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A review by ladytiara
The Mall by Megan McCafferty
4.0
I was so excited when I heard that Megan McCafferty, author of the fantastic Jessica Darling series, was coming out with a new book. Then I got approved for the ARC from NetGalley during a really rough week, so I dropped my other current reads in favor of The Mall. It’s a great book, and it gave me a lot of laughs when I really needed them. I would have loved this book anyway, but it came to me at just the right time.
Cassie Worthy has a plan. After high school, she and her boyfriend Troy will spend the summer working together at ABC Cookies at the local mall food court. Then it’s off to college (Barnard and med school for her, Columbia and an MBA for him). But then she gets mono, and she emerges from a six-week quarantine to find that she’s lost both her summer job and her boyfriend. Now she has to figure out how to live without a plan.
The Mall is a perfect coming of age novel. Cassie is a great character, someone who thinks she has it all figured out, only to have it all blow up in her face. She’s forced to take chances, including an unexpected new job, reconnecting with her childhood best friend, investigating a mystery at the mall, and a flirtation with an annoyingly hot guy who works at Sam Goody. While the romance is very sweet, the book focuses much more on friendship and self-discovery.
The book takes place in 1991, so it’s basically the pinnacle of American Mall culture (and this mall is the social epicenter of the New Jersey town it's set in). There are lots of nods to the 90s. Cassie and her ex-boyfriend rate mall jobs on a 90210 scale. The best jobs are the Dylan McKays and the worst jobs are the Scott Sampsons. New Kids on the Block is the summer soundtrack, but the hot record store employee introduces Cassie to an up and coming new band named Nirvana. There’s so much nostalgia, and I loved it.
Many thanks to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the ARC.
Cassie Worthy has a plan. After high school, she and her boyfriend Troy will spend the summer working together at ABC Cookies at the local mall food court. Then it’s off to college (Barnard and med school for her, Columbia and an MBA for him). But then she gets mono, and she emerges from a six-week quarantine to find that she’s lost both her summer job and her boyfriend. Now she has to figure out how to live without a plan.
The Mall is a perfect coming of age novel. Cassie is a great character, someone who thinks she has it all figured out, only to have it all blow up in her face. She’s forced to take chances, including an unexpected new job, reconnecting with her childhood best friend, investigating a mystery at the mall, and a flirtation with an annoyingly hot guy who works at Sam Goody. While the romance is very sweet, the book focuses much more on friendship and self-discovery.
The book takes place in 1991, so it’s basically the pinnacle of American Mall culture (and this mall is the social epicenter of the New Jersey town it's set in). There are lots of nods to the 90s. Cassie and her ex-boyfriend rate mall jobs on a 90210 scale. The best jobs are the Dylan McKays and the worst jobs are the Scott Sampsons. New Kids on the Block is the summer soundtrack, but the hot record store employee introduces Cassie to an up and coming new band named Nirvana. There’s so much nostalgia, and I loved it.
Many thanks to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the ARC.