I thought it was cute and funny how important things could be in high school. ( )

Reviewed by Jocelyn Pearce for TeensReadToo.com

Mina and her friends, JZ, Lizzie, and Michael, also known as "The Clique," are about to leave behind their familiar middle school where they are comfortable and popular, and enter the big, unfamiliar Del Rio Bay High School. They've heard stories, and they think they know what to expect, but when the friends get to high school, they realize they're not nearly as informed as they thought they were! No matter how much you think you know, high school is a lot to handle.

Mina's got big plans for her time at Del Rio Bay High. She was popular in middle school, and she definitely wants to become one of the elite in high school, too. However, her schemes (predictably) do not go quite as planned!

While this book has been categorized as African-American fiction, and Mina is black, I don't think that only African-American teens will enjoy the book. Prejudice is an issue that is dealt with skillfully, and that's important, but there is so much more to this book!

There has to be, really; it's nearly four-hundred pages long. It dragged a little at times, but, for the most part, it was an enjoyable book, and quite readable! I made the mistake of judging SO NOT THE DRAMA by its cover and expecting yet another fluffy, forgettable novel, but this book definitely surpassed my expectations. While the dialogue didn't always strike me as completely realistic (although, admittedly, I am a middle-class white girl and don't really have the same background as many of the characters), the story as a whole was surprisingly real and deep. SO NOT THE DRAMA is well worth reading. ( )