Book Review: "Perfectly Invisible" by Kristin Billerbeck

Summary from BN.com: It's Daisy Crispin's final semester of high school, and she plans to make it count. Her long-awaited freedom is mere months away, and her big plans for college loom in the future. Everything is under control. Or is it? Her boyfriend is treating her like she's invisible, and her best friend is making her sell bad costume jewelry in the school quad—and hanging out with her boyfriend. To top it off, Daisy's major humiliation of the year will be remembered in the yearbook for all eternity. It's enough to make her wonder if maybe being invisible isn't so bad after all. Can Daisy get her life back on track? Or is she stuck in this town forever?

Kristin Billerbeck perfectly captures the awkwardness of boys and high school in her newest book. Those are days that I don't wish to personally relive but it's fun to do so via characters in books. Daisy is one such character who is living out all those socially awkward times I used to have when I was a senior in high school. Though in her case, drama seems to follow her a lot more than the normal person has to experience.

I admit that there were several times throughout the book that I felt like a kid whose attention span keeps switching. I felt like the story lines kept jumping around and Daisy was going back from one thing to another. It wasn't confusing but it was overwhelming at times. I felt like all the different subplots could have been separate stories on their own. The whole situation with Claire's brother seemed very out of place to me in the story.

I really liked Daisy's grandparents as I felt they were level headed and more understanding than her actual parents. Daisy's father wasn't so bad in this book but I'm still not a fan of her mother. It's explained why she acts the way she does but it doesn't mean that I have to like her. I will admit that I can understand their uneasiness with Daisy hanging out with a 24 year old as she is only 17. I know that she feels like she can trust Gil but I personally feel odd about the whole relationship myself. I'm ok with him paying the cell phone bill since she had used it for work but I draw the line with her kissing him on the cheek. I will agree with her parents that right now, a close friendship with him is probably not the best situation to be in right now.

While this might not have been my personal favorite YA book, I still that a lot of teens will enjoy reading Daisy's story. However, I do not recommend reading this book unless you have read the first book in the series. There are many things mentioned in this book that come straight from the first book and missing out on that story will make you confused. I am hoping that there will be at least one more book in this series because I feel that the ending doesn't feel too wrapped up. I feel like there's still more up Daisy's sleeve and we need one more adventure from her.

Perfectly Invisible by Kristin Billerbeck is published by Revell (2011)

This review copy was provided by the publisher

Other books in the Universally Misunderstood series that I have reviewed:

Perfectly Dateless (Book 1)