Ani has carefully curated a perfect life for herself. She’s an editor at a top magazine where her bosses adore her, she has a closet filled with all the top labels, and she has snagged herself a Kennedy-esque fiancé. She worked hard studying the lives she wanted to emulate and made it happen for herself, but it takes constant care to keep the persona going because Ani was originally TifAni FaNelli, a girl firmly anchored in the middle class. As TifAni, she desperately wanted to be popular in high school and her efforts to make that happen still haunt her, even once she has become the successful Ani. Her participation in a documentary revisiting her high school past may just be enough to shatter her veneer.
The desire to have it all is implanted in high school and never quite goes away. Women are venemous, but they take pains to hide their catty behavior behind fake smiles. In her debut novel, author Jessica Knoll works her way into the dark mind of a teenager and what happens when that need to be popular is never quelled.
4.5 out of 5 stars.
Peaches to Apples 