ARC Review: The Lifeboat Clique - Kathy Parks

Title: The Lifeboat Clique
Author: Kathy Parks
Pub Date: March 1st, 2016
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Page Count: 336

Some people might say that Denver had a death wish. Why else would she have dared to sneak into a Malibu beach party where she’d be surrounded by enemies, namely including her ex-BFF Abigail?

Oh yeah. Croix. Denver never thought in a million years he’d ask her out, but who was she to question this miracle of fate? Well, that wasn’t the only surprise fate had in store.

During the party a tsunami hit the coast of California, wiping out everything in its path. Denver and a handful of others escaped death by holding onto the roof of the house and were swept out to sea. Of course, one of her fellow castaways was none other than Abigail, who could barely stand the sight of her.

Now that she’s floating in the ocean, stuck on a small boat with the most popular kids in school and waiting to be rescued, Denver wonders what might kill her first-dehydration, sunstroke, or the girl she used to think of as a sister?

A hilariously dark and twisted story that sparkles with a remarkably fresh voice, The Lifeboat Clique is Kathy Park’s irreverent yet insightful novel about how to survive in the most unthinkable circumstances.

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Pitched as "Mean Girls meets Life of Pi," how could I not want to read this? Admittedly, its a quirky combination but it worked so well! - Nova @ Out of Time

The plot follows a girl named Denver who's stuck in a boat with a bunch of the popular people in her school. I want to say, before you read this, keep in mind that it's meant to be satirical. A lot of it is stereotypical and in any other situation, it would be a complaint but I found it humorous in addition to the plot.
Denver is a lot like me so I was able to relate to her. She has a very sarcastic personality but she uses intelligent sarcasm [like metaphors and SAT words] so the meanings usually go over peoples' heads when she makes fun of them. I wonder what it says about me that I usually have the same problem. Denver is probably one of my all time favorite main characters because I was able to relate to her so well.

If you've seen Mean Girls, the dynamic between outcast Denver and mean girl Abigail was like Regina George and Janis Ian [only that no one gets hit by a bus and there's a lot more interaction between the two.] The plot also jumps around from present to past, each past memory giving more context to the reason Denver and Abigail's relationship went south. It wasn't anything shocking but it also wasn't something I'd be able to guess. The reason I really enjoyed that part was because it wasn't a misunderstanding in which no one was guilty. I hate those. In this book, someone was guilty and I loved that because it showed fault to the characters.

There are some moments of this book that I felt were unnecessary. For example, one/two characters that were offed for what I feel was no reason. The problem is that the story is about Denver and Abigail. Every other character was irrelevant. While there were five on the lifeboat, the other three provided entertainment and the occasional banter but not much else. The story would've gone on with or without them.

The other part of the story involved their chronicles of survival. This included eating stuff that would make me green. Weird part is that while I was reading, I didn't really get that "grossed out" feeling. I've seen Life of Pi so that aspect was pretty similar. They were pretty resourceful, though - using an earring as a fishing hook. The survival part wasn't very large, though. It was just there to make the story more believable, as most of it wasn't even set on the book, it was set in the past.

Despite all of this, I did enjoy this book. I loved reading about Abigail and Denver and more importantly, I enjoyed the ending. It was real. In a book like this, in a movie like Mean Girls, I expected the ending to be something like an ABC Family special. Listen guys, I can take satire but I don't think I can take the amount of cheese that I thought I'd be getting. Instead, the author surprised me by giving a realistic and funny end to a story.

If you want something just for fun that you don't have to take too seriously, give this one a try! If you like sarcastic main characters who don't fit in with the "popular crowd," you might connect with Denver. Also if the idea of Life of Pi and Mean Girls made you laugh, caught your interest, trust that interest!