Kiss & Blog: A Novel [Paperback]

Alyson Noël (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2007

What's the best revenge when your best friend ditches you for the popular crowd?  Alyson Noël reveals all in her hot new young adult novel.
 
As freshmen at Ocean High last year, Winter and her best friend Sloane thought they could ditch their nerdy past, launching from invisible to cool.  But after another miserable year of standing on the sidelines they make a pact to do whatever it takes not to go unnoticed in their sophomore year, promising each other that whoever makes it into the cool group first will bring the other along.

One Sloane gets a taste of life on the A-list, she slams that door in Winter's face.  Suddenly cast out of her former best friend's life, Winter takes revenge the modern way: by announcing all of Sloane's dirty little secrets on an anonymous blog.  Then the blog becomes more popular than she ever dreamed and Winter must decide if her retaliation is really worth the consequences--and if the price for popularity is one she's willing to pay.  Once again, Alyson Noël navigates the tricky waters of the high school social scene with the heart and humor her readers have come to love.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7–9—While not as nasty as Cecily von Ziegesar's "Gossip Girl" series (Little, Brown), this is no sisterhood story either. Winter and Sloane have been best friends in Laguna Beach since third grade and they've conspired all summer to get into the A-list group as sophomores. Sloane is accepted and summarily dumps her former friend. Winter gets even with a blog, referring to Sloane as "Pink Princess." Readers know that Winter isn't really as mean-spirited as her blog; she's mostly devastated by the betrayal. Luckily, this novel takes a mostly funny approach to revenge and has a lot more going for it than shallow teens. Winter's mom is fixated on '60s culture, even though it was way before her time, and she runs a café that offers smoothies based on songs of that era. She has recently hired a 16-year-old, Rey, who befriends Winter. During an impulsive trip to New York to see her father (Why, oh why do so many chick-lit main characters have former rock stars as dads?), she has a fling with his art-gallery intern. Winter shows real growth throughout the novel and finds her way with new friends, a boyfriend, and even her mother. A good choice for reluctant readers, the story also has enough substance to appeal to any reader, whether or not they'd do in those who done them wrong.—Tina Zubak, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Praise for Art Geeks and Prom Queens:

"Get ready for a wild ride with Rio Jones.  And, hang on tight because you're going to love every minute of it!"
-J. Minter, author of The Insiders

 

Praise for Faking 19:

"Noël's debut novel is realistic and convincing. Alex and M. are fresh and endearing, and anything but superficial. Readers will relate to both characters and their lives."
-School Library Journal

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (May 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312355092
• ISBN-13: 978-0312355098
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,245,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alyson Noël is the #1 New York Times best selling, award-winning, author of FAKING 19, ART GEEKS AND PROM QUEENS, LAGUNA COVE, FLY ME TO THE MOON, KISS & BLOG, SAVING ZOË, CRUEL SUMMER, FOREVER SUMMER (a LAGUNA COVE/CRUEL SUMMER 2-in1), the IMMORTALS series including: EVERMORE, BLUE MOON, SHADOWLAND, DARK FLAME, NIGHT STAR, & EVERLASTING, the IMMORTALS spin-off, RILEY BLOOM series including RADIANCE, SHIMMER, DREAMLAND & WHISPER (04.24.12), with short stories apearing in the anthologies: FIRST KISS (THEN TELL), KISSES FROM HELL, & DEAR BULLY. She is currently working on a new series for teens, SOUL SEEKERS, set to debut with book 1, FATED in May 2012, to be followed by ECHO, MYSTIC, & HORIZON in 2012/13.

With over 8 New York Times bestsellers in 2 years, and over 6 million copies in print, her books have been translated into 37 languages, sold in over 50 countries, and have made the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, NCIBA, and Walmart bestsellers lists, and have won numerous awards such as: the National Reader's Choice Award, NYLA Book of Winter Award, NYPL Stuff for the Teenage, TeenReads Best Books of 2007, Reviewer's Choice 2007 Top Ten, appeared on the CBS Early Show's "Give the Gift of Reading" segment, and selected for Seventeen Magazine's "Hot List" and Beach Book Club Pick.

The dramatic rights for all 6 books in THE IMMORTALS series and all 4 books in the RILEY BLOOM series, were optioned by Summit Entertainment--and her adult novel, FLY ME TO THE MOON, was optioned by Ridley Scott's, Scott Free Productions, with Sharon Maguire (Bridget Jones' Diary) set to write and direct.

Born and raised in Orange County, California, she's lived in both Mykonos and Manhattan and is now settled in Southern California where she's working on her next book.

Photo by Nancy Villere.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Girls will be girls, July 24, 2007

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kiss & Blog: A Novel (Paperback)

Winter and Sloane are tired of being passed over and ignored like a bunch of faceless extras. All the while the A-list clique of girls at Ocean High get the choice roles of homecoming princess, cheerleader, and varsity jock bait for the affection of guys like Cash Davis-who would not even notice Winter and Sloane if he ran over one of them in his Hummer. So, these desperately determined freshman rejects form a pact to do whatever it takes to get noticed during their sophomore year at Ocean High in Laguna Beach.

All summer they watch endless makeover shows, practice sure-fire flirt techniques and plan outfits to thrill. The first day of school finds Winter hopeful and feeling as if she and Sloane will finally get it right. Girls like Jaci, Holly, and Claire will pull them close to whisper the cutting-edge gossip in the hallway. Winter and Sloane will hold court at the A-list table, be invited to "the" parties and shopping excursions, and most importantly charm the cutest boys at school.

Wrong. Sloane has been a dedicated friend-until the day that she finally gets included by the A-crowd, and then she promptly dumps her best friend Winter without a second thought. And Winter discovers that shopping is actually "shoplifting," and charming means "going all the way."

She resolves her anger by starting an anonymous blog and becomes "Eleanor Rigby" to the Internet world. If Sloane has dumped her so heartlessly, then Eleanor would have a few choice tidbits to expose about the new "Princess Pink" and her "Pastel Posse." As her anger diminishes she ends up meeting some really cool people who are into music and are putting together a band. Somehow her world changes and she discovers that she really doesn't want to be a Sloane clone anyway.

Ah, but what to do about the blog? The Gospel of Eleanor Rigby has become so popular that the kids at school are guessing and speculating on the mysterious "Eleanor Rigby" and the awful "Princess Pink." Someone even offers her a book contract.

Heartless though Sloane has been,Winter discovers her true character when it really counts. More later...

Armchair Interviews says: Ah, the joys of high school!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alyson Noel delivers again!, October 5, 2008

By 

T. L. Crawford "hockeygirl" (Georgia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kiss & Blog: A Novel (Paperback)

Winter and her best friend Sloane who were social rejects the year before make a vow to do whatever it takes to become popular. The popular girls accepted Sloane from the start and hate Winter all along (there is an incident when they are at the mall and one of the popular girls puts down Winter's financial situation by holding clothes up in front of her that she knows she can't afford and saying things like "Too bad this shirt costs more then your whole outfit"). The more popular Sloane becomes the more she starts to forget all about Winter and after deciding not to try out for cheerleading with her and stealing the cheer Winter worked hard on by herself, she abandons their friendship all together. Winter decides to get revenge by creating a blog with all of Sloane's dirty little secrets but she changes Sloane's name calling her Princess Pink and her friends the Pink Posse (You have to wonder how dumb Sloane's new "friends" are since they didn't get that the blog was about Sloane until the end of the book even though Winter does include current facts about their clique unless it was just a plot hole by the author.) The blog is down right embarrassing and reveals things like Sloane going to second base with her cousin, her mom stealing another woman's husband, her dad being in jail, and how she used lip gloss after it fell in the toilet without even wiping it off. (There is a lot more but you have to read to find out) At first Winter feels justified doing it and then she feels bad about it and wonders if it was worth it.
The book which is written by Alyson Noel, (who in my opinion is one of the most underrated young adult authors there is), is a good read although it does have the typical mean girls like clique in it that most teen novels seem to overdo to death. It teaches a lesson about how revenge isn't always as sweet as it sounds. Just like with Ms. Noel's previous books: Laguna Cove and Faking 19, it made me wish she would write a series with the characters. I really wanted to see Winter and Sloane becoming friends again I could see them forgiving each other for everything.
Grade: A+

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Light and fluffy read, but predictable and hard to believe, November 24, 2008

By 

L. Deal "avid reader" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kiss & Blog: A Novel (Paperback)

Winter and her best friend Sloane want to be part of the in-crowd, so they take drastic measures over the summer to ensure their popularity. Predictably, Sloane gets "in," Winter doesn't, Sloane drops Winter, Winter creates a "revenge blog" and meets a boy, Winter gets the boy.

I know Noel intends for us to root for Winter because Sloane is so obviously nasty and disloyal, but Winter is almost Sloane's equal as far as likability. Her blog is increasingly nasty, spilling all of Sloane's secrets to the Internet in general. Winter owes Sloane nothing, but the spitefulness of her blog makes her a fairly unlikable protagonist.

On the vast Internet, what are the odds of everyone in your high school and the neighboring middle school finding and becoming obsessed with YOUR blog, without a hint or link from you? If so many local people have stumbled across it, why doesn't anyone have ANY clue who Winter's talking about, when it's pretty obvious from her online anecdotes? Not that it's unlikely to have online activities discovered by people who know you IRL, but the likelihood of all of your acquaintances squealing, "Have you read this blog? Isn't it the COOLEST? Aren't you DYING to know what she'll spill next?" seems pretty slim.