Stalker Girl by Rosemary Graham

Summary/Image from Author's Website:

She wasn’t always like this.

Carly Finnegan has a life. Not a perfect life, but a life. She has friends, a cute little sister, a passion for archaeology. But then Brian, her first love, breaks up with her, and Carly is crushed. When she discovers he’s seeing someone new—Taylor Deen—she’s devastated. Yet also curious. What does Taylor have that she doesn’t?

A lot, according to the Internet. Taylor comes from well-known family and lives in a big Greenwich Village brownstone. She has a talent for photography and the prizes to prove it. She sounds perfect. But is she? Carly sets out to see for herself. One glimpse is all she wants. But one glimpse isn’t enough. Before long, Carly’s risking everything to get closer to Taylor, the seemingly perfect girl with the seemingly perfect life.

How do you know when you’ve crossed the line between interest and obsession? And, once you’ve crossed it, can you ever go back?

Review:

I've been wanting to read Stalker Girl for a while now. Since the premise sounded interesting and intense, I've read Rosemary Graham's previous and fabulous novel Thou Shalt Not Dump the Skater Dude a couple of years ago, and after seeing the book trailer for this, I was even more excited. So the minute this landed in my hands, I dived right in, eager to find out what my final verdict on this story would be.

Thankfully, Stalker Girl provided mostly everything I hoped it would be. What's that, per say? Well, a unique, interesting, and provocative look into what happens when one girl goes too far when it comes to her and her former boyfriend's girlfriend.

When Stalker Girl opens up, you get hurled into the day when Carly first makes the mistake of stalking Taylor, Carly's ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend, leaving Carly to come off as character I thought was a complete nut-job. And in some ways she was. She went way too far as you'll see if you read this book than most normal girl's would go if they were in the same situation. Though, you also got to see a different side of Carly in part two when Rosemary shows the ups and downs of Carly and Brian's relationship. The side that showed Carly in a new light where she were her actions became, to some extent, explainable. Since she was a girl who was facing a lot, and because of that she just wanted to be loved and wanted; leaving that to be were Brain fit in. He was meant to be her hero, I guess you would say, but it turned out he was far from being able to filling the part of Carly that was missing.

This all left me to somewhat understand Carly by the end, but I was still far from liking her. Though, in my opinion, I don't think she was meant to be liked; instead I think she was meant to be an example of what girls shouldn't do when it comes to comes to break-ups, how instead of taking Carly's confusing and forbidden road, should call a friend and rant, and, most importantly, move on, even if it does hurt like heck.

Moving on, the execution of the premise was pretty great; something that nearly always had my full attention. I really liked seeing the many sides of Carly through the three parts, as well as the epilogue Rosemary provided that gave you hope for Carly and her family/friends. Also I was often on the edge of my seat eager to find out more as new parts of the story were reveled through the third person narration.

Graham's writing was a high point too. Since it flowed perfectly and showed true talent, one that I'll be looking to read to more by.

In all Stalker Girl is a book I highly suggest because it gives you not only a look into a topic that there isn't much of in YA, but it shows teen girls (and even guys) what not to do when it comes to you, your exs, and their new relationships.
 
Grade: B+

Stalker Girl will be released August 5, 2010. Dying to read it? Well, head over to Rosemary's site, where you can find not only the first chapter, but the book trailer.

Souce: Around The World  Tours