Review : Invisible by Marni Bates

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : Invisible
Author : Marni Bates
Publication Date : August 1st 2013
Publisher : K-Teen
Goodreads - The Book Depository

Jane Smith has survived three years of high school without making a single enemy, all by keeping a low profile. Not even her three best friends, Kenzie, Corey and Isobel, can say the same. But with Corey dating the lead singer from ReadySet and Kenzie in a relationship too, being invisible tends to be lonely. But now she's written an article for her school newspaper that has accidentally snagged the attention of some celebrities. Turns out, people get really upset when their innermost secrets are splashed all over the front page. And new her well-ordered life is being blasted to hell, with results that are wildly unexpected.

Personal  Thoughts

When I read Marni Bates' Awkward last year, I fell in love with her characters. I had no idea that she had plans on writing companion novels to Awkward until I came across Invisible on NetGalley. I remember loving Awkward, so I knew I had to request a copy.

While Awkward told the story of Mackenzie, Invisible tells the story of Jane, Mack's best friend. After Mack became a YouTube star, Jane feels left out and no longer as close to her best friends as she was before. Because of that, she begins to feel insecure and lonely. All Jane wants is to have some attention on her and to stop being invisible. The opportunity comes in the form of a front-page article for her high school's paper, The Smithsonian. For that, Jane must write an epic story and she is accompanied by Scott, the cute but infuriating photographer. Although I felt like at times Jane overreacted, I did sympathize with her because I went through a similar phase while in school to. There were times when my friends would completely ignore me, make plans that did not involve me and to be honest, it hurt. I might not have acted the same way as Jane did, but I did feel very much the same emotions of despair and loneliness that she did. I enjoyed Jane as a main character. Although she was bitter at times, I loved her sarcastic and humorous voice throughout the story. At the beginning of the book, she was not very vocal about her feelings, but she learns to grow throughout the story and I appreciated her growth. Scott, the love interest in Invisible, was infuriating but at the same time completely loveable. I thought he made a great addition to this book and I liked how he helped Jane bring out her true feelings when it came to her friends into the open. I was also delightfully surprised by the role mean girl, Chelsea played in this book and Marni Bates has given me hope that she is not who she appears to be. I am looking forward to reading her story in Notable.

The blurb, in my opinion, is kind of misleading. Jane's article does not get published until the last quarter of the book and I don't feel like it was the main focus of the story, which is quite disappointing. The plot mostly focuses on the effect that Mack's popularity has on Jane and how she deals about this sudden change in her life. So, I did not feel like the publishing of Jane's article truly had much significance to the book. Regardless, Invisible was a highly entertaining book which provided some light fun. The romance was entirely too cute. Scott and Jane constantly bicker non-stop throughout the story and I personally thought it was a lot of fun to watch them. I loved how this instant-dislike they had for each other eventually grew into a liking for each other.

There isn't much more I can say about this book. Invisible is the perfect read for those of you looking for a short, sweet and cute story with likeable characters.

Rating
Cover : 3/5
Plot : 3/5
Characters : 4/5
Writing : 3/5

Thank you to NetGalley and K-Teen for an e-ARC of Invisible.