The Mall

The year is 1991. Scrunchies, mixtapes and 90210 are, like, totally fresh. Cassie Worthy is psyched to spend the summer after graduation working at the Parkway Center Mall. In six weeks, she and her boyfriend head off to college in NYC to fulfill The Plan: higher education and happily ever after.

But you know what they say about the best laid plans...

Set entirely in a classic “monument to consumerism,” the novel follows Cassie as she finds friendship, love, and ultimately herself, in the most unexpected of places.

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I will be honest, the main reason I picked this book to read next was the promise of 90s nostalgia.  I was not expecting a relatable coming of age story. I was not expecting compelling characters. I wasn’t expecting a quirky, extremely low stakes yet enjoyable mystery.  Happily, that is what I got.

The book blurb does not tell you what to expect, laying into the ninetiesness of it all (hence my primary expectation of a nostalgia fest).  The book starts with Cassie’s life falling apart in a very high school, not falling apart kind of way.  She missed the beginning of summer, training for her new job at America’s Best Cookie, and her prom. Her boyfriend, whom she had planned out their upcoming college future together with, dumps her.

The characters are the highlight of the book, which as a character-driven story, rather than plot-driven, is as it should be.  The characters all feel individual and unique, with motivations and wants outside of their traditional stereotypes. Even the stoner who works at the arcade feels like something beyond ‘the stoner,’ although he does not get fleshed out until very late in the book.  After the first few pages, I was worried the main character would wallow in teenage self-pity instead of having an actual personality. McCafferty does a good job pulling out of that and giving us something beyond teenage angst.  Cassie is compelling, believable, and has a solid arc throughout the story.  Her new best friend, her ex-boyfriend, the guy working at Sam Goodies, they are all believable characters.  No one acts out of character, they all feel like people who would exist, yet are they are mostly all interesting and engaging.  That, alone, is a small miracle in YA or coming of age type stories.

The mystery was a fun little surprise.  I loved how low stakes it is and yet how it still manages to lend urgency, pushing the plot forward.  They search the mall for stashed cabbage patch dolls in search of a treasure, following a bizarre set of clues.  It made for a fun summer adventure that takes a backseat, in the end, to the character arc but remains worth following.  Not something all mystery or thrillers manage to do right.

Plus, there is still great 90s nostalgia.

I did not expect much from this book going in, and now it is potentially the most enjoyable read I have had for months. It is possibly the best YA book I have read in several years.  It is a fun, low stress read that I would recommend to anyone, but especially those of us who grew up hanging out in the mall during high school.

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