The Karma Club [Kindle Edition]

Jessica Brody (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up—Madison Kasparkova's world is destroyed when her seemingly perfect boyfriend cheats on her. After her mom takes her on a New Age retreat that gets the teen thinking about karma, she decides not to wait for the universe to set things right and enlists her friends' help in seeking revenge on those who've ever hurt them. They create a Karma Club and go about evening the score with their enemies, such as replacing a mean girl's acne medication with a Crisco mixture. Through their club, the girls learn how small choices can have dire or delightful consequences—for them as well as for others. Brody explores the lengths teenage girls will go to in order to restore balance in their chaos-filled lives. This fun, fast-paced read will bring a smile to the face of anyone who has dealt with high school's ups and downs, and will make them think before they meddle with fortune.—Katie Hageman, Gar-Field High School, Woodbridge, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“Equal parts fresh, funny, and engaging, The Karma Club is the story of one girl’s attempt to speed Karma along only to discover that Karma plays by its own rules. Jessica Brody has created a witty, endearing heroine in Maddy Kasparkova—this is one YA debut you won’t want to miss!” —Alyson Noel, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Evermore and Blue Moon

“This book takes the drive and social focus of Legally Blonde’s Elle Woods and mashes it up with My Name is Earl’s Karma. The Karma Club is a cute, hilarious and heart-warming look into the difference between Karma that looks like revenge and the Karma of pay it forward.” —Justine magazine

“All the fun and intrigue of Gossip Girl, with the heart of a Sarah Dessen novel and the soul of the I Ching.” —Gabrielle Zevin, author of Elsewhere and Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

“The thing is, you can’t just order up some karma when another person does something wrong. You have to live your life well and just trust that the universe will reorder and reconcile other’s misdeeds. When Madison tries to take karma into her own hands, the universe laughs softly and turns the tables on her, which leads to a series of unfortunate events in her life. Lesson learned in this fun summer read.”—Kiwi magazine

“A very entertaining read filled with friendship, girls kicking butt, and taking a break from boys.   I love books with girls taking charge - and this one fits the bill perfectly.”— TeensReadToo.com, reviewed by Jennifer Rummel, FIVE STAR review

“Written with wit and panache. Readers will have fun with this one, and it might make them think a little, too.” —<...

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 372 KB
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); 1 edition (April 27, 2010)
• Sold by: Macmillan
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003IKHEZI
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #102,727 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Jessica Brody knew from a young age that she wanted to be a writer. She started self "publishing" her own books when she was seven years old, binding the pages together with cardboard, wallpaper samples and electrical tape.

After graduating from Smith College in 2001 where she double majored in Economics and French and minored in Japanese, Jessica later went on to work for MGM Studios as a Manager of Acquisitions and Business Development. In May of 2005, Jessica quit her job to follow her dream of becoming a published author.

In four short years , Jessica has sold nine novels (two adult novels to St. Martin's Press and seven young adult novels to Farrar, Straus, Giroux.) THE FIDELITY FILES, her debut, released in stores (in real binding) in June of 2008 and the the follow-up, LOVE UNDER COVER in November 2009. THE KARMA CLUB, Jessica's first young adult novel released in April of 2010 and her second YA release, MY LIFE UNDECIDED hit bookstores in June 2011.

52 REASONS TO HATE MY FATHER (which was recently optioned for film) will be out in Summer 2012 and UNREMEMBERED, (also optioned for film), the first book in a new teen sci-fi series, will be released in early 2013.

Jessica's books are published and translated in over twelve foreign countries including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil, China, Portugal, Israel, and Taiwan.

Jessica now works full time as a writer and producer. She currently splits her time between Los Angeles and Colorado.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review From Books & Wine, June 26, 2010

By 

April (OTEGO, NY, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Karma Club (Hardcover)

When you mess with karma, karma will mess with you. The Karma Club by Jessica Brody explores the eastern philosophy of karma in a contemporary setting. Madison Kasparkova has been fairly lucky. She's got good friends and an almost-perfect boyfriend. Things are definitely going her way, until one day her boyfriend burns her by cheating on her with the most popular girl in school. Clearly, every school has a mean girl, and this boyfriend stealer is that girl. It seems as though karma is not intervening, so Maddy and her friends take karma into their own hands.

What results is pranks! Pranks galore! I have this to say about the pranks, plz moar pranks! I loved it. I thought the pranks were both funny AND appropriate. Each person they pranked got what they deserved. Hell seriously hath no fury like a woman scorned. It's petty of me, but I love it when bad people get what is coming to them.

"My point is: Guys have been screwing us over our entire lives. And we keep telling ourselves that they'll get what they deserve. That Karma will take its course. Because it makes us feel better long enough for us to shack up with a new and supposedlyu better loser who will do the same thing to us. Well, screw that. It's time to make Karma work for us." - pg. 68

To delve a bit below the surface, one thing I enjoyed about The Karma Club was how well it captures emotions. You ever get your heart broken? Brody puts the wrench in heartwrenching.To be honest, I was reluctant to continue, because I was bummed over the heartbreak scene, but I could not put this book down. I am very glad I kept reading, because turns out, I really enjoyed myself. Although I did not experience this in high school, I am betting many high schoolers can relate to this:

"I mean, how sad is it that I needed a freaking Facebook profile to tell me that my boyfriend was no longer my boyfriend? As if Facebook is the official record keeper of relationships and you have to confirm all breakups and hookups with this sacred online registrar before you can consider them certified and approved." pg. 141

Besides emotions, there are friendships! FRIENDSHIPS! Girls who help each other out without an underlying backstabber reasons. I like that girls can be friends without being catty to each other. PLZ MOAR OF THIS.

There's a great message in The Karma Club, but it is cloaked in fun and not seriousness, thank goodness. Honestly, I read this book in about two and half hours, that is how great it was. I read this and set it down with a smile and proceeded to tweet about how much I enjoyed it. The Karma Club is absolutely a book I recommend.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cute story, but not the most sympathetic characters., July 9, 2010

By 

Tiger Holland (North Alabama) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Karma Club (Hardcover)

Madison Kasparkova, has a textbook-perfect boyfriend, Mason, and two wonderful best friends, Angie and Jade, but what Maddy really wants out of life is hardcore popularity. To that end, she sends her boyfriend's photo and mini-bio to a teen magazine so that he'll be featured and everyone will envy her when they read the article about him, thus catapulting her to new social heights. Her plan backfires, because after the article runs, Mason dumps her for the queen bee of their high school. Maddy decides that because he hurt her, she needs to pay him back in kind. Angie and Jade are more than willing to help her form a Karma Club to avenge herself on Mason, because it means that they'll get to dole out some tail-kicking karma to their own awful ex-boyfriends.

I don't really like the premise. The girls complain about how horrible it is that bad people don't get paid back for their bad deeds, but what they really mean is that anyone who has been mean to the three of them shouldn't go unpunished. When forming the club, Maddy stipulates, "No one can know that we are in any way responsible for what is about to happen. Everything has to be completely and utterly anonymous. Untraceable. Otherwise, it wouldn't be Karma. It would just be three bitter girls trying to get back at a bunch of their ex-boyfriends and the girl who stole one of them, which isn't the point at all" (pg 69). It sounds to me like it's exactly the point, otherwise the girls wouldn't be trying to forcibly induce karmic balance for only the people who've personally wounded them. I think I would have enjoyed the story more if Maddy and her friends had been more honest about their motivations--I could really get into a book called the Bitter Revenge Club.

Maddy's not an awful person, but I couldn't connect to her because it seemed that pre-breakup, all she wanted was popularity, and post-breakup all she wanted was for Mason to be miserable. She's a second-semester senior, and her goals make her feel like a much younger teen. The character I liked best was Spencer, the most popular boy in school, who takes an interest in Maddy and turns out to be less shallow than he originally appears.

Of course, by the end the girls all learn a big lesson about the dangers of seeking revenge, so that's an upside. The Karma Club isn't a bad book at all--it just didn't work for me.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What comes around goes around! Terrific novel!, October 23, 2011

By 

Milw. Writer (Milwaukee, WI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Karma Club (Hardcover)

Jessica Brody's first YA novel, The Karma Club, is absolutely terrific. She wove a tale about Mason Brooks, a girl who is cruelly dumped by her boyfriend of two years. Her two best friends also have been dumped by their heartless boyfriends. When Mason learns about the power of karma--what comes around goes around-- she realizes that the girls need to take action and rebalance the universe by getting revenge on their boyfriends. The Karma Club is formed and the girls dish out some pretty harsh punishment. But karma isn't meant to be messed with and events ricochet back in unforeseen ways leaving Mason desperate to rebalance life once again. There's a powerful lesson here - to take control of your life by doing acts of kindness. In the end, kindness is much sweeter than revenge and causing others pain in order to deal with your own pain isn't payback at all, even if the person deserves it.
The Karma Club really made me think about the numerous social situations YA face every day - bullying, backstabbing, cheating etc. It's incredibly tempting to retaliate. But I can't think of one instance where retaliation had positive results. YA need to seek support and assistance. Not retaliating doesn't mean not taking action. The Karma Club shows the value of navigating through the difficulties often faced in high school by finding positive means to channel ones' energy.
I highly recommend The Karma Club and Jessica Brody's second YA novel My Life Undecided!