The A-List (novel)

Infobox Book
name = The A-List
title_orig =
translator =


author = Zoey Dean
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = The A-List
subject =
genre = Young adult literature
Ages 15 and up
publisher = Megan Tingley Publishers
release_date = 2003
media_type =
pages = 228
size_weight =
isbn = 9780316734356
preceded_by =
followed_by = Girls on Film

"The A-List" is the first novel in The A-List series by Zoey Dean. It was released in 2003 through Megan Tingley Books.

Plot summary

The A-List follows Anna Percy, who has been raised on New York City's Upper East Side. She has grown up living a preppy, private school life, and was raised with 'rules', which she refers to as the 'This is How We Do Things Big Book, East Coast WASP Edition', though not a real book.

Anna is moving to Los Angeles to live with her father for two main reasons. One, her internship in New York City failed, and she is hoping to get an internship in the Entertainment industry. Two, she wants to break free of the boring, perfect, New York life she lived.

On the plane to LA, Anna is saddled with an annoying seat partner who won't stop talking about himself. Saved from a terrible fate by a cute guy named Ben Birnbaum, the two gradually build a relationship that is promised to continue when Ben invites Anna to the wedding of A-lister Jackson Sharpe, an invitation she accepts.

After being stood up by her father at the airport and the restaurant he promised to meet her at for lunch, Anna returns home to find Jonathon Percy (her dad) passed out in their gazebo with marijuana lying nearby. An angry confrontation between them leads Anna to believe that her father does not want her in LA with him after all.

Later that evening at Jackson Sharpe's wedding, we are introduced to the three junior A-listers: Samantha "Sam" Sharpe, daughter of the groom, Camilla "Cammie" Sheppard, and Delia "Dee" Young. All three host a large-scale obsession for Ben (a fact they have not admitted to each other), and therefore are upset to discover he has brought the new girl Anna along as his date. They spend the evening trying to gain his attention, which leads to Sam's dramatic rejection, a bonding experience between two ignored daughters, and Anna's ruined Oscar de la Renta dress.

Sam's close-knit friends (and Anna) escape the wedding to attend a Warner Brothers New Years Eve bash. Cammie manages to convince a bigtime producer that Anna is a hooker, but Anna is not fazed by Cammie's jealousy-induced attempts to break her and Ben up. The party ends with Anna and Ben escaping to Ben's father's boat to have sex, Sam and a group of partiers to her father's house to get drunk, and Cammie to her mother's.On the boat Anna tells Ben that she is not ready to have sex and Ben takes it fine. Ben tells Anna to stay put while he go gets his car. Anna is tired and takes a nap and wakes up only to find out that Ben has left her on the boat.

At a small charity project in Venice, Anna throws up all over Cammie and later learns that she has food poisoning from an expired yogurt she ate for breakfast. While caring for an ailing Anna, Dee admits that people look down on her because she is short and spiritual, and that she is pregnant with Ben's baby.

Anna is enrolled at Beverly Hills High (the same school that Sam, Cammie, Dee, and their friends attend) when her internship fails to work out. The story ends with her exclusive break-up with Ben and a confrontation with Anna at Beverly Hills High School, and Cammie who seems to be threatened now that Sam and Dee are showing interest in a friendship with Anna.