The second in the Girl Stuff series came out today and I read most of it before work.
This one is definitely more about action and less about characterization.
Fonda decides she hates the idea of the 7th grade overnight to a farm, so thanks to her feminist prof mom, she ends up going to the principal to try to change the trip to a better location. The problem is that popular boy Henry and popular girl Ava (I can't remember which one of the trio) are also in the office. They quickly agree with Fonda and she's thrilled...until each of them proposes a location they'd prefer. So Fonda's entire storyline is her campaigning for petition signatures and then making promises she can't keep. Her suggestion ends up winning, but the kids are disappointed when she can't follow through with what she promised. She gets lucky though, because they're so wowed with the place she chose that they forget she ever fucked up. But I can't think of a moment that was a real character-building thing for her. You already got the sense from the first book that she was a take charge type with the downside of being a bit of a social climber. She cares way too much what people think.
Drew's plotline once again revolves around her crush on Will. Drew is a really interesting character. She doesn't give a fuck what people think of her unless she really cares about you, and she's a skateboarding female who wants to be a nurse. She's got the potential for such depth, yet she keeps getting stuck with the boy problems plot. Her problem this time is that Will suddenly has this female friend named Keelie. And Keelie is kind of an asshole. So poor Drew is left wondering if Will likes her or if Will likes Keelie. She spends most of the book dealing with this, though she also tries to help Fonda by tricking her and Henry into getting along. She thinks they'd be good friends. Henry sadly doesn't get much of a character. Hopefully Lisi works on that in future books. I'm hoping we see more growth from Drew now that she and Will are established as "in like" by the end of the book. I hated that such an individualistic character had an opening scene where she got intimidated by Keelie and then went ut a bought a hat exactly like hers. Drew needs to believe in her own awesomeness.
Ruthie's whole story is that she wants a smartphone like all her friends have. She talks her parents into it and they agree...if she pays for it. She ends up taking a tutoring job for a rich boy that lives nearby. He helped her once before by buying her entire stock of Girl Scout cookies. Eventually she learns that he's just as smart as she is and he faked needing a tutor because he wanted to hang out with her. They've got the set-up for being crushes in later books. This boy's name is Owen and he ends up with more character depth than Henry. I think I may actually like him best of the younger boys. (My favorite male character is Drew's older brother Doug, who helps her with boy problems.) Owen has so many devices that he just gives Ruthie a phone and even adds her onto his friends and family plan. She ends up addicted to it, forgetting to experience the class trip, until the phone is knocked into the ocean on the ferry to the island where they'll spend two days. She's very upset and then Owen sets up "finding" her phone washed up on the beach, but she instantly realizes it's his own. She refuses the phone, saying it wasn't good for her.
The book's high point for me was more development for Sage. She's Ruthie's friend from the gifted program and she's a total intellectual snob, though she's getting better at being nicer. She's blunt, no-nonsense, ruthless and somewhat cold. She agrees to help Fonda and throws herself into the project, though her methods aren't the most honest. What's best about her is that we learn her mother was a famous musician who died young in a car accident when Sage was only two. Not that that's a great incident of course, but it gives Sage's character a lot of depth. Perhaps even more than the main trio has. I loved the whole scene where she tells Fonda and Drew this.
I enjoyed the book a lot, though I think it was weaker than the first one. I'm still definitely looking forward to the third though!
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