Today is day 6 of my 55 day NetGalley Shelf Challenge – not sure what that is? You can read about it here. Book 1 done!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s when the mall was the place to BE. The boys played in the arcade. The girls shopped all over the place. Everyone met at Hot Dog On a Stick. Listened to music in Sam Goody and looked for movies nextdoor in Suncoast Video. Seeing a movie in the movie theater. Growing up where we now could have jobs in the mall. I applied for a job at Kaybee Toys, but my parents shot that down. I have a lot of memories from that time. So a story that takes place in the early 90’s at the center of it all? Enter Robin Sparkles!

SUMMARY: The year is 1991. Scrunchies, mixtapes and 90210 are, like, totally fresh. Cassie Worthy is psyched to spend the summer after graduation working at the Parkway Center Mall. In six weeks, she and her boyfriend head off to college in NYC to fulfill The Plan: higher education and happily ever after. But you know what they say about the best laid plans…Set entirely in a classic “monument to consumerism,” the novel follows Cassie as she finds friendship, love, and ultimately herself, in the most unexpected of places.  

WHAT I LOVED: The nostalgia of it all. When there were concerts in the middle of the mall (I see you Tiffany!) and fashion shows before back to school time and prom. When you would run into what felt like everyone you knew.

The story centered around 3 main plot points: Cassie discovering her boyfriend was cheating on her, rediscovering her old grade school best friend, and a treasure hunt involving Cabbage Patch dolls, all in the summer before she was to escape her old life by heading off to college.

I enjoyed the story for what it was – a light read that was amusing to reminisce about the time period. Was it predictable? Yes, except for the treasure at the end of the treasure hunt. I did not see that coming and it made me chuckle. Was it entertaining? If you are coming off of reading a very heavy subject matter, this book is a good palate cleanser.

My favorite character was Cassie’s old best friend, Drea. She was, by far, the most thought out character out of everyone. Everyone else was just there to help nudge the story along, but Drea actually had some heart and soul to her. She wasn’t a wooden one-dimensional character to me. She stood out more to me than even Cassie did. I never got the sense that Cassie grew up at all during that summer. But Drea did. If this was a hashtag moment, I would be #teamdrea.

WHAT MADE ME SCRATCH MY HEAD: A few things left me feeling a bit…funny. Some things that this book mentioned were the emerging grunge scene, and the Nirvana album, Nevermind, was brought up. Only this was to have taken place during the summer of 1991, and that did not get released until the fall. I remember where I was when my sister’s went nuts for it. Also, there was a room in the mall where a giant stash of hidden Cabbage Patch dolls were found. Call me crazy, but if a bunch of teenagers in the 90’s were able to find this room so easily, why wouldn’t teenagers in the 80’s have done the same thing? And with it being the craze of the early 80’s, they would have used that to their advantage?

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I give this one 3 out of 5 – it was entertaining and it was nice to visit the past for a little bit!

The Mall is on sale July 28th – but not at every mall. Some are closed due to lockdown restrictions. But there are plenty of online stores and local bookstores you can find it at!