Review: Lifted

Title: Lifted

Author: Wendy Toliver

Publication date: June 8th, 2010

Summary:

Being bad never felt so good.

Poppy Browne never stole anything in her life before moving to Pleasant Acres and meeting Mary Jane and Whitney. But when Poppy walks out of the mall with her two new friends and her first pair of stolen jeans, she's hooked.

Before long, Poppy is lifting whenever she gets the urge--it's never about the merchandise, it's always about the thrill. But when her secret gets out, Poppy's clique turns on each other. As she watches her life collapse around her, Poppy must decide where her loyalties lie...and how far she'll go to protect herself.

Review:

This book had a great way of showing two important lessons: 1) People aren't always as nice or mean as they might seem to be; and 2) Trying something just once, even if on accident, can lead to a spiraling addiction. I absolutely loved this book. Poppy seemed like someone I would get along with great, minus the shop lifting, of course. It just goes to show how easily someone can be influenced by peer pressure when they're trying to fit in in a new place. Watching Poppy get into shoplifting and then becoming fully addicted to it was interesting and eye-opening. It's amazing how quickly something that seems innocent at first can escalate into a huge problem.

The fact that Poppy attended a Baptist school threw me off at first. Until the shoplifting started, I was wondering how in the world that would be incorporated into a book that seemed so pure otherwise. But everyone at Calvary High seemed to have their own little secrets, which was really interesting and made me think twice about my view of religiously oriented schools. Addiction and peer pressure can influence anyone, no matter how "pure". 

I loved a lot of the characters, but my opinions of some of them were changed drastically by the end of the book. At times, it became almost like a mystery trying to figure out who was doing things with good intent and who wasn't. But of course in the end it all fell together, and I was happily satisfied with the ending. There was something about the style of Wendy Toliver's writing that I loved, and I can't wait to read more of it.

Characters: 9/10

Plot: 10/10

Originality: 9/10

Writing: 10/10

Overall grade: A