2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Friends: They need you when they least expect it!, March 25, 2008
This review is from: Drama High: Frenemies (Mass Market Paperback)
"Lust takes, love gives." Words to live by. This is the lesson that Mama gives Jayd in one of her dreams in the beginning pages of the fourth installment of the Drama High series. "Frenemies" picks up where Drama High #3, "Jayd's Legacy", leaves off, and author L. Divine seems to effortlessly capture the complex social environment most teens know simply as "high school".
This is not your regular blah blah blah teenie bopper novel for two reasons. First and foremost, L. Divine is a great writer who is able to convey the complexity of the social environment of high school without losing the reader in unimportant details. The other reason that Frenemies is a such an interesting read can be attributed to L. Divine's Master's Degree in African American Studies and Educational Psychology. Her educational background allows her to add layers to this series that the average writer would not think to explore.
Readers get to see the world through the green eyes of Jayd. She is doing her best to keep her grades together while her world swirls around her like a unrelenting tornado. Jayd juggles family members, friends, enemies, Advance Placement high school courses and her psychic powers. (But don't put her in the league with "That's So Raven"; Jayd's powers are a lot more serious...)
Ultimately, Frenemies is about seeing the difference between true friendship and false relationships. The two girls that round out Jayd's clique, Nellie and Mickey, go from being best friends to worst enemies. Mickey can't stand the fact that Nellie gets named Homecoming Princess and decides to get a new attitude to go with it. Jayd's main mission is to bring her friends back together at all costs.
Nellie now exclusively hangs out with Tania, another member of the homecoming court. Coming from a long line of powerful voodoo priestesses, Jayd get a shocking vision while dreaming. Her boyfriend Jeremy has recently got Tania pregnant. Can she really be mad after developing feelings for her ex-boyfriend Raheem after a brief, but passionate, kiss?
As Jayd slowly hones her skills and the spritual powers of being a Williams Woman, she must also find solutions to the problem that she has fully connecting to her boyfriend. Jeremy is half-Jewish, loves Alt Rock and is from a wealthy family. So why does Jayd, a black girl from Compton, bother with him? The answer is simply love. She has formed deep feelings for him, as he has for her. But is the differences in socio-economic background, cultures, religions and race too much for this high school couple to bear? Not if Jayd can help it...
The problem Jayd has with bringing everything together peacefully is the way she goes about achieving her goals. As a practioner in the ways of Yoruban spirituality, Jayd's grandmother is teaching her how to properly use her powers. Jayd initially thinks that the potions that she is able to concoct will bend the will of her targets.
Her grandmother repeatedly explains to her that the secret in her powers and potions is not the affect they have on the target. What makes them work is the added confidence and awareness that they give to the person using the different spells and potions.
Readers of this series will not be let down; and those who are recently discover Drama High through this book with definitely want to pick up L. Divine's other offerings about the world according to Jayd aka Lady J.
Joey Pinkney
C&B Books Reviewer
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