THE EXILE OF GIGI LANE

Gigi Lane is just hours from ruling her all-girls school as the Head Hottie, the leader of its most exclusive clique, the Hot Spot. At the big dance before she’s finally given all the Hot Spot’s secrets, she’s outed as someone who rules by cruelty, something frowned upon by the Hot Spot. To avoid a life of total humiliation, Gigi strikes a deal: She’ll get a severance package from the Hot Spot if she can establish a place at the head of one of the other school cliques. She fails miserably at clearing the cliques, but navigating her way through the social network gives her a new perspective on school spirit. The story of the once-popular outcast gets a dark, sarcastic twist here. Gigi is a resourceful anti-heroine, one who refuses to stay down just because she’s lost her social standing. The peripheral characters are silly caricatures of high-school archetypes, serving mostly to build Gigi’s world. That quibble aside, the bleak humor and plot twists bring a new perspective to mean-girl stereotypes. (Fiction. YA)