Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood

Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

When Lauren Wood turns Helen Worthington in as the snitch for the senior prank, the last few weeks of Helen's 8th-grade year are torturous. When her parents announce that they are going to be moving from Michigan to New York, Helen couldn't be happier. She thought Lauren was her best friend, but when she confronts Lauren, she finds out that Lauren intends to make it to the top of the popularity ladder. And Helen has no interest in the journey.

So imagine Helen's horror when her parents announce that they are going on a year-long meditation retreat and Helen is going back to Michigan to live with her grandmother. Her parents convince her that karma will catch up with Lauren and can't imagine that anyone remembers Helen's outing in 8th grade.

Thankfully, her grandmother is cool and helps convince her parents to let her enroll under a different name - Claire Dantes. It's only a little lie, as Claire is her middle name and Dantes is her mom's maiden name. And as the new school year approaches, Helen creates an intricate plan to get her revenge on Lauren, whom she's determined to dethrone.

Helen's plan seems to go off without a hitch. Break up Lauren and her boyfriend, done. Cause dissension among her friends, done. It's when she comes to beating out Lauren in the school play and getting her kicked off the cheerleading squad that Helen's conscience starts to get in the way. Innocent people are becoming involved, and Helen doesn't feel as good about her revenge as she thought she would.

GETTING REVENGE ON LAUREN WOOD started out slowly. But Ms. Cook develops the story at just the right pace for the reader to decide if they are rooting for Helen or feel sorry for Lauren. It was refreshing to see the popular girl get her comeuppance without that "all's perfect in the end" wrap-up. But to be honest, it was the secondary characters that I found the most appealing with this story. Lauren's sidekicks, Bailey and Kyla, weren't just two-dimensional characters taking up space. Helen's friend, Brenda, also develops her own backbone as the story progresses. And Christopher sounds simply delicious.

I'd almost like to see a follow-up book with these characters - getting revenge has never been so much fun!

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Interesting

It kept me interested, however, the plot could have been more creative and less predictable.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Another Great Read from Eileen Cook

What teenager doesn't want to get revenge on someone who has wronged them? The game of popularity is more like a war, and when Lauren Wood throws her best friend Helen under a bus in order to rise to the top of the cheerleading pyramid, she gets exactly what she wants. And losing her lifelong friend is the cost.
But what about Helen? The other students aren't likely to believe the truth, so she's thrilled when her parents move her across the country. Three years later, she has to come back, but she's got a plan. And there's nothing more delicious than revenge. Or is there?
Once again, Eileen Cook amazes me with a realistic and funny storyline and characters with just the right mix of devious and heartfelt natures. I'll be reading it again and again!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Luv the book

Omg i luv this book it is an amazing book .It inspired me like if your thinking about reading it and your a teen or a tween go for it.Like i wish i was still reading it .I hope her other books are this good.

Fashion girl

Hey all of you guys that loved this book you guys are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo mean my sisters name is lauren

0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

OMGeee

This book is sooooo goood!!!I hate reading but after reading a few pages in this book i waaass soooo hooked!!!! Definetly 5 starzzz!!!!

OMG

OMG

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

AMAZINGGG and ADDICTING!!!!!

I absolutely luved this book!!!!! It was the BOM!!!!! I bought this book and waited to read it after i finished the other one and it was amazing that i finished it very quickly. Im not a big reader but this book is undescribable!!!!! I recomend it to everyone who likes drama!!!!! Its worth every penny and minute of reading it!!!!! 5 starz!!!!!

AMAZING

I loved this book. My friend reccomened it to me and i couldnt put it down. I was 12 when i read it the first time and i re- read it when i was 13 and it was fine. A must read for all teen girls!

This book is s good

It is appropriate for 113 year olds trust me i am 13 :)

What age group?

Ok i was curious if its appropriate for 10-13 year olds... cuz i can only buy books after my dad sees em and the cover isnt that friendly..... so is it??

Is rea ?. ?

OK so I wanted to know if this book is worth buying.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Queen Bee

This book was so awsome I want to read this book again! I LOBE THIS BOOK

loved it

this was a cute book. i just wishh i could do that to someone in particular but i think helen is a pretty cool chick, just misunderstood. the only thing i didnt like about this book was the ending, it just kinda cut off and didnt explain much. obviously helen and lauren had some problems with eachother but the ending didnt really elaborate on their broken friendship or fix it which was really annoying but oh well, i really liked this book. you should check it out

friggin awesome!

I loved it. I recomend it to teens :)

cool!

Good book, but kinda graphic?

Okay update of the Count of Monte Cristo

Helen's life was ruined in eighth grade when her best friend, Lauren Wood, turned on her. Now after a three-year abscence, Helen's back in town with a new name, a new look and a mission to destroy Lauren's carefully built-up palace of popularity.

I was pleased to find that Lauren Wood was loosely based on Alexandre Dumas' classic The Count of Monte Cristo, because literary roots are always a good thing for a book to tie into. Making the connection between these two books made me remember that revenge plots were not invented by the script-writers of Gossip Girl--revenge and obsession are longstanding themes in literature.

That said, in Lauren Wood, I think Helen's development is the focus, not Lauren's comeuppance. In The Count of Monte Cristo, I'm interested in poor Edmond Dantes and I'm rooting for him all the way, but I'm also dying to see evil Fernand Mondego get stomped. Lauren Wood just feels like your average not-nice whiny rich girl, and I was never really invested in seeing her get her just desserts. In fact, the humiliation that supposedly ruined Helen's life seemed fairly mild to me, and several characters point out that Helen's obsession with getting back at Lauren is kind of disproportionate retribution.

Now, the good things: Helen is likeable and capable of growth, her new nerdy friend Brenda is a sweetheart to read about, her new maybe-love-interest Christopher is a cool guy who has a deep knowledge of classic film (a man after my own heart), and her Grandma's sensible and fun.

It's a nice read, and a gentle sort of book even though it's entirely based on revenge.

Wonderful Read for Teens

Originally posted at: www.aurorareviews.blogspot.com ***** Has anybody you thought was your best friend ever done anything really awful to you? Have you ever been tempted to get even? I sure have.

Helen and Lauren did everything together. They created their own Nancy Drew Club and did their own sleuthing (not very successfully), they shared candy, went to the mall and hung out and were BFFs (Best Friends Forever). However, when it was time to move to high school, Lauren did something so bad that it caused everyone in school to hate Helen because they thought she'd done it.

Ms. Cook does an excellent job of reminding you what it's like in school and how badly you can be emotionally scarred by someone's words or actions. Children can be cruel, and this story demonstrates that. Helen is shocked and finds it hard to believe Lauren would use Helen as a stepping stone into high school and popularity.

Helen's family is non-traditional. Lauren's family sets goals for her. The girls' characters are defined by their families and friends, just like it is in real life.

After spending three years in New York, Helen returns to her hometown for her senior year, staying with her grandmother. She decides to reinvent herself and get revenge on Lauren.

It's fascinating to watch her begin her plan with only an outline and then see the pleasure she takes by seeing thing go wrong with Lauren. Then she begins to be conflicted with what she's doing and how it changes her basic personality - not for the good. She's been led to temptation and has started down the thorny path, will she continue to the end?

As you read about Helen's torment over the issue of revenge, you'll keep turning the pages and trying to decide how you, personally, would like the story to end.

This author's knowledge of young people, their emotions, and their interactions with other people their age creates a very authentic story with a storyline that covers all sides of the issue of revenge. I'd recommend this to any family with teenage children.

Underdog battles high school queen bee

GETTING REVENGE ON LAUREN WOOD, by Eileen Cook, was high school revenge at its worst (and best). With healthy doses of b*tchy-ness and secret identites, this book is the ultimate rule-book for female payback.

This book took girl-revenge to a whole other level. Lauren Wood, former best friend of Helen, made a complete mess of Helen's last few weeks of eighth grade, and Helen never forgot it. When Helen moved back to town, her detailed plan to take down all that Lauren cared about was in full swing. Helen, as Claire, targeted all the things that she thought Lauren couldn't live without, and took them out hard. Helen was such a great character. She was a little obsessed with Lauren, but I think middle school and high school years can really make or break someone, and Helen wanted her vengeance. And Lauren was the epitome of high school royalty. She was the most liked and feared girl, and a worthy opponent for Helen.

While reading, I had a flashback of the movie, Mean Girls, and the striking similarities both this book and the movie possessed. In both instances, a girl wanted revenge on a popular girl and chose to *take out* her prized objects. But along with the similarities, there were unique differences that made this book its own. For instance, Helen already knowing the high school popularity rules and playing them like a violin. I enjoyed the ride that Cook took me on in the quest for Helen to exact her revenge, and I liked the lessons that Helen learned in the process. The presence of karma was always in Helen's mind but most of the time she persuaded herself that she was performing a service to those affected by Lauren. Helen really learned through this process who she was and who she wanted to be, but to actually create that life for herself was quite difficult.

Each chapter furthered the suspense in the final act of how Helen was going to take down Lauren. I laughed and cringed while reading, hoping that Helen would make it through unscathed since her budding friendship with Brenda and relationship with Christopher was hanging in the balance. This was a fun and unforgiving book that did not hold back anything in the pursuit of creating "balance" against evil.

Revenge isn't always sweet

I started reading this book and I thought to myself, I don't think I am really going to like this book. I was reading it for a review so I kept at it and then I started to like it. It's not a great book by my standards but I thought it was a really good book.

Revenge books are tricky, I have a motto for these books. "Revenge only gets you dead" (Hamlet, Moby Dick are my top revenge books and the main character dies) In this case it almost makes Helen's life worse off than if she would have just let it go. The one thing with this book is that Helen learned a valueable lesson in the end and came out a little better than before.

I think I liked the secondary characters in this book a bit more than I did the main characters. Lauren's character was shallow which she is suppose to be, but she just irriated me. I just couldn't see how Bailey and Kylie stayed friends with her. Helen/Claire though she didn't want to admit it was turning into a type of Lauren and was a bit irritating at times. I mean I really wanted to reach into the book and smack her and tell her to 'snap out of it'.

I do think there is a great lesson to be learned for teenagers in this book. Don't let others dictate your life. If you want to get revenge on someone who hurt you, then be a better person than them. Live your life better with your head held high. It is only fun to the bullies when you let them defeat you.