Review: Get Even by Gretchen McNeil

Posted August 28, 2014 by Lisa Mandina in / 10 Comments

First I must say thank you to Harper Collins and Balzer and Bray for allowing me to read an e-galley of this from Edelweiss.  Gretchen McNeil is an author that I heard lots of buzz about with her book Ten, before I even read any of her books.  So far 3:59 is my favorite of her books, but Get Even is a close 2nd!  At first as I was reading I though, oh, it’s going to be a contemporary romance type of book.  But of course, it was more, and boy did it even get to be more than I’d expected. 

There are four main characters:  Kitty, Olivia, Bree, and Margot.  They aren’t friends in “real” life, no one has ever really seen them together.  But ever since a project their 9th grade year, they decided to form a group called DGM for short, or Don’t Get Mad.  All of them have dealt with bullying in some way in their past.  Margot used to be overweight, and was bullied, so badly that she tried to kill herself.  Kitty knew about it from a friend who got kicked off their volleyball team.  Olivia is one of the popular girls, and so is around friends who do it all the time.  And Bree’s best friend is a boy named John, who gets teased a lot, because his last name could rhyme with a bad term for gay people.  They all go to a Catholic school where the bullying seems to be rampant, to the point that the adults often ignore name calling and even somewhat support the bullies at times.  DGM has a goal to stop the bullying.  They don’t make stuff up, they only take what is already out there about these bullies and make it clear to everyone else.  The other students for the most part are fans of the DGM.   But not the administrator, Father Uberti, or F.U. as the girls call him snidely.  And also not one of the teachers, Coach Creed, who is really a big bully himself.

Something has changed now, someone is sending the four girls manila envelopes with pictures and other clues in them.  They are being led to a military school where the Coach used to be. And then one of their new students, a douche-bag type of guy named Ronny dies.  Right after DGM gets things to try to humiliate him for what he’s done.  Some of the clues paint their fellow DGM members in a suspicious light, taking away what trust they have for each other.  Secrets start being kept from each other, while other secrets from the past start to get revealed.  The girls of DGM must decide if they can still trust each other to do what is right, the mission of DGM, or if the person behind all the secretive notes is one of them. 

Let me just say this ended on such a HUGE cliffhanger!  I had to go to the author’s Facebook page and tell her that there was no way I’d be able to wait a whole year to know what happens next.  She said next summer is when the next book comes out, and that ARCs could be out as soon as December.  Believe you me, I’ll be keeping my eyes wide open for it on both Netgalley and Edelweiss, as well as possibly researching to see who the publicity person is that I might be able to talk to so that I can make sure to get this read as soon as possible.  What a great mystery that totally kept me guessing, and with that ending, left me guessing still!

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10 responses to “Review: Get Even by Gretchen McNeil

  1. Wow. This sounds like a solid read. I am not crazy about the big cliffhanger but I like that the girls are taking on bullying, and I appreciate that it has a good mystery. I will have to see about reading this one.

    • Yeah, the cliffhanger was whoa!!!! I hate having to wait now! You should wait till the second book comes out next year and then read them together. Thanks for stopping by!

  2. This sounds really good, looking forward to it. I like the idea of the girls from different backgrounds banding together… wouldn't this have been interesting in high school if someone stood up to bullies like this? I'll have to get this, I read TEN by the same author and liked it a lot.

  3. I'm reading this right now and, while there are a LOT of characters and it took me a while to keep them straight, I'm enjoying it more. Thanks for the heads up on the cliffhanger 🙂

    And thanks for linking this to Hot Off the Presses. I fixed the linky and I'm manually adding your links and then will delete your comments so as not to confuse people.

    • You are right about there being a lot of characters, it did take a little bit to get them all straight. And thanks for fixing that. Glad the linky is working now, I may have more to add!

  4. This sounds like a great read. I enjoy books that take a stand against bullying. This one, along with Ten, was already on my TBR list. I think I'll wait for the sequel so I can read both in a row. Cliffhangers are exciting(whether they are in books, movies, or TV) but it's sooo hard to wait.

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