Folded Notes from High School

by Matt Boren

Hardcover, 2018

Status

Available

Publication

Razorbill (2018), 368 pages

Description

Romance. Humor (Fiction.) Young Adult Fiction. HTML:A status-obsessed senior unexpectedly falls for a freshman because of his Danny Zuko audition in their high school's production of Grease in this outrageously funny epistolary novel set in 1991. "Matt Boren brilliantly captures the voices of students way back in 1992 with humor and wit and a unique ability to shift from freshman to senior, boy to girl, cheerleader to theater geek. In this hilarious novel, Boren adeptly proves that the more things change, the more things stay the same." �??Kelly Ripa The folded notes collected for this book represent correspondence surrounding one Tara Maureen Murphy, senior at South High c. 1991-1992. It's 1991, and Tara Maureen Murphy is finally on top. A frightening cross between Regina George and Tracy Flick, Tara Maureen Murphy is any high school's worst nightmare, bringing single-minded ambition, narcissism, manipulation, and jealousy to new extremes in this outrageous, satirical twist on the coming-of-age novel. She's got a hot jock boyfriend in Christopher Patrick Caparelli, her best friend Stef Campbell by her side, and she's a SENIOR, poised to star as Sandy in South High's production of Grease. Clinching the role is just one teensy step in Tara's plot to get out of her hometown and become the Broadway starlet she was born to be. She's grasping distance from the finish line�??graduation and college are right around the corner�??but she has to remain vigilant. "This dumb town, as we know, can be a very tricky place." �??Tara Maureen Murphy It gets trickier with the arrival of freshman Matthew Bloom, whose dazzling audition for the role of Danny Zuko turns Tara's world upside down. Freshmen belong in the chorus, not the spotlight! But Tara's outrage is tinged with an unfamiliar emotion, at least to her: adoration. And what starts as a conniving ploy to "mentor" young Matt quickly turns into a romantic obsession that threatens to topple Tara's hard-won status at South High.... Cast of Narrators: Taylor Spreitler, as Tara Ramy Youssef, as Matt Ryan Newman, as Stef Selma Blair, as Stacey Katie Lowes, as Pammy Rebecca Budig, as Tricia Meredith Salenger, as Kath Vicki Davis, as Deena Adam Shapiro, as Pete Matt Boren, as Christopher Christina Applegate, as the N… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Salsabrarian
Narrated by Taylor Spreitler, Ramy Youssef and Ryan Newman and others. Exchanged letters tell the story of Tara, a senior in high school, and her narcissistic ambitions to achieve the best of everything while she's on top: the hot jock boyfriend, the lead in the school musical, acceptance to NYU,
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someday a star on Broadway. But the popular girl ends up in a downward spiral thanks in part to freshman Matt who upends all her expectations about achieving status. Taylor Spreitler does particularly well portraying Tara, the popular girl everyone loves to hate, and it is amusing to hear Tara trying to put a nonchalant face on her implosions. After awhile though, I felt this book ran a bit long and *I* was getting tired of Tara!
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LibraryThing member LVStrongPuff
This was a fun book. It left me on a cliff hanger and I want to know more.
LibraryThing member hootowl1978
I remember writing notes like this in middle school nit high school.... if we were to gossip or anything those were done face to face.... I kept reading because I wanted to know how it ended. Didn’t get an ending to the story. That was disappointing.
LibraryThing member Jfranklin592262
This book...haha! Cute! This book ended up being so much more than meets the eye for me on a personal level. I picked this up at our local Dollar tree, where I have been finding a number of good books lately..very surprisingly.

I thought it looked and sounded cute, so I got it for my kids....ok,
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and me, because I do really enjoy YA and Youth readers. Going in, I didn't realize the format consist of only correspondence between the characters in note form.....ah, the folded notes from our school days, it really brought back memories and ended up being super cute. I loved the unique approach this author chose here.

The book starts in September 1991....a very important date for me, its the month and year my Hubby and I started dating. Crazy enough, my hubby was a Senior and I was a Freshman, I was also a cheerleader. Yep, everyone thought we wouldn't last due to the age difference....alas, here we are 30+ yrs and 5 kiddos later.

The parallels to my personal life, and sense of deja vu they conjured, only added to my enjoyment of this book. It was a blast from the past! I was thrilled with the mentions of several songs and movies that were popular at the time. Very nostalgic.

My only criticism would be the maturity level of the characters, whom are mostly Seniors in high-school, seemed really off to me. They were very juvenile for this age group. This may be because it was written in recent years as a throw back to the time period, so the maturity level and relationship dynamics are more a representation of this age group now. I definitely remember us being much more mature than the teens of today.

Overall, this was an enjoyable and nostalgic read that I have now passed to the 3 of my 5 kiddos that are readers.....there's still hope for my youngest, she's only 4 Lol! My sons a lost cause, he hates anything with words Lol! The readers in my home are my 21, 19 and 10 yr old daughters, all of which I believe will enjoy this :)
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Rating

½ (11 ratings; 2.9)
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