Book: My Awesome/Awful Popularity Plan (Justin Goldblatt book #1) by Seth Rudetsky
Cover Design by Nicole de las Heras
Edition: Paperback
Description:
Justin has two goals for sophomore year: to date Chuck, the hottest boy in school, and to become the king of Cool U, the table in the cafeteria where the "in" crowd sits.
Unfortunately, he has the wrong look (short, plump, Brillo-pad curls), he has the wrong interests (Broadway, chorus, violin), and he has the wrong friends (Spencer, into Eastern religions, and Mary Ann, who doesn't shave her armpits). And Chuck? Well, he's not gay; he's dating Becky, a girl in chorus with whom Justin is friendly.
But Justin is determined.
In detention one day (because he saw Chuck get it first), Justin comes up with a perfect plan: to allow Becky to continue dating Chuck, whom Becky's dad hates. They will pretend that Becky is dating Justin, whom Becky's dad loves. And when Becky and Justin go out on a fake date, Chuck will meet up with them for a real date with Becky. Chuck's bound to find Justin irresistible, right? What could go wrong?
Rating: 5 stars
Review:
My Awesome/Awful Popularity Plan is such a funny and interesting story as it follows 15 years old high school sophomore Justin Goldblatt, who is pretty much at the bottom of the social ladder. Justin is chubby, has very curly hair, has a love for theater and gets good grades which unfortunately these factors hinder his chances at being popular. Not to mention he is constantly being bullied or laughed at. His social standing is so low that even freshmen are more popular than him. Justin also has a secret that he's gay. Only his best friend Spencer Larsen knows his secret. Justin's tired of being a social pariah and his goals for this school year are to become popular and to date the guy of his dreams, Chuck Jansen, the most popular boy in school.
Those are pretty lofty goals but the popular girl in school (as well as Chuck’s ex-girlfriend) Becky Phillips just might give Justin the opportunity to achieve them. After Justin, Chuck and Becky wind up in detention, Justin nosily found out that Becky and Chuck were secretly still dating. The reason they "broke up" was due to Becky’s father Dr. Phillips. Her father didn't think Chuck was the right guy for Becky and he also felt like Chuck might derail his daughter’s chances of becoming a doctor.
When Becky’s father arrived to pick her up after school, it took some quick thinking of Justin telling Dr. Phillips he was dating Becky to keep Becky and Chuck’s secret from being discovered. Justin sort of knows Becky because they are in theater class together and she is one of the only popular kids who is nice to him as well as speaks to him. Which is why he made up a quick excuse (okay lied) for her. And it wouldn't hurt that Chuck might finally notice him for doing such a good deed.
Justin's lie worked so well that the next day Becky had talked him into pretending to be her boyfriend so that she could continue to secretly date Chuck. Justin might be considered a loser among his classmates but Becky’s father thinks he’s great and that’s mainly because he gets good grades in school.
Justin thinks this fake dating will be just what he needs to achieve his goals, however, his best friend Spencer doesn't think it's a good idea. "Dating" Becky was slightly increasing Justin's popularity and he was getting to know Chuck but the real question was, is he happy? And is chasing popularity really worth it? Especially once his friendship with Spencer became rocky, he started to realize how lonely he was. One good thing about this ordeal was that he was really becoming friends with Becky and that he was realizing (although slowly) that Chuck wasn't such a great guy.
I loved reading this, it was both funny and touching with a big focus on friendship and romance as Justin figures out what actually matters to him along with where his heart lies. This was a really good read and I'm glad I picked it for this month's Book Club pick.
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