The novel Rated by Melissa Grey is a newer novel published September 3, 2019. It was immediately recommended to me by the school librarian once it arrived, so I decided to give it a try. Usually, the novels that I read are older and don't contain modern references, so it was pleasantly strange to see these in Rated.
As always, the rest of the blog contains SPOILERS!! However, this will be the first blog post where my review is not fully positive. I consider myself an optimist when it comes to novels, so very rarely do I dislike a book or even find something that I don't like about it. I did enjoy this novel, but there were certain aspects that I disliked.
First, I did appreciate the character development and the deep background the Grey gives each character. There is no one character that stands out; each has a different personality and plot. Each character is also extraordinary in their own way, and Grey subtly makes that comment that there is several paths to success in life.
One of the reasons that this book is not my favorite is because it was almost too easy. As a reader, I hate when the main character struggles, and I can become very frustrated. However, this draws me in and makes me invested in what is happening. In "Rated", the plot resolved a little too quickly towards the end. It was almost like the author was going to have a second book but decided to just wrap it up in one. Along these lines, the relationships that were in the book never had any problems and worked out perfectly. While this is satisfying, it doesn't draw the reader in nearly as much. Also, Hana's eating disorder kind of just disappeared after someone told her to eat, which isn't very realistic.
Secondly, the ending was predictable. This is one thing that I can not handle because I like to be taken by surprise at the end. As the main characters approached the abandoned music building, I thought to myself, "it was probably the headmaster." Turns out, I was right (I'm rarely so disappointed for being right).
My last reason isn't necessarily a negative, depending on how you look at it. To me, Rated seemed to be very similar to the movie Now You See Me. Instead of four horsemen though, there are six high school students. The plot was very similar, and I made this connection when there was a grand reveal at the end, and they were admitted into a secret society. In Now You See Me, the grand reveal was the FBI agent who had been tracking them, and in Rated the grand reveal was the headmaster; in both, the "bad guy" turned out to be the good guy, and they were admitted into a secret society. The only major difference is the rating system that was present in Rated.
To read this book or find out more about it, visit Goodreads.