Review: The Julian Game by Adele Griffin

Book Description:

All new girl Raye Archer wants is a way into the in crowd, so when ice-queen Ella Parker picks her to get back at her ex, the gorgeous Julian Kilgarry, Raye is more than game. Even if it means creating a fake Facebook identity so she can learn enough about Julian to sabotage him. It's a fun and dangerous thrill at first, but Raye hadn't counted on falling for Julian herself and igniting Ella's rage. As Raye works to reconcile the temptress Elizabeth with her real-life self, Ella serves up her own revenge, creating an online smear campaign of nasty rumors and trashy photographs. Suddenly notorious, Raye has to find a way out of the web of deceit that she's helped to build, and back to the relationships that matter. Adele Griffin's riveting novel explores the issues of generation Facebook: the desire to be someone else, real versus online friends, and the pitfalls and fallouts of posting your personal life online for all the world to judge.

Source: Adele Griffin (Thanks!)
 
My Thoughts:

Facebook, as well as other social networking sites, are bridges of communication that build and strengthen relationships. Falling for someone online proved to be a risky step. The consequences of nurturing infatuation and risking love were explored in this novel with bits of happiness, sadness and disappointment.


What started out as a simple prank turned out to be more disastrous than Raye could ever imagine. The accessibility of Facebook created an opportunity for online love – a virtual place where an illusion of the closeness exists while maintaining a distance factor that pulls away strain between individuals. There is no pressure of face-to-face conversations and no expectations aside from keeping an unserious and fun relationship.

Raye falls hard for Julian Kilgarry. Online, he seems to be her perfect match. In the beginning, the spark between them charges strongly, giving Raye the impression that she and Julian hit it off. As Ella’s rage escalates, Julian starts to become a stranger to Raye. The element of openness and trust were thoroughly investigated with chat moments and real-life interaction. The issue of online-self and real-self was considered with the level of openness and trueness of a person. In this case, Julian Kilgarry has a distinctly friendly online-self and has a preoccupied and peer-influenced real-life-self, with regards to his Mr. Nice Guy persona. As a people pleaser, he wants to be perfect for everyone or at least for the majority of the people around him such as the circle he belongs to. His shift from being the victim to the heartbreak kid in ways that are unpredictable and unavoidable was wonderfully done.

Raye has two faces too – as the vixen Elizabeth and as herself. The desire to please Ella and be lifted from her pitiful social standing as an outcast, a newbie and a nerd, puts her in a situation that is beneficial in the beginning and damaging in the end. She learns her lessons the hard and humiliating way.

Griffin creates well-developed characters with attention to detail and novelty. The compulsions of Ella Parker for one were very interesting and distinct. Every character added a certain flavor that spiced up the story. The plot was what I would call riveting. I found it hard to put the book down the moment I was sucked in.

The Julian Game is a youthfully careless and experimental story that presents questions regarding several issues that are present in the lives of teens – particularly the ones who belong to the Facebook generation.
 
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