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Review by JJ: The Popular Project

Title: The Popular Project

Author: Her_Royal_Cuteness

Reviewer: Jumping_Jiminys

Cover: 2/5

I like the picture used and the colour of the title. However, the sentences above are unclear this is probably due to the quality or perhaps having it resized to fit wattpad guidelines, but it does mean that I was unable to make out some of the words. Also, the colour meant that the silhouette of the trees hid some letters I would suggest changing the colour to white.

Summary: 4/5

I've watched and seen similar movies like this one, but your summary indeed told us what we should expect from the book. I am hoping there's more to this story than just what the summary has revealed.

Spelling: 5/5

Vocabulary: 5/5

Grammar: 4/5

In chapter 5, you say "You make fashion want to want to set itself on fire." Remove the second "want to"

" I didn't own MANY gadgets..." << chapter 5

Sentence Structure + Paragraphing: 3/5

I noticed in chapter two, and further on, there was a lot of paragraph breaks after every sentence, and it made the reading difficult. More times than not, you could group three sentences to produce one paragraph instead, for example:

"Taylor! Get up! it's time for school." My mom's high pitched voice pierced through the fog of sleep. I ignored it thinking it was a dream. A few minutes later a huge pounding came upon my door, rattling me.

"Taylor! You had better be up by the time I get back here."

In chapter four, the flashback scene with Taylor in ballet should personally for me be in italics as to not confuse it with the present.

Description: 3/5

You did well on the characters despite there one or two occasions where I felt you did more info-dumping than weaving in the story.

However when it came to scenery I got little to none, I understand that some high schools look the same, but still there should be some descriptions that perhaps stick out from other schools: glass walls so you can see into classrooms, no ceiling in the common room so you can look down on other people from different floors.

All I know is the name of the school, the school mascot and is a massive school with the most diverse group of people you could ever think of.

That said you mentioned that only one of the cheerleaders was not blonde. Do I sense discrimination on the cheer squad?

Plot Development: 4/5

In the eight chapters that I read we find out at the end of chapter 5 what the plot will follow and it surprises me that the straw that finally broke Taylor's back was getting food spilt on her and not the viral video of her from last year.

Characterisation: 3/5

Taylor: Kind of your typical low socialite of the school but still manages to have friends despite her terrible outside features. She seems to be karma's pet project with everything that could go wrong, goes wrong.

The token boy of the group: Aesthetically pleasing, so it begs you to wonder why he hangs out with these guys. When it comes to looks, he could comfortably reside in a more popular group. 

I have now come to realise this boy is the epitome of a token as after chapter one we see him only once and he's off somewhere, only to see him in chapter five with the sole premise of pushing the plot along. Do I remember his name? Nope, does it matter? Probably not.

The two other friends whose names could change intermittently, and I wouldn't have the faintest notice of it.

The mean girls (excluding Lindsy): Two out of three must be blonde, must be on the cheer squad, must be dating their male counterparts (jocks or whatever popular sports team of the school) and must give off the impression that they already have had sex.

I would say though having one of them a neat freak was a refreshing touch I quite liked that trait.

Character Interactions/Relationships: 3/5

The relationship between the sisters is believable; I've never had such concerns with my siblings, but I hear that the problems Taylor faces are common.

Rebecca and Taylor's problems I've seen many many times before and for it to be original I would like to find out why they are no longer friends, to be honest, I can't personally see any situation which would warrant you to dump your closest and dearest to rebrand in high school. And more so suddenly turn on them.

Creativity + Originality: 2.5/5

I realised that this story is a lot like the premise of mean girls except Taylor isn't a new kid.

But the whole infiltrating the popular kids to destroy them but in process destroying yourself has actually been done before, and usually the time scale is reaching some social event more times than not it's a dance event that requires parents to fish out money for a dress that will be worn once, with no alcohol in sight and a potential sexual assault on the horizon.

The whole spill during lunch makes me wonder if anyone has any spacial awareness in highschool its cliche, and if the main character doesn't spill the food, the food gets spilt on them. Laughs erupt, embarrassment takes over, followed by a swift exit while tears stream down their face.

The scene where Taylor dumps trash in Rebecca's locker. I couldn't even suggest what she do instead because to me this petty squabbling is unheard of in the UK, at least in my school while I attended.

I did like that Taylor was becoming popular for investigative reasons; however, putting her findings on a public domain with her government name on that everyone at school knows she writes wouldn't that make her investigation harder? I mean no one will want her within a 10-mile radius if they knew they'd be on her blog.

Writing Quality: 4/5

Your writing was not basic but not unnecessarily complicated it fit the character's age and also the setting of the story.

OVERALL SCORE: 42.5/60