Unrivaled by Alyson Noel
![cover image](https://www.readplus.com.au/covers/unrivaled.jpg)
A beautiful idols novel. Katherine Tegen Books, Harper
Collins; 2016. ISBN 9780062496744
(Age: 15+) This is a dramatic mystery involving a number of
aspirational young people who get involved in a competition because
of their ambitions to get ahead. The competition arena is the Nightclub scene in Hollywood which is under the rule and authority of a
somewhat questionable, yet successful owner who proves to be
conniving and manipulative in subtle ways. The lives of these young
aspirants get woven into the story of another young person who is
already at the top of the ladder and her career as a famous
Hollywood actress. Are they all just pawns in a bigger game, or are
they unwittingly being used to hide a major crime? Relationships and
desires get twisted and strained as the wealthy Hollywood and
attention-seeking world of fame and fortune infiltrates like a snake
among the grass into the motivations of the young competitors. Their
lives become wrapped cruelly into the Nightclub owner's world (or is
it Hollywood's world?) of using people for his own benefit. Along
the journey, the young people confront the after dark
pleasure-seeking and drug culture, their own moral and sexual
choices are stretched, the power of social media is revealed and we
see the lure of money manipulating and corrupting.
Because this is so like a television-mating between episodes of The
Apprentice and a LA Crime drama, it will be enjoyed by the
television generation. The blurb implies that those who have enjoyed
Pretty little liars, a sexy Teen drama, will also enjoy this
book. It is not something to recommend highly, but the mystery does
engage the reader, even as the lifestyle of the rich and famous is
revealed in all its self-centred ugliness despite the facade of
beauty and pleasure. It is obviously the first of a series, as the
central mystery is not solved by the end of the book, and as in a
television crime drama series it leaves the reader hanging slightly
unsatisfied at the end of the novel. Noel has written a novel that
wears high heels and designer clothes and lines up outside Hollywood
Nightclubs hoping to get attention and entry into the higher
echelons of the fame world.
Carolyn Hull