Confessions, by Kate Brian
Brian, Kate (2007). Confessions ("Private" series). NY: Simon and Schuster. 232 pages.
OK, I am officially a sucker. After I read the first three books in the "Private" series, I thought I'd had enough. Never mind that I still didn't know who had killed Thomas, the hot but unstable guy series heroine and narrator Reed hooked up with (and lost her virginity to--gasp!) in the first book. The genuine boringness of each installment I read, the lack of characterization (I mentioned in my initial review that I had a hard time keeping all of the mean girls straight), and the "all tease, no tickle" promises made by the books' back matter pretty much convinced me that this was a series in which I didn't need to invest myself. Then, I saw Confessions at the library and I thought, "Hmmm . . . Maybe I should at least find out who killed Thomas." What an idiot (and a masochist) I am!
So, anyway, the drama that drives the first four books in the series centers around the mysterious murder of one of the BMOCs at Reed's exclusive private school. A fish out of water--a scholarship student among richies--Reed somehow insinuates herself among the cream of the crop at her new school and gets invited to hang with the mean (but powerful) girls and live in their exclusive dorm. Reed hooks up with Thomas (the aforementioned BMOC), then he goes missing, then he's found murdered, then she hooks up with his best friend, then his best friend is accused of the murder! Drama! The whole time, the clique at the dorm are alternating playing mean girl tricks on Reed and gifting her with designer clothes, taking her to exclusive parties, and getting her drunk on expensive alcohol. What?
Finally, it starts to look like the Stockholm Syndrome Sisters are somehow behind Thomas's death. What's Reed to do? Those bitches are her ticket to the upper class! In a dramatic (not really) final scene, the real killer is revealed. But, because none of the characters have any depth or distinction, you have to be a real idiot to buy the guilty party's confession. At least now I know who did it. I can stop reading now. I don't want to spoil it here for anyone who might be a fan of the series, but if you want to know the guilty party, just drop me an email. You'll thank me for not having to suffer through book four in the "Private" series.