Secret Lives

In my quest to read all of the books in Shelf Discovery by Lizzie Skurnick that I missed in my younger reading days, I picked up Secret Lives. I enjoyed the complexity of this one. I think the reason I didn't enjoy it was Addie, the main character, as I found her self absorbed and kind of a pain in the ass. My twelve year old self probably would have liked her more. Holly, Addie's friend, was a much more interesting character and I wished at several points in the story that this was Holly's story instead. The overlay of the imagined characters (who are paper dolls) also kind of annoyed me. I understood the device- Addie used the paper dolls to reconstruct her mother's past, but I found it weird and it made Addie seem even younger and more immature. What I did love was the history of the novel, and I think it really shone when the kids all hung out together and in scenes when Addie and her aunt were getting along well. There was some charm to the story, but very little meat. And I hated the ending. Just saying.