Reviewed by Heather

Please note that this is a review of BOTH Mackenzie Blue books!

I was excited to get these books in the mail from Harper Collins, because who doesn’t love getting books in the mail? But that is pretty much the last positive thing I have to say about the experience.

These books are, in a word, manufactured. Remember the created boy and girl bands of the 90’s like Spice Girls and ‘N Sync? This book is exactly like that. I am pretty sure a group of people sat in a boardroom, pretending to be much hipper than they actually are, with a list of buzzwords that polled well with the 8-13 demographic and created a book.

But, let’s start with the art. Michael Segawa’s illustrations are an annoying blend of Lucy Frank and Bratz. The illustrations, excuse me, poses sprinkled throughout come straight from a bad CW promo spot.
The book is a mind numbing mad lib of buzz words. The sprinkling throughout the book of green tips felt really insincere and calculated. It is also quite possible the author received an endorsement from T-Mobile for the constant use of the trademarked Sidekick.

The main character, Mackenzie Blue Carmichael lives a privileged life, goes to an exclusive private school and is adored by family and friends. Her drama exists around entering the teen sing competition, losing her diary, and dealing with her best friend moving to Paris. But don’t let my description fool you, it is not that deep. Mackenzie seems little bothered by any of this. In fact more effort went to creating text and IM bubbles between the characters than it did creating an actual story. The characters are caricatures of tweens and it is insulting to young girls and exhausting to read. There is no author voice, no message, and no fun in these overly slick, hyper-produced books. There is a lot of good stuff out there, don’t waste your time on this series!

Thank you to the publisher for sending us this series to review.

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