Poseur

Maude enthusiastically embraces obvious stereotypes in her debut novel, taking them so far over the top that she delivers a very amusing read. Choosing an exclusive private school in Los Angeles as a backdrop, the author dresses the mega-wealthy youth of Beverly Hills and Bel Air in Dior, Marc Jacobs and Jimmy Choo, and has them roar to school in Porsches and Jaguars, while fish-out-of-water twins Janie and Jake Farrish, scholarship students from the Valley, shop at Goodwill and share ownership of a 16-year-old Volvo. The same gleeful exaggeration applies to Janie's three classmates in a special studies course focusing on fashion design: there's Charlotte, bored after a week of a summer intensive embroidery studies at a convent in Bruges, who arranges a midnight escape by chopper; Melissa, daughter of the rap producer Seedy, who announces, “In the grand tradition of Jennifer Lopez and Oprah, I dream to be more than just a person. I dream to be a brand”; and Petra, the ridiculously beautiful daughter of the most sought-after plastic surgeon in Hollywood, who tendentiously deplores vanity and wants to create an anti-fashion clothing line called Moral Fiber. Though the plot is predictable and the pacing uneven, the novel dishes up outsize amounts of humor, mostly at the expense of Maude's narcissistic characters. Juicy, stylish fun. Ages 13-up. (Jan.)