MONSTER HIGH by Lisi Harrison

The monster community has kept a low profile at the local high school, but when two new girls enroll, the town will never be the same. Created just fifteen days ago, Frankie Stein is psyched to trade her father's formaldehyde-smelling basement lab for parties and prom.

But with a student body totally freaked out by rumors of monsters stalking the halls, Frankie learns that high school can be rough for a chic freak like her. She thinks she finds a friend in fellow new student Melody Carver-but can a "normie" be trusted with her big secret?

 

*This is an early review. Monster High will be released on 23 September*

This book has a really funky cover. It also has some very interesting subject matter that I knew I would totally be into. And I wasn't wrong. This is one hip, happening, and unique story told in the POV of two teenage girls who in their own way are new to both the town of Salem, Oregon, and to Merston High School.

Melody is a normie. She's fifteen and is moving into this smaller and smog-free town with her parents and sister, Candace, in hopes that the air will help her asthma. She's a girl who hasn't always been beautiful, but with the help of a little work from her plastic surgeon father, managed to enter the world of the beautiful. Except, she struggles with that. After so many years of being invisible, standing out for her looks makes her uncomfortable, and suspicious of people. After all, do they only like her because of the way she looks?

All of that is challenged when she meets a hottie her sister refers to as a 'curdy', which of course means cute-nerdy. Jackson's really nice, and has that whole geek-chic look going for him. But he's a little strange, and keeps giving Melody hot-and-cold signals. One minute he's into her, the next it's almost like he's someone else and doesn't even remember who she is. And there's a reason for that...

Frankie is just fifteen days old, but her father Viktor (a mad scientist) has equipped her with fifteen years worth of knowledge. And attitude. Her room, which used to be the lab but she now labels 'Fab', is the only place she knows. She shares it with the Glitterati rats and is decked out with the latest fashion, accessories, and chic. She's a real fashionata with a lot of confidence. She's also full of electrifying life. Literally. 

The day her parents decide it's time for her to start high school, her whole life changes. Frankie is determined to be who she really is. After all, the important magazines claim that green is in, and she's green, right? Green and proud, but things aren't that easy. She needs to cover her green skin, hide her stitches and bolts, and totally shun the stylings she loves so much. Luckily for her, she meets a nice bunch of friends in Lala and Blue. Girls, who along with the seemingly bitchy Cleo and Claudeen, turn out to have a lot more in common with her than she first expected.

Melody and Frankie's lives become affected by what it means to be both a RAD (Regular Attribute Dodger) and a normie. Frankie, especially, struggles with hiding her real self to the point of disregarding the rules, and risking the existence of the 'monsters' who hide among the humans.

Monster High is a fantastic, clever, and fun book. It's seriously fabulous and packs quite a punch in the LOL department. I read it in one day because it both sucked me in and kept me reading until the very end. I loved every minute of it and couldn't wait to get stuck into Melody and Frankie's stories. They're both excellent, interesting characters that come from different sides of the spectrum but are really a lot alike. The cast of characters is colourful and freaky. I loved every single one of them and can't wait to see where the next installment takes us, because it definitely ended on a cliffhangerish note. ;)

I also wanted to mention that it's a pretty book. Bring on the monsters, because they are RAD. ;)

Oh, and if you're interested in finding out a little more about Monster High, you can visit this great website.
 

Monster High, September 2010, ISBN 978-1907410635, Atom Paperback