Faking 19

by Alyson Noel

Book Overview

On the surface, seventeen-year-old Alex has it made. She's beautiful and smart, plus she's best friends with M, the absolute most popular girl in school. Feeling bored with their fancy Orange County... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312336330
• ISBN13: 9780312336332
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 and higher

Customer Reviews

Review by Julia

Faking 19 isn't just a shallow book about some messed up teenagers life. This book really goes to and captures real life experiences that happen to teens. Alyson Noel really knew what being a teen is about and how it works and what goes on with us between friends and ones own head. Alex and M have great lives and our great friends. But for real? Alex has the life any teen would want. A popular best friend, she has skills that lead her to straight A's and she's great looking too. But as High School progresses Alex finds herself in a deep hole she dug herself into. Now she's failing almost all of her classes and skips them just as often as anyone's would normally go to them. She could care less about her future until she gets a severe reality check. She won't be able to get into college. If you rule out her not being able to pay for it. Since her parents split up her father doesn't want to pay for college, and a scholarship is out of the question, regarding her grades. After she has an intense meeting with her Mom and the Guidance Counselor, she knows she needs to pull up her grades, and fast. But she skips and takes a trip to LA, where her and her popular, rich and beautiful best friend M, takes her. There they meet their future, Connor for Alex, and Trevor for M. They're hot older guys, around 23, while these "innocent" girls are only 17. But of course,17 is way too young. So why not be, say, 19. Connor and Alex get into an intense relationship, and quickly, in the heat of the moment, start to have sex. At the last second she screams to tell him she's not ready. Alex just hasn't known this guy long enough. This wasn't special enough. Her FIRST time had to be great right I mean yeah, this guy was hot, gorgeous, rich and powerful. But did he love her? Did he even know her? But maybe he really wants to get to know her, maybe it can work. As time progresses the girls create meaningful relationships with these men. But Trevor gets M into something neither Alex nor M expected. She starts smoking pot, doing ecstasy and coke. M's mom finds her pot in a shoe and gets mad. But M goes and blames it on Alex, in fear or getting in trouble. Yet in reality, M's mom could care less if it was hers. She has her own problems. Her husband is having an affair and she can't let herself leave him. She loves her materialistic life, and doesn't want to sacrifice it. And to make things worse for M, she finds her Dad out? with his new girlfriend, and uses it against him to be able to spend even more money. But Alex doesn't have problems like her. She finally haves sex with Connor, and it's amazing. So they do it again another day, even though Alex still needs to bring her grades up. And in the morning she tells Connor she's 17. He flips out. Their relationship is ILLEGAL! So there goes their relationship. Down the drain, they're over. Now Alex really decides to focus. She gets down to work and brings her grades up a lot. She even wins a scholarship. She starts doing

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

Alyson Noël took me for a joyride in FAKING 19 into the oh-so-fabulous, wild party life of two beautiful high school seniors in SoCal. At first glance, Alex may seem like she has it all. She's pretty, smart, and her best friend is the most popular girl at school, M. But the truth is, Alex has some pretty hefty family problems and she's undergoing a major identity crisis. Oh, and on top of all that, she's failing all of her classes and might not graduate from high school, never mind college. Alex wasn't always this way. Freshman and sophomore years, she was on top of her game, a straight-A honors student. Those were her glory years. Now, she'd much rather hit the L.A. club scene with M every night instead of worrying about something trivial like her grades. It doesn't matter anyway; her dad won't pay for her to go to college, so what's the point? One day, when Alex and M are out on the town, they meet a couple of cute, older British guys. Connor and Trevor are attractive and charming, and the girls immediately fall for them. Connor owns a record label and is filthy rich. Alex thinks that he just might be her ticket out of her dull life, and then she won't even need that college education her counselor so desperately wants her to achieve. But when everything doesn't go exactly as Alex fantasizes, she realizes that the only person she can count on is herself. Ultimately, Alex discovers that there's more to life than who's wearing the prettiest dress or who snags the hottest guy. Even though this book is about gorgeous teenage girls going clubbing in L.A., Alyson Noël still manages to create characters that I can identify with. Underneath the glamorous exterior, Alex is just another girl struggling to get through her high school years. Along the way, she learns an invaluable rule of life: Success is a gift that you give to yourself. Reviewed by: Amber Gibson

Excellent Teen Chick Lit Read

Alex, a 17 year-old AP student, has lately gone from a promising young student into failing her classes and hanging out in LA with her friend M, who happens to be the most popular girl in school. The girls wind up pretending they are 19 and snagging older boyfriends. But how long can that last? Before long, Alex is in trouble with her mother and guidance counselor. M meanwhile comes from a rich family that doesn't care what she does. Soon enough, Alex's new boyfriend finds out her true age, and things come crashing down. Alex realizes she must get over her resentment for her wayward father (who refuses to pay for her college tuition), and make an effort in school of she might not graduate with her class. "Faking 19" was a very engaging and fast-paced read. The author does a great job of getting the reader into Alex's head and make them feel her emotions. The story is well-written, capturing the girls' teen angst perfectly. Overall a great book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes the Gossip Girl series and other teen books.

Faking 19

I read an excellent book called Faking 19 by Alyson Noel. The main characters are Alex and Madison, but everyone calls her "M". "M" is one of the most popular girls in the school, she is pretty, she is on the cheerleading squad, she is rich and she gets good grades. Alex on the other hand, she is not rich, she doesn't get good grades, she isn't involved in any school activities, but she is pretty. Alex and "M" are very adventurous. Almost every weekend they go to LA and go into clubs. One night they went into a club, Alex met a guy named Connor. Alex "M" and Connor go to an art gallery where "M" meets one of Connors friends, Trevor. All four of them start talking and Trevor asks everyone if they want to go to his house and have a party since his parents weren't home. Alex and "M" didn't know what to do so they just went. When they got there Alex and Connor thought that the party was boring so they went outside to take a walk. They started talking and Connor asked Alex how old she was. Alex was speechless so she asked Connor how old he was and he said 23. She was in shock because she was only 17 and she liked him. So she lied and said that she was 19. So now Alex and "M" are starting relationships based on lies. Later Alex finds out that pretty soon she will be alone because Connor is moving to London, "M' is going to Princeton ,and her work associates is moving to NYC. Alex decides that since everyone has something going for them, that she should try to get her grades up and maybe get into a college. After studying, paying attention, and getting to all of her classes early, she finds out from her guidance counselor bthat she can enter herself in a writting contest since she loves to write creative stories. If she wins this contest she will win a 2,000 dollar scholarship. I liked this book a lot. It was very dramatic and life like. Everything about this book seemed real, the characters, their actions, and the school. I think Faking 19 was a very interesting book.

I loved this book!

Ms. Noel really has an ear for dialogue, and a real sense of the joys and traumas of teens. I've recommended this to all of my friends. It's a fast, entertaining, and moving read.