Girls on Film: An A-List Novel (Paperback)

by Zoey Dean (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up-The sequel to the The A-List (Little, Brown, 2003) is a combination of Sex and the City and The Women, complete with backbiting, sabotage, gossip, and scheming set in La La land where overprivileged, poor-little-rich-girls endlessly indulge themselves. Though the issues and scenes are current, the book reads like fantasy as this much intrigue would wear out even the most devious, superficial girl-on-the-go. The one stable figure in this milieu is Anna Percy, an East-Coast transplant who ventures to California to change her good-girl image, but who finds that she doesn't have the stomach for the escapades of her peers. Trying to get over her powerful crush on Ben Birnbaum, a guy she views as all wrong for her, and attempting to settle with Adam, the good guy who just doesn't light her fire, Anna is caught between her heart, body, and mind. Dean's dialogue is flip and slick, and all of the characters have a rapid-fire wit that makes for page-turning, guilty pleasure. Girls on Film is a fast-clipped, juicy read that picks up where The A-List left off, and those who haven't read the first installment are quickly brought up to speed. Irresistible mind candy that teens will devour.
Tracy Karbel, Glenside Public Library District, Glendale Heights, IL
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Product Description
irls on Film is the wickedly funny and risqu sequel to the bestselling A-List that takes readers behind the scenes of the intoxicating world of Hollywood glitterati. Seventeen year-old Upper East Side blueblood Anna ('pronounced Aaaanah') Percy has moved from posh Manhattan to the even more posh Beverly Hills, California, where she's living with her estranged dad for the rest of the school year while her mother travels to Europe with a friend. Girls on Film begins with Anna's feeling empowered after telling Ben to take a hike. He, however, continues to pursue her - refusing to go back to Princeton without a reconciliation. Anna's just not sure if she buys his New Year's cover story: that he was helping out a celebrity friend who nearly drank herself to death. In the meantime, Anna wonders if she and Adam have any chemistry. Anna also bonds with Sam, and after mentioning Ben's New Year's alibi, the girls try to guess the identity of the mysterious alcoholic celebrity. The list of suspects is a veritable who's who of A-List actresses. Sam invites Anna to a desert spa weekend where, in a climactic finish, we find out whether Dee is actually pregnant with Ben's baby, how Sam resolves her romantic feelings for Anna and, most importantly, whether Ben was acting with pure intentions when he left Anna alone on his boat. The fast times of Beverly Hills most beautiful and glamorous people drive the page-turning action of this irresistible, stylishly written novel.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Poppy (April 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316734756
• ISBN-13: 978-0316734752
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #81,692 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 2 in The A-List Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Is She Over Him?, October 28, 2005

A Kid's Review

The book Girls on Film: An A-List Novel by Zoey Dean is a fiction book and is the second book in the A-List series. The theme of this book is girls in a rich high school just trying to get by life and keep their status high. This book is extremely entertaining and witty.
This book is about Anna Percy who has just moved to Los Angles to live with her famous father for the rest of the year in her senior year of high school. Anna is the nice girl but has had some hardships on the way and is now trying to get over her broken heart from a guy named Ben. The group of friends Anna has aquired goes up to a spa for the weekend to do a school project and Anna gets a little friendlier with her friend Adam but she still can't stop herself from thinking of Ben. She wonders if she still wants him or has she finally moved on and developed a crush on Adam. Finally when she thinks she's through with him Ben shows up at the spa to talk to Anna and try to get her back. Only time will tell if they get back together.
This book was very entertaining and kept me interested to see what happened next. I enjoy reading books about rich, spoiled, teenage girls who are trying to get by life and not embarrass themselves. This book was exactly that. I would read this book again and I plan on reading the next book in the series. This is one of those books where you can't relate to the lifestyles but you can still relate to the characters. By the end of the story you feel like you are the friends and enemies of these girls and you were there for all the drama. The A-List series books are very enjoyable books for girls that are into celebrities and rich people who also enjoy a snobby girl involved in the drama. If you watch shows like Laguna Beach and the O.C. you will enjoy this book. It's almost a mix of those shows put in to words with lots of irony mixed in.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A light and glamorous comedy, May 18, 2004

By	Teenreads.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Did you like THE A-LIST? How about the Gossip Girl series? GIRLS ON FILM is another light and glamorous read about the lives of rich and beautiful teens. If this series were on TV, it would be on the WB.

GIRLS ON FILM continues the story of Anna Percy, a New York transplant in Beverly Hills. Anna is still trying to avoid Ben and his lies, but now she has bigger problems when her sister Susan leaves rehab and comes to L.A. The other girls in school who were rejected by Ben also continue to try and make her life miserable.

Nice guy Adam has possibilities, but he can't make her forget Ben. A new internship is harder than she thought, and a family emergency may cut that opportunity short.

THE A-LIST plot loses some steam in this book. Readers will cringe at Anna's choices and possibly at the surprising ending. While she was determined to stand on her own feet in L.A. during THE A-LIST, here she is bogged down with guy concerns. Cammie is a bit of a revenging female catty stereotype here, and Anna's tentative new friendship with Sam seems untrustworthy as well.

The setting and family issues keep this one above water, though, as readers will fantasize about having refreshments at the Beverly Hills Hotel and making movies for school assignments at a posh spa. Anna's new interest in writing should give her refreshing new goals and plots in future books, too. Anna, her family and the sparkling atmosphere will keep readers interested.

--- Reviewed by Amy Alessio

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SO MUCH BETTER THAN GOSSIP GIRL!!!, May 21, 2004

By	Roz Cantor (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

I was quite a fan of the GG bks, but I've found a new love and it's THE A LIST books. GIRLS ON FILM was even better than the first book. It's well written and treats readers as if they have a functional brain. Plus Anna Percy is a huge root-for and there really isn't anyone to root for in the GG series. The wish list stuff (designer this and that) is fun to read about, but it's the characters that really grab me. In this book you learn a lot more about all the main characters, and the ending is incredibly romantic! I can't wait to get my hands on book 3. And 4 and 5 and more... This is the closest pop fiction to real lit I've ever read. Zoey Dean is a fabulous author and I just loved this book!!!