Bratfest at Tiffany's

Infobox Book |
name = The Clique: Bratfest at Tiffany's


author = Lisi Harrison
country = United States
language = English
series = The Clique series
genre = Young adult novel /
Children's novel
publisher = Little, Brown and Company
release_date = February 5, 2008
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 227 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-316-00680-7
preceded_by = Sealed with a Diss
followed_by = P. S. I Loathe You

"Bratfest at Tiffany's" is the ninth book in the bestselling The Clique series by Lisi Harrison. Some of the book follows TPC member Alicia Rivera, just as it was in "Revenge of the Wannabes."

Plot summary

The title of this book is a spoof of the 1960s film "Breakfast at Tiffany's". It's the 8th grade year at Octavian Country Day School. Massie Block decides after seeing the entire Pretty Committee being dumped at Skye's party that they need to give up on boys. Massie declares a 'boyfast,' and soon the PC is transformed into the NPC (New Pretty Committee). But with the boys at "BOCD", the NPC's popularity as they know it takes a turn for the worse. The boys are the new alphas, and Massie Block must do everything she can to maintain her 8th grade alpha status. She gives each girl a Tiffany charm bracelet with 5 initials hanging off each; M, A, C, K, and D and a heart on it, before declaring that if anyone in the NPC is caught with a boy, they will be kicked out of the NPC for good. The boyfast is then sealed with a ceremonial poem that Massie drafted for the occasion. This is a hard change for Alicia, who has finally found someone who truly loves her for what she is, and whom she truly loves as well:Josh Hotz. This is equally hard for Kristen, who found a boy she liked a lot and hung out with over the summer, Dune. As for Claire who still loves Cam Fisher and later on finds out that Cam replaced her with the pretty, but brainless, blonde-with-a-third-nose-job, Olivia Ryan.

When Claire first arrives at her new coed health class, it is announced that the girls were to pick a boy's name out of a jar, and that the couple would be raising a freakishly realistic baby. Olivia and Cam are paired together, and the teacher coincidentally had Claire join their group as a 'stepmom'. Claire luckily later is switched to the overflow trailers with the rest of the NPC, where they are taught everything including health class, freeing her from the drudgery of the project.

In order to spend time together without Massie's interference (and the boyfast), Josh and Alicia devise a plan. They secretly read Principal Burns' announcements which reveal that anyone sitting at tables 1-10 the next day would be moved to trailers in OCD's parking lot. Their plan turns out to be successful and the NPC who were forced to sit at table 2 (excluding Alicia) are sent to trailers to continue their schooling.

Later in the book, it was said that Alicia was kicked out of the NPC because she made the NPC (excluding her) look like LBRs (Losers Beyond Repair) on the six o'clock local news. It was also said that Claire felt humiliated and betrayed by Alicia, who had described Cam & Olivia as the "cutest couple" on TV.

Massie begins to develop a secret crush on Dempsey, a former LBR who transformed into a "Total Babe" in one summer, even though boyfast was her idea. Claire also flirts with Dempsey to get Cam jealous. Another thing that happens towards the end of the book is that Cam and Olivia's relationship begins to get rough, because Olivia is a terrible mother to their baby, Kate (named after Olivia's Kate Spade tote).

After a few days, Massie can't take the NPC's social failure and decides it is time for action. She then hires the image consultant of The Daily Grind (Dylan's mom's) to transform the overflow trailers into fabulous Tiffany "boxes" and gives all their LBR classmates (except Layne Abeley, her friends Meena and Heather who is against the makeover) a makeover.

Cam approaches Claire at the end of the book, but Claire starts to cry, so she runs away and finds baby Kate,who is stuffed in Olivia's hobo bag in her locker. At the end Cam texts Claire telling her she's the only one for him. Massie finds this text and tells Claire to give her her bracelet. Massie proceeds and takes Kristen's and Dylan's. Then Massie shimmies off her own bracelet and pronounces the boyfast officially over. Also Alicia is rejoined in the PC for switching the names of the contest winners to go into the trailers next with the ex-crushes.

This book is the story of what happens after the new Clique Summer Collection which is slowly being released each month in the summer of 2008. Some mysteries in the book (such as the necklace Kristen has from a boy named Dune or Massie's purple streak in her hair) are explained in the Summer Collection.

Reviews

* [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/books/bestseller/0601bestchildren.html NYT bestseller]
* [http://www.teensreadtoo.com/BratfestTiffanys.html TeensReadToo review]
* [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1521003041.html Pittsburgh City Paper review]

References

Clique