She's So Dead To Us

(CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!)

I have recently finished reading a book called She’s so dead to us by Kieran Scott. It’s about how a girl named Ally Ryan, who has been away from her home in Orchid Hill for years, has finally come back. Ally used to be one of the popular kids, also known “Cresties”, but that had changed when she had left her home years ago, because her father had made a financial mistake for many families, and in shame, had left Orchard Hill. But, Ally won’t let her past affect her future and present, but her former friends-who now hate her for not saying goodbye or anything when she was forced to leave-won’t let her forget. A bigger problem is, Jake Graydon, a new Crestie that had moved when Ally left so knows nothing about her, loves Ally, and Ally likes him back. Why is this a problem? Because, Ally’s a Norm-people who aren’t popular Cresties, just ‘normal’ people-and according to the Cresties, a norm and a Crestie cannot be together-ever.  

Ally may be fighting things external, but she also has internal problems. For one, is she really gonna let go of her past with her loving friends, family, and awesome life because of one little thing? Sure, her family made things really complicated finically, he lost a lot of families’ money, made some lose their homes, cars, and other belongings, but, before all that, Ally had awesome friends, went to dinners with them with them, hung out with them all the time, and basically everything she wanted. Is she really ready to give that up? Ally wants to go back to that time, she wants to have a life where her friends love her, not hate her for something her dad did. But, on the other hand, Ally doesn’t want to go back to her old life, she rather be with her ‘norm’ friends, Annie Johnson and David Drake, then her former now-sour friends, Shannon, Todd and Trevor, Hammond, Chloe, and Faith,  (Mostly Shannon and Faith though) who blame her for almost everything, Faith’s new ‘dark side’ showing more, the loss of money for all of them except Chloe, Trevor and Todd needing to move in with their grandparents, and basically everything else that goes wrong with their lives-which is sorta messed up. Ally’s father may have caused some problems with the Cresties, but that doesn’t really mean they can take it out on Ally, which is basically why Ally can’t decide who to be friends with.  

Another internal problem Ally has is, weather to be with Jake or not.  Ally’s a norm. Jake’s a Crestie. A huge difference in Orchard Hill. Cresties date Cresties; Norms date a norm, which is how it’s been for them, like forever.  But, according to other people, Ally can change that, why? Because “somehow that girl always gets what she wants.” Ally may like Jake, but she can’t really be with him. His best friends are the people who hate her, and with no offense to Jake, but people really think he wants to be with Ally…for other reasons.  “It’s Jake Graydon. Pretty soon he’s going to have worked his way through the entire school and he’ll have to make a second round.” They think he’s basically a player, and some people think Ally is too good, though she may not seem like it, what some people say about her, sometimes to get Ally. But, Ally is strong in some ways, she can stand up to snobby Cresties, stand up to people who make fun of her, and some rumors, there’s a possibility she could go out with Jake, despite everything. 

Love. Rumors. Fights with former friends. Ally has a lot on her plate to fix and deal with now that she’s back home. Personally, I think Ally is sorta handling this right. She goes on head on with the fights; she won’t easily back down from a fight. And she won’t give up no matter how much the Cresties want her down. Some people would run from a fight with the most popular people, some people would back down, knowing that they can’t win, but Ally doesn’t see that, she knows she can ‘win’ a fight even if she tries. Little does she know things are gonna get more complicated when Shannon, her former best friend steps up to fight her…at a party and using one thing that Ally fears the most, her father.

 

Her father was the one thing that most people knew that broke Ally. Why? Because Ally loved her father, he was close to her. He built her a basketball court for her. He made other people feel jealous, for her father had been there the most for her, while others had not been. That was till he had changed her life. He thought he could win more money and ‘gambled’ it, but lost it. Then forced his family to leave, in shame and without a word to their friends. Then, later in her life, he left her and Ally’s mother, alone to take care of themselves with very little money. He’d vanished…that was until Shannon had found him. she had video him working in a little deli, trying to earn money, and then at her party she had played it…in front of Ally, to show that she knew how to break her down, to show her that she was still playing the revenge card, and she will not give up till she’s down in the ground, possibly even lower…

Poor Ally finds out things, for one thing, her worst enemies know where her invisible father is, and another, Jake, who she was dating knew, and didn’t bother to tell her. Trust broken. Hearts broken. Wills broken. Everything shattered for her and her mother.

 

It’s sad, but Ally teaches us some things. Like, not everything is what they seem. She thought Jake would be honest to her, that he wasn’t like the others Cresties, like he was an actual human with feelings, but knowing where her father had been…that shattered everything, she saw the ‘truth’ that not everything is what they seem. But, other things are just exactly what they seem. Ally knew Shannon, who may not be mentioned a lot, but is still one of the main problems for Ally. Ally knew Shannon would do almost everything she could to bring her down…maybe Ally shouldn’t have come back to Orchard Hill. Maybe she should have stayed hidden in her little home in Maryland…home, for Ally, is where the hate is…where everything is revealed on how her friends feel about her leaving…how even your former best friends can hurt you.