked by the level of malicious attacks and insults these girls spewed at their classmates. This book really gives a deep look at the lust for popularity and the troubles of toxic friendships. The high school drama felt real, but the horrible pranks these girls pulled and the responses of the students were a tad unrealistic. I can't believe there were no huge repercussions for their actions throughout the years and that the students all listened to and revered Olivia and Adrienne.

Olivia Clayton's character is one of the most confusing and complex. I wanted so badly to like Olivia, but she does bad things, acknowledges that they're bad, feels horrible afterwards, and hates herself for it. Why can't she just not do the bad things?? I understand the pulls of popularity, but she fails to draw the line. Her character is what really drives the story and made me kept reading. I wanted to see if she'd redeem herself, and I realized I was rooting for her the entire time. There are so many times in this book when she's faced with a decision to do good or bad, but does she choose to be her best or worst self? It was painful at times to see her choices play out and hurt those around her including herself. But also there were triumphant moments when I saw her make the right decision. Overall the character growth in this book was impeccable.

I felt that Laurie Devore did a great job creating a backstory for Olivia that helped readers understand why Olivia acts the way that she does. Laurie really delved into the reasons why Olivia craved popularity and did all the bad things she did. In no way does that excuse Olivia for her actions, but I appreciated that this book gives such an introspective view on why. Laurie's writing was sharp and impactful. Teens can relate to and learn from so many of the ideas Laurie tackles in this book. The pacing was good, and although I didn't like everything that happened in this book, Laurie did a wonderful job with plotting.

Olivia and Adrienne have a toxic friendship in this book. I'm shocked by so many of their interactions, especially as they fought to take each other down. How to Break a Boy really highlights the manipulation and possessiveness that comes from toxic friendships.

I really enjoyed the romance in this book. I love that Whit challenges Olivia and never lets her get away with anything. He brings out the best in her and holds her accountable for her actions just as Olivia brings out a new side of Whit. The progression in their relationship felt realistic and I loved all of their moments together. They had such great chemistry!

Overall I really enjoyed this book. If you're looking for a book with an amazing romance, teen drama, and immense character growth then I recommend you check this out! 1250082862

This is one of those books that I REALLY liked, but I'd never actually recommend to anyone. I feel like it probably wouldn't work for a lot of people.

Misleading book cover and blurb.

Looking at that cover and blurb, you'd think this was a cutsey high school fake-boyfriend-storyline read, right? Well, it's NOT. There's hardly any lightheartedness in here at all actually, and it deals with some pretty heavy issues.

I started this book thinking I'd be reading something light and fluffy, prepared for something generic but entertaining. In chapter 1 already I did a double take and had to double check what book I was actually reading.

Excellent writing.

I thought the writing was really, really good, something I noticed immediately in that first chapter. There was a bleakness to the story, this sense of feeling trapped, that the author captured perfectly. It made the heroine a bit easier to swallow, because even though you won't ever agree with her decisions, you'll at least feel a bit of why she is the way she is.

Why you won't like it.

The heroine is horrible. Really, REALLY horrible. Her friends are terrible people. Everyone sucks and does shitty things to each other. The heroine is the worst. She's horrible but self aware, which kinda makes you hate her even more. Her decisions will frustrate you and piss you off. I liked her journey or whatever though, and as hard as it was reading it, I still liked it.

The story is kinda crazy, some things were over the top ridiculous. I just rolled with it lol.

Stupid ending.

I would have given this 5 stars if it hadn't been for that ending. It was the kind of stupid ending moments you see in bad teen movies. It took away from the things leading up to it and was a disservice to the story in my opinion. 1250082862 Trigger warnings: alcohol abuse, death of a sibling, cheating, car accident (in the past), bullying, slut shaming, outing of an LGBTQIA+ character, accusations of teacher-student relationships

Words cannot even begin to describe how much I hated this. Olivia is a godawful character. There's basically nothing redeemable about her. She's a bully, and has been for years, and now she's using her brother's death in a car accident as an excuse for her behaviour. Adrienne is so over-the-top evil and manipulative and fucked up, and there's very little explanation for her behaviour other than that she's jealous that her dancing monkey (Olivia) found another friend. Olivia just...folds any time Adrienne is around, and GIRL. WHY THE EFF ARE YOU SPENDING TIME AROUND SOMEONE WHO MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE SHIT BUT CALLS HERSELF YOUR BEST FRIEND???? Like...??????

Don't get me wrong, I 100% buy the concept of the friendship drama stuff. I mean, I work with 1100 teenage girls on a daily basis and I see the havoc that they can create. But this? This was beyond ridiculous. I call extreme bullshit on the idea that not one staff member at that school had gone You know what, Adrienne is behind all of this shit and finding out a way to prove it. I also call bullshit on the idea of somebody as manipulative and destructive as Adrienne being the most popular girl in school, because no one likes that girl. Ever.

Let's talk real quick about Whit. He's a slice of plain generic supermarket white bread and I gave zero fucks about him. Forever Young Adult gave this book 8/10 on a the swoon scale. I give it 0/10. Their entire relationship is built on lies and I am not here for it. Also, he plays golf, and therefore in my head he's Chad from Scream Queens and no thank you please.

The thing I hated the most here is Adrienne deciding to break up Whit and Olivia by ACCUSING A TEACHER SHE DIDN'T LIKE OF HAVING A SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH WHIT?????? Like... GIRL. That is fucking up multiple people's lives and potentially destroying careers. And Olivia...just goes along with it and makes up all these lies about how she saw them together?? There was no chance of her being redeemed for me after that. None. Nada.

So for the whole book to end in a redemption arc where not only does Claire forgive Olivia for being involved in outing her to the entire school, but both the teacher and Whit forgive her for making up shit that nearly lost jobs and college scholarships? GET THE FUCK OUT. No one in their right mind would forgive that.

I feel like my hatred of this stems at least in part from the fact that a) I don't live in the US, and b) I went to a girls' school with a year level of 70 and we all got along pretty well. Like, there was one girl in my year level that I didn't like - it was a weird personality clash from day 1 and she felt the same - but we were still perfectly civil to each other, and hung out together at our brothers' school music concerts because there was no one else to talk to. Are we Facebook friends? LOL NO I GIVE ZERO FUCKS ABOUT HER. But would I stop and make polite conversation for 5 minutes if I saw her in the street? Sure.

So the whole concept of the most popular girl in school being THIS AGGRESSIVE and THIS MANIPULATIVE and THIS HATEFUL is completely foreign to me, and that's coming from someone who's been on the receiving end of an awful lot of crap from 15 year old girls in the past year.

In summary: I hate this cover. I hate the writing. I hate the characters. And I definitely do NOT understand all the 4-5 star reviews of this book. 1250082862 skimmed the blurb, read 'fake boyfriend' and added it 1250082862 I don't even really know what it is about this book I love so much (probably fake relationship trope, that is my FAVORITE).
This follows the high school mean girls. I was thinking that I wasn't going to like this since the main character, Olivia, is fairly unlikable, but she knows it. She admits that the things she's done are wrong, and she knows she needs to stop, but she is overcome by too many feelings of anger and hurt to really stop. Every time she annoyed me with something, I still felt bad for her. She felt so trapped in her life and town and her choices, and I could sympathize with her desperation. There was one thing she did though that really just got to me and I was so angry at her, but I'm pretty sure that was the point. You were suppose to hate her as much as she hated herself.
This is basically a battle between who is the meanest after Olivia finds out her mean girl best friend is sleeping with her boyfriend. To avoid them, and to try to get her grades up, Olivia starts fake dating Whit, a smart, athletic, promising guy, who hates her.
I love YA books about mean girls, and broken girls who use sex or partying or whatever to try to feel bigger than small towns. I love them because it reminds me so much of how my high school was and how life is so much bigger than that and behind every person, mean or not, is a story and a reason why (though not always good). People can change and I love coming of age stories that show that.

This made me laugh and cry, I stayed up all night to finish it, which I haven't done in a long time, and I found myself closing my eyes to image scenes over and over again; I can see where a lot of people wouldn't like this but I loved this so much. 1250082862 3.5 Visceral, jaggedly raw, ragged with desperate pain. HOW TO BREAK A BOY is exquisite in its broken, almost violent examination of the hot, cruel, slutty cheerleader stereotype: the crackling allure of power, compulsive lies slipped between teeth, and a monstrous, abject girl who wishes she weren't monstrous. Superlative, ravishing. I fell in love.

Because mean girls are girls too. 1250082862