Reviewed by Cheryl
TITLE: The Social Climber
AUTHOR: Jere M. Fishback
PUBLISHER: Nine Star Press
LENGTH: 138 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 8, 2021
BLURB:
High school classmates, Josh Livingstone who’s gay, and his straight friend Simon LePage, hatch a plot to improve their status at school by creating new images for themselves. But their efforts ultimately blow up in their faces, leading to both comical and heartbreaking results, as they learn lessons in life and love the hard way.
REVIEW:
I don’t know why but I was expecting this book to be funny. Not to say that it doesn’t have its fair share of funny moments but it’s certainly not a fluffy comedy. Neither is it gritty realism. It’s pure entertainment.
I loved the premise of the book from first reading the blurb and it didn’t disappoint. Josh and Simon went to great lengths to get accepted by the in crowd and succeeded to different degrees, learning different lessons. Simon’s was that you don’t need social success to be happy and Josh’s that getting what you wished for is sometimes not what you really want nor need.
Simon and Josh thought that they could become popular at school by getting summer jobs and investing in new clothes and haircuts. To a greater or lesser degree, it worked, especially for Josh. Through his increasing confidence, marked solely by the acknowledgement he gets from his betters he acquires a boyfriend who turns out to be a dick and another who insists on keeping their relationship secret because of the very thing Josh was rushing toward so eagerly. This left him with a stark choice – Status or Love.
The characters are strong and individual. They were very well rounded especially Josh. Through little comments and insights I think we get a very good picture of his life, his goals and his thoughts on just about everything. He was a character to sink into and feel as though he was a friend. I cared about Josh and shared his victories and defeats (sometime spectacular ones…eew). To see Josh slowly come to a realisation, while fighting it, was a long a thorough process and very entertaining.
The writing is tight and there are few slips. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire story with all its ups and downs. There are so many details to get your teeth into. It’s firmly a YA although I see no reason for it to not be enjoyed by people of all ages. I thoroughly recommend this book as an entertaining, fairly short, read.
RATING: 
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