Blog Tour: Get Even by @GretchenMcNeil

Get Even by Gretchen McNeil

(Don't Get Mad #1)

Release Date: September 16, 2014

Publisher: Balzer & Bray; 320 pages

Rating: 

The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars in Gretchen McNeil’s witty and suspenseful novel about four disparate girls who join forces to take revenge on high school bullies and create dangerous enemies for themselves in the process.

Bree, Olivia, Kitty, and Margot have nothing in common—at least that’s what they’d like the students and administrators of their elite private school to think. The girls have different goals, different friends, and different lives, but they share one very big secret: They’re all members of Don’t Get Mad, a secret society that anonymously takes revenge on the school’s bullies, mean girls, and tyrannical teachers.

When their latest target ends up dead with a blood-soaked “DGM” card in his hands, the girls realize that they’re not as anonymous as they thought—and that someone now wants revenge on them. Soon the clues are piling up, the police are closing in . . . and everyone has something to lose.

I am pretty sure that everyone either has used or heard the phrase, "Don't get mad, get even" at least once in their lives.  So of course that catchy phrase immediately drew me to this book.  Plus the fact that it's written by one of my favorite young adult authors, Gretchen McNeil.  I made Get Even a priority on my BEA book list earlier this year.  And when we were asked to participate in the blog tour, I pretty much thought, how fast can we sign up?  Luckily for me Get Even lived up to my expectations and was a fantastic read.

The premise of a Get Even centers are four high school girls in a secret club.  Now what makes this different than most high school girl cliques or groups is that these girls (Kitty, Bree, Olivia, and Margot) are not friends.  Freshman year in high school they joined together for a mission.  A mission against bullying.  But when a classmate dies, and all signs point to their group DGM (Don't Get Mad) chaos ensues.  As someone who was bullied as a child, this subject is near to my heart.  If there was someone to stand up for me while I was picked on, it definitely would have made growing up a little easier.

As I mentioned before these girls are not friends, they don't even belong in the same social circles. First there is Olivia, popular girl who wants to be an actress.  Then there is Kitty, vice president of her class.  Bree, the outspoken outcast, and lastly Margot the shy quiet one.  Kudos to Gretchen for being able to write about four girls who couldn't be more different from each other.

Admittedly when I started reading the book, I did get a little confused.  There are so many characters who are introduced right from the beginning.  I actually had to go back and re read the first 50 or so pages when I started the book because I was confusing characters.  But once I got everyone figured out it was smooth ride from there.  This series could easily be picked up as a tv series. That thought constantly ran through my head while reading.  And the fact that the four leads are not actually friends makes this stand out from other young adult contemporary books.  When things start to go down, the girls actually start to suspect one another.

Get Even is a murder mystery.  Let me tell you, this is how you write a murder mystery.  There are many many red herrings that leave readers guessing.  And that ending!  It'll make you immediately want it's sequel Get Dirty!

Thank you HarperTeen/Balzer and Bray for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you Me, My Shelf and I for allowing me to be on this blog tour!  Click here for the list of the tour stops for the Get Even blog tour!

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16005219-get-even?from_search=true

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/get-even-gretchen-mcneil/1117992158?ean=9780062260857

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Get-Even-Dont-Mad/dp/0062260855/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408905794&sr=8-1&keywords=get+even

About Gretchen

Author of YA horror novels POSSESS, TEN, and 3:59, as well as the new mystery/suspense series Don't Get Mad, beginning in 2014 with GET EVEN and continuing in 2015 with GET DIRTY, all with Balzer + Bray for HarperCollins. Gretchen also contributed an essay to the Dear Teen Me anthology from Zest Books.

Gretchen is a former coloratura soprano, the voice of Mary on G4's Code Monkeys and she sings with the LA-based circus troupe Cirque Berzerk. Gretchen blogs with The Enchanted Inkpot and was a founding member of the vlog group the YARebels. She is repped by Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GretchenMcNeil

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gretchen-McNeil/195705662028

Website: http://www.gretchenmcneil.com/

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