Book Review: Lisi Harrison, the Pretty Committee Strikes Back

The Pretty Committee Strikes Back is the fifth novel in Lisi Harrison's 'The Clique Series'.
The PC (pretty committee) consists of Massie (she is the ring leader of the group of girls, however a better word for her would be 'boss'), Kristen, Alicia, Dylan (yes Dylan is a girl), and Claire.

I'm going to try my best to represent this book in Massie's (our main characters) point of view.

Massie:
 
Okay, so like my name is Massie Block. I'm like super cool, and super rich, and all of my friends are rich and beautiful, except for Kristen who sometimes begs for handouts. It's totally annoying.
 
My friend Claire is totally fun, but the girl has no fashion sense at all. Everything she wears is like so out of date.

Alicia is 'hot', and every guy says so. She's so not as hot as me though, so that's a major plus. She's got big boobs now though, so I think this is why everyone likes her. Whatever!
 
Kristen is like, our poorer friend. She's cool and all, but she's like so needy all of the time. I sort of get sick of just how needy she can be at times!

Dylan is also a good friend of the Pretty Committee, but most of the time I ignore her, and she doesn't ever seem to have any major role, or gossip. Yawn. Dylan's mom is famous though, she's a morning show talk hostess on the 'Daily Grind', and of course I only hang around the most elite of people.

I'm dating the most popular boy in school (of course) his name is Derrington, he is a super hunk, and we are like this perfect match because well, obviously I, Massie, am the most popular girl in school. Life is grand when you're me.

Anyways,

There is a 3-day school trip coming up; we're all going to Lake Placid, NY for our geography class with boring Mr. Myner. Well all of us are going except for Kristen who for some reason decided she didn't want a hand out this time around. What a twit right?!
 
Besides I totally could of lent her the $1,500, that's nothing! I even tried helping that LBR (loser beyond repair) by scheduling a kissing help session with all of the schools lip virgins for $20 each.
One thing though, shhhh, I have never been kissed either. I lied and told everyone I make out with Derrington all of the time, so they would think I was cooler and more mature than that massive bimbo Nina who thankfully is no longer in school.

Now all these lip virgins want me to teach them how to kiss. It's so funny how they all cherish me, and believe anything I say. God what a bunch of LBR's. For real!

Anyways, once we were all up at Lake Placid, my lies were exposed, what a major bummer. Derrington is totally mad at me, so I have to devise a plan on how to get him back.

I so need Claire's help. Ew, but Claire keeps hanging out with her old loser friend Layne. Not only that but Claire for some reason keeps trying to get me to listen to her boring drama. As if I care about her and Cam.
 
I feel bad for Dylan though, her mom decided to come and chaperon the trip, and she totally senses her mom and our nasty teacher bonding. So gross!

I can't even go to Alicia for help because her big boobed butt is too busy trying to figure out whom Josh likes. She totally has it for him. But I know something Alicia doesn't know. Haha! Claire kissed him, when she thought Cam was no longer interested in her. I can't believe she did that, but Claire is like getting all worried that Alicia will find out she kissed Josh, and that Alicia will totally hate her if she finds out. Cam already knows, and that's why he dumped Claire. He actually caught them red handed.

Bummer for Claire, she's been busy trying to get Cam back, and it's a little hard when Josh keeps trying to schmooze with her while Alicia looks on. I guess Josh can't forget that kiss. Claire so does not want you Josh! Ugh! Get over it!

But anyways, I'm so sick of all of their drama, really! They so know they should all be focusing on me, besides I'm the popular one and they would so be nothing without me.

My reputation is sooo tainted now that Derrington won't talk to me because he knows I lied to everyone about the whole 'kissing fib'. He will so get over it. But the rest of the class thinks I'm some lip virgin, how am I going to convince them otherwise!? These dumb girls are so worried about themselves they're not even focusing on me. Cuh-laire will so help me!
 
God this is way deep! I need to get some sleep first.

Day 2-
 
Like sooo friggin eww! I just found out that Claire's dirty little friend Layne got her period! So nasty! Claire like lent her a pair of her underwear the other day, and she just found the underwear outside all messed up! I mean messed up! Laney the dirty thing tried to bury them so no one would find them. What a LBR! A disgusting LBR!

Okay, anyways, where were we? Oh yeah, so Claire and me devised a plan to get back our men. I recommended to Claire that she sneak into the boys cabin while everyone was asleep and to apologize to Cam and let him know how much she loves him.


She's actually going to go through with it. Haha! She is crazy!
 
But Claire also gave me good pointers on how to get Derrington back, and how to save my spoiled reputation at the same time. The plan goes like this: I'm going to kiss Derrington, and Claire is going to 'lead' the girls towards us so they catch us kissing. There, problem solved right?

Anyways, I'm totally not going to spoil this awesome story, you're soooo going to have to buy the book to see what happens between me and Derrington, and ewww, Dylans mom, and Cam and Claire, and Kristen, (she's such a riot!) and you are totally not going to believe what happened between Alicia and Claire! Oh My God! Like major stuff here! You would not believe what happened to us all at the end of the trip. Major Oh My God!
 
You'll have to buy it to find out what happened. You won't be disappointed.

Love Massie, you know you already do though! Tee-hee!

How I felt About The Pretty Committee Strikes Back:
 
I'm 25 years old, and this book is geared towards the pre-teen/teen-aged girl. Something about the cover of the book, and the title led me to believe that it would be a story similar to Lindsay Lohan's in the movie Mean Girls. I was dead wrong.
 
It 'is' meant for a teen-aged girl, however was somewhat enjoyable even at my older age, however I found it difficult to connect to any of the characters, seeing how all of them (except for maybe Kristen) were nothing but a bunch of shallow hoochies in training. Not to mention they're all rich like Donald Trump, and I like anyone else in a lower-ranged financial situation would have a hard time connecting with any of them. So for the some of us, the characters are going to come off as snobs, and sort of un-realistic.

I've got another major problem with this book. There are quite a few very disgusting scenes that came up throughout the book that I honestly don't think were funny at all. However in the book they were 'supposed' to be funny.

For instance, there are quite a few scenes where Layne's bloody 'period undies' are thrown around in peoples faces more than once throughout the book.

There is also a scene toward the ending involving one of the girls saying she has to go to the bathroom, when the other girls tell her to go in the bushes, she says to late, and lifts up her long shirt to reveal a wet spot on her crotch. The girl then goes running after the other girls trying to hug them and get her pee on them. The scene for me was just a little too graphical, and honestly I wouldn't want my daughter (if I had one) to be reading about such things, and how it is okay to make fun of someone who gets their first period.

These particular scenes were a bit too harsh for my liking, and honestly I don't see why they had to be added into the storyline. The book would have done fine without them.

I have another bone to pick with The Pretty Committee, and really it's a simple one. I can't sum it up any better than this: This book teaches you nothing. There is no lesson to be learned, it's basically just a story about a city gal having to convert to a country gal for 3 days with a little bit of drama, (that is not even that dramatic, yet to their simple minded minds it is a 'big deal'). Big whoop. However the story itself is what it is. It's fun, and sort of holds your interest. Not much though.

Still Interested?
 
I'd recommend it, sure. But I certainly wouldn't want a younger child reading it. 14 And up would be my recommendation, not 12+ like on the book.

Overall it was a fast paced read, and could be easily finished in just a few days. Chapters are relatively short, and pretty easy to read. Lisi Harrison did a good job with the fifth installment of the series; although I do think this particular book could of been a little better, with a bit more realistic drama.

For me it's a 3 star book, but still worth a read. I wouldn't necessarily go out and buy it though. I'd just grab a copy at the library.