Cliques

Are you part of a clique?  I guess we all are part of at least one clique.  At work, at school, in our neighborhoods.  Cliques tend to have a negative reputation.  I have heard folks say, "I hate cliques."  and "I refuse to be a part of any clique."  But I guess we all do belong to them.  Subsets of people within a larger group.  But the bad thing about them is that cliques, by nature, exclude people.  But can we get away from cliques altogether?  Can we all just be "one happy island"?  Oh man, no because anyone who isn't on the island is out of the clique, right?  It is a very tough thing to wrap one's mind around this late at night.
The Clique is a popular series of tween/teen books and I have heard them referred to as the PG-13 version of Gossip Girl.  I wanted to read at least of The Clique books before they totally went out of style.  The last book in the series is due out soon.  I actually am confused about when it does come out.  It says February 15, 2011 in some places, but I see it is available today new and  used, but yet the Kindle edition is not coming out until the 15th.  No matter, I am not ready for the last book, I don't think I'll get that far, but maybe...because the thing is, I did like this first book!  These girls in the clique are nasty.  We don't get to know too much about them, except for Massie and Claire.
Massie is the head of The Clique.  She, like the others is a seventh grader at Octavia Day School in Westchester, NY.  She and her three best friends pretty much rule the school.  Enter Claire, the daughter of Massie's father's best friend from college.  Massie's dad has just hired Claire's dad and Claire's family has moved from Florida to Westchester.  They are living Massie's guest house.
Massie is mean to Claire from the start.  Very mean.  The jokes that she and her friends play on Claire are so cruel, you might think that they are the 4 PTSs instead of The Clique!  They aren't nearly that evil, however.  Well maybe they are, but the author gives some insight into why they are mean.  Unlike Margaret Simon and the Jr. Manson Family.
The ending is clever and the characters are not too deeply drawn, but it is a fun and fast read.  I do think that the girls seem a lot older seventh grade, but maybe I am out of touch!