[Kimbell175113]

As for your broader criticism, I think my main explanation (or excuse) is that the book is about, and narrated by, a sixteen-year-old. Of course she doesn't understand the grand themes, of course she wants to be in the cool cliques, of course she has a superiority complex. But I never got the feeling that the book is telling us that she is correct. In my mind, the Final Exam at the end is the book's final and clearest way of pulling away from Blue, of analyzing her faults, and those of all the characters. It appears as though I got a different sense from a lot of the book than you did, though.