No Plain Jane: Good Girls to the Rescue

Jane Jarvis is kind of … prickly. She’s small and short, whip-smart and cranky about the slow-boat life she leads at St. Teresa’s Preparatory School for Girls in Providence, RI. Because she’s got that Senior-itis bug (and she’s recovering from a broken heart), Jane’s gotten a reputation with her teachers for being kind of …oppositional (That “crypto-fascist”comment to one of the Fathers who teaches religion? Um… maybe a mistake?). But she’s got a soft spot for her best friend, Allison Concord, who is a crazy, funny person who sometimes freaks out a bit and comes on too strong. Jane would do anything to protect Ally, and she does, even flagrantly breaking a silly school rule to get people to stop staring at Ally the day she throws up all over a freshman girl. Jane is always in Ally’s corner, until one day it seems that Ally doesn’t need her. She’s got everything — good posture, good hair, good clothes and a new friend in her “Little;” the freshman who has chosen her to be her Big — her Senior buddy. Why does she need prickly, cranky Jane – who didn’t even score her own Little — anymore?

Well… it’s because she’s sold her soul. To this girl at school… who is… um… an agent of evil. Her Little, Lanalee? Is kind of … er, the devil.
Ally needs Jane’s help like never before.

With stalking freshman boys from St. Sebastian’s, freak hailstorms, creaky, cranky nuns, completely clueless priests and self-igniting history books Devilish is way creepier that I expected, but hilarious as well in that familiar, well-crafted, snarky Maureen Johnson style. A quick read – but you’ll want to leave the lights on!