Review: Boys, Girls, and Other Hazardous Materials by Rosalind Wiseman

Author: Rosalind Wiseman
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Here's the synopsis:

"Looking for a new beginning after a terrible mean girl past, Charlie Healey realizes there's no escaping high school drama...
Charlie Healey thinks Harmony Falls is the beginning of a whole new life. Middle school was brutal. But high school is Charlie's big chance to start over and stay out of drama, except that on her first day she runs into Will, her ex-best friend, who had moved away. Now a varsity athlete and hotter than Charlie remembered, Will hangs with the crowd running the school. But Charlie doesn't understand their power until an innocent delivery guy falls victim to a near-deadly hazing prank.
Torn between doing what's right and her secret feelings for Will, Charlie must decide whether to turn in her very best friend or live with the guilt of knowing what he did.
Rosalind Wiseman's first novel for young adults is a fresh, funny, and juicy read about friendship, betrayal, and how far some will go to be accepted."

That was really good! I was expecting something average. Like "OK I just read that whatever," and then just walk away from it, but I really liked this book. The first few pages were not so well written, but gradually it became less amateur and a lot more fun to read. I loved some of the points that this author hit about high school and friendships.

Charlie had two friends in middle school that pushed her around and got her into trouble and then blamed her for everything. She was being bullied by her own friends. This does happen a lot. I know quite a few people who have gone through this. I also went through this. Eventually Charlie did see that her friends were taking advantage of her and she took a chance and moved to a different high school to start anew. There she meets her old next door neighbor who used to be her best friend until he moved away. She also meets a friend from her old school who she ended up bullying with her two friends. Eventually, she and her old friend forget the past, create a truce and become friends. Wiseman does point out that bullying can be serious.

Another topic that Wiseman points out is hazing. In school, many freshman boys would try out for Varsity Lacrosse. For making the team the juniors and seniors would make them do things that were unpleasant and dangerous. Examples: running people over, drinking so much alcohol that some may pass out etc. Is being good enough to make varsity in your freshman year a crime? You should be getting congrats not being put through abusive hazing. Wiseman points out that some of the freshman boys were so desperate to be on the team that they would put up with this abusive behavior. Even if it meant hurting strangers in the process. Is being on a team really that important.

In my opinion, the most important point given in this book would be doing the right thing. Even if it means hurting someone you care about. Charlie, the main character, had to go through some times where she disagreed with what her friends were doing and she had to make the decision of choosing to turn them in or ignoring the bad things that her friends were doing. In some cases, when Charlie made the right decision by turning that person in they would get mad and ignore her, which hurt her, but in some cases they would realize that she did the right thing and they would be fine with it.

I think that this book is a really good read. I loved Will! Can I have him? Like seriously? Then again, I thought that Trevor was a total tool and an asshat. GET A LIFE TREVOR AND GET SOME GUTS! I loved Nidhi she was such a nice person and she cared for everyone. Sydney was...I just loved her. She reminded me of..well...me. She had the same obsessive behavior when making the float for homecoming and I would have gone off at Trevor just like she did.