In Ann Valett’s young adult novel, Clique Bait, Chloe Whittaker wants nothing more than to avenge her friend Monica who suffered a cruel fate when she got involved with the most popular kids at their high school. Chloe wants to get revenge and she comes up with a scheme to join the popular kids’ rank.
At Chloe’s high school, which is filled with rich kids with famous and powerful parents, there are five levels at the school. You don’t want to be at level five, which is filled with the school’s freshman and social pariahs. It’s level one where the students aspire to be, and it’s a very exclusive clique.
But Chloe figures out how to infiltrate the Level Ones by blackmailing one of its members, William Bishop, into dating her. How does she do it? She tells William, or Will as he goes by, that she knows that his father, the mayor, is up to know good. If he doesn’t date her, Chloe will make his father’s nefarious actions public.
Wanting to protect his father, Will goes along. Chloe and Will pretend to be a true blue couple, and soon Chloe is hanging out with the most popular kids at the school. The Level Ones include Zack, the stereotypical dumb jock, Lola, the Queen Bee who must be obeyed, Sophie, the one who makes sure everyone is following the rules, Sophie’s twin Francis who has a secret, and Maddy, who is a bit of an airhead. They begrudgingly accept Chloe and soon she is caught up in their whirlwind of parties, drinking, designer fashion, and backstabbing gossip and behavior. And like any young adult novel, Chloe starts to have feelings for Will even though he’s supposed to be the enemy. And Will starts to have feelings for Chloe even though it wasn’t long ago that she was not anywhere near his level of popularity and status.
Now that she’s hanging out with the Level Ones, Chloe gets to see that not all that glitters is gold. There is romantic entanglements worthy of a soap opera, one girl is struggling with alcohol addiction, and one boy is deeply in the closet. And where are the parents of these teenagers? Other than Chloe’s mom, most of them seem to be too self-involved and caught up in their own shenanigans to give a crap about their own offspring. And Chloe is certain her father is cheating on her mother.
Chloe goes through several transformations to fit into the Level Ones. She completely changes her look, switching jeans and t-shirts for designer frocks and high heels. She attends parties and drinks a lot. She hangs out at the mall when she used to be satisfied with reading a good book. She hates the Level Ones (despite getting the feels for Will) and goes to great lengths to avenge Monica. And these lengths goes into territory Chloe probably would have eschewed ages ago-blackmailing, spreading gossip, ignoring her school work, breaking into a person’s house, and outing someone’s homosexuality.
Though Clique Bait was an entertaining read, I could help but wonder why Chloe was so hellbent on getting revenge for her friend Monica. Yes, Monica dealt with a horrible fate at the hands of the Level Ones, but she also abandoned Chloe once she became popular. Why would Chloe be so hung up on Monica that she would write letters to her that she never sent?
Well, Chloe is a teenager and in high school. When you are that age friendship, popularity, and social caste are of utmost importance. Though I was often think Chloe and the Level Ones were beyond obnoxious (other than Maddy, though despite being a bit dim, seemed very sweet), I still enjoyed reading Clique Bait and I think it would be enjoyed by younger readers.
thebookselfblog 