Customer Reviews

Girls on Film: An A-List Novel

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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.

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

If you want the best book you can pack to take along on vacation, this is it. I'd call it pop fiction for girls with a functional brain. Anna, the heroine of this series is smart and literate -- definitely not an airhead. But since she's arrived in Beverly Hills from her rich New York prep school life, things haven't gone smoothly. She is determined to break out of her "good girl" box, which means, guys, adventures and did I mention guys? There's a great combo of reality (the kids having sex, doing drugs, being dysfunctional) and fantasy (the kids having great sex with hot guys, money to burn and every top label everything of your dreams). I like GOSSIP GIRL, but in my opinion this is a vastly superior series. Not only is it hilarious, you can actually root for Anna, and you won't regret it the morning. I heard Zoey Dean is a grad student at UCLA who actually lived a lot of what is in this series. It certainly reads like an inside job!! This is the best!!!!

This book is a sequel to the first Zoey Dean book the A-List. This book is much better because you can see a whole new side of Anny Percey and you get to experience what its like being in the shoes of the rich kids.. This book is based on Anna and whether she wants to be Adam or Ben's girlfriend. She knows who she wants to be but cant decide if that really is the best choice. Adam is the "good" guy, he gets good grades and is a nice guy. Ben is more hot, sexy, and does crazy things but still does well in school. An unexpecting twist occurs that will make any advocate teen reader want to keep turning the page again and again.

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!!!

A-list #2:Girl on Film is definately an improvement from Ms.Dean's first A-list novel, "The A-list". While I didn't really care for the whole Anna/Adam Anna/Ben thing I did like that the character Sam is starting to develop some personality & I think I'm going to like her newfound friendship with Anna.

Anna's sister Susan was great guest character which gave Anna a bit more depth and the argument she & Anna have near the end is done beautifully. Something about this book that annoyed me was Cammie. I absolutely that girl and she should just get this stupid vendetta with Anna over with because it gives really no personality at all.

Like I said before a much better improvement from the first book, and I think Ms.Dean has a pretty strong hold of the book already, where I felt it took Ms.Von Ziegesar 3 books into the series of Gossip Girl before she could do something decent with her characters.

Good work Ms. Dean & keep it coming

Ciao

I liked this book just as much as the first one, and I was so happy with the ending I could just die. It reminded me of another sequel I've read, but I just can't think.
Anyways, Susan came to Beverly Hills from rehab and now Cammie is trying to get at Anna by being friends with Susan, and Sam is very confused about her sexuality. Things between Anna and Adam are heating up, but Ben still isn't completely out of the picture.
There are so many twists in one little book, but now that I have the third book in the series I will pick up again right away!

I didn't know what to expect when I sat down to read Girls on Film, but I did not expect to be sucked in as completely as I was. I read this book nonstop last night-I wasn't able to put it down! Anna's emotional struggle over Ben, the hot guy who makes her want to lose control, or Adam, her safety net, is well written for the reader to relate to. Things are only compacted by Anna wanting to hash out a friendship with Sam, despite the fact that Sam's friend Cammie is dead set against getting revenge against Anna for winning Ben's affections. The situations that Anna goes through throughout the book leave me wanting more! I can't wait to read Blond Ambition!!

At first I thought that the A-List series was a typical boring girly hollywood book, but after this one I am hooked! Definitely check this out if you like sweet valley high. it is like a modern version of it. Anna Percy is very interesting to read about. I am looking forward to reading the third and fourth installment.

Lately a lot of books have come out in the teen genre and few have lived up to the expectations I 've set for them. Zoey Dean's second offering in the A-List series was what I expected it to be - a fun, decent, light read that can be picked up at any time.

The story basically follows Anna Percy, a New York high school socialite that moves out to LA to restart her life with her dad and initially plans to take an internship but after that falls through she ends up having to go to Hollywood High with some characters she met at a celebrity New Years Eve bash. The main pupils Anna has to tangle with are Sam Sharpe (daughter of a famous movie star questioning her sexuality in this book), Cammie Sheppard (Who has some big problem with Anna because her ex-bf is interested in him), Dee Young (Hippie chick whose big secret from the last book is further explored in this one), Adam (A possible love interest for Anna), and a few other minor characters. Oh and readers of the last book, Ben (Annas one night stand/possible love interest) does come back...

This chapter of the A-List life story follows a few days in Anna's life as she works on a movie project with Sam about class and love, deals with her rehab-escaped sisters return, frets about boys, and lands a new internship at her fathers girlfriends business.

While there are a lot of fun twists and turns throughout, the main problems I have with this series are the dialogue and plot development. Dialogue-wise Zoey Dean needs to get a better handle on realistic teen speak, and while understandably she avoids the cliches of Hollywood Valley Girl speech, the text is disjointed and too plain for anyone, especially teenagers to say. Imagine seeing the story read out by actors and actresses and a lot of the dialogue used just seems too formal and unrealistic for people of this age group and time period to be saying. The second problem I have is the length of time the action takes.

Each book generally spans about a week to two weeks which is a ridiculously short time for any deep character and plot development to happen - particularly noted with what happens between Anna and Adam in this book. Of course it is assumed the storylines are cut so short because Dean has set her characters in the second term of grade 12, which is looking to be a foolhardy choice given that the stories are incredibly unrealistic time-wise.

Either way if you like most of the teen fare out there you'll probably enjoy this novel as well, as its not a terrible read and has enough of a decent storyline in it to keep you interested and guessing.