Alphas
Realistic Fiction
By Lisi Harrison
Reviewed by Anna D’Arcy
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
Picture this; you’re a fourteen year old girl who just found out that you have been granted the opportunity of a lifetime. The invitation has just come in the mail and you realize that you have been invited as one of the one hundred lucky girls who get the privilege of attending Alpha Academy. This is a school for talented girls who would like to study the craft of their choice without mediocre influences. Your biggest dream is about to become a reality. For Skye Hamilton, Allie A. Abbot, and Charlie Deery, this is not just a fantasy, but their life. Thousands applied and few were selected, but sometimes the cost of acceptance is bigger than the girls may have initially realized.
This exciting novel is focused on achieving goals, no matter the cost or in the long run, how little the goal may be of real importance. All Charlie Deery wanted was to get to stay with her boyfriend, Darwin, and attend the extraordinary school, but Shira Brazille, Darwin’s mother and founder of Alpha Academy, refused to allow this to happen. Charlie lost hope of the idea actually occurring until one day Shira says that Charlie may have her wish, but first she must break up with her boyfriend and her mother, who was Shira’s personal assistant, must quite her job. Allie A. Abbot is also having conflict in her life. Then one day, out of the blue, an invitation to attend Alpha Academy appears in her mailbox without her even applying. She notices that it came to the wrong address and is for another girl, but she takes the opportunity to forget her problems at home and commits identify theft. While at the academy, she must work hard to make sure that no one finds out her secret. Before arriving to the academy, Skye Hamilton was sure that she was the best dancers her age, but once at the school, she quickly realizes that she was mistaken. Now she must fight to be top dancer with many other talented adolescents. The stakes are higher than the ladies realized and at the first assembly, they received a shock. Shira will be eliminating girls as the year proceeds until she only has one student left, who will be the top alpha. If you don’t have the talent or any other of the qualities it takes to be an alpha, you could be cut at any time.
This particular book did not have my hands flipping pages constantly, but it was still an average read. I would recommend it to anyone who likes drama and preppy teenager books. Each chapter rotates from the perspectives of the three different girls, and if you don’t like novels that bounce around like that, then this isn’t the book for you. Many people can relate to several of the girls difficulties they face at school, such as finding reliable friends in a new place and the inner conflict of striving to be the best. Charlie, Allie, and Skye all teach us a very important lesson; we all have to try to achieve our dreams, no matter how unrealistic they may seem.
