Review: Fool's Gold Vol. 2 by Amy Reeder Hadley
Fool’s Gold, Vol. 2
by Amy Reeder Hadley
In the previous volume of Fool’s Gold, Penny establishes a secret girls’ club that outs jerks and douchebags at her high school and blackballs them from the dating scene. These rejects are referred to as ‘Pyrites’ because they’re no better than fool’s gold. She encourages club members to try dating nerds, based on the premise that these underdogs are nice and will make great boyfriends. Unfortunately, her own boyfriend, environment-obsessed Orion, is beginning to act like an obsessive stalker…not exactly a ringing endorsement for Penny’s philosophy. Further, another student named Hannah is under pressure from the guys at school to terminate the club, and her efforts to sow dissention are successfully taking root. As Penny struggles to stay on top of her schoolwork and sort out her mixed up feelings toward Blake, the original Pyrite, everything escalates and spirals out of her control.
Hadley relies on the shoulders of Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice to carry these chapters of Fool’s Gold. (This happens so frequently in teen and chick lit that it’s practically a cliché.) The play is being performed at her school, and parallels are constantly drawn between Darcy and Blake, who is also playing the character in the school play. In a way, I’m disappointed, because I feel like Hadley could have done something more original…but it does suit the story, which is plenty entertaining. So I also feel like I can’t really complain.
The art’s still excellent. I was especially pleased with the way Hadley rendered Hannah’s waist-length hair. It’s constantly swirling and waving about in a curtain of dark lines that looks really cool. Fashion still plays an important role in the book’s look, too; Penny’s clothes are even more costume-like now; she’s alternatively dressed in a dress that looks like a Muppet face, a soldier’s uniform, and a poofy bubble skirt over striped pajama pants.
The story ends on a huge cliffhanger, which totally sucks because Tokyopop canceled production and the next book was never published. From the way the author talks about the series on her Facebook page, it seems pretty clear that the story’s firmly in the past, never to be completed. Too bad!
3.5 out of 5 stars
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