Points was a high school drama about two girls who are bitter about all the boys who have wronged them, and in an attempt to take control over their lives use a points system with the intention to prevent them from getting hurt ever again. I suppose I would have enjoyed this book more if I was a teenager still in that world. The point system seemed convoluted from the start, and it was obvious that it would not work out in the way they desired. Even though this book tries to have a strong message about female empowerment, these girls come off as way too boy obsessed and I didn't like how they made their relationships with the opposite sex their top priority.

Contemporary romance, friends to lovers trope(?)
So I think a good book should feel like a roller-coaster and this book was definitely that. At first I thought it was gonna be a good revenge dished out book, then a self realisation plot jumped in then the twist pushed itself in, making me do a 360° turn hoping things work out in the end but it wasn't looking good but then the final few chapters, omg, just finished it perfectly. Gave me such a satisfying ending and has the potential to lead onto a possible book 2.
Highly recommend reading this book, I struggled to put it down.

I liked the premise of this book, but found it didn't hold up. It became too preachy and very much like an afterschool special. I was interested in seeing how the Points system would play out with the girls using it against the guys, but that's not really what this book was about. It ended up being a very basic YA romance.

Bethany has always felt like an outsider in her home town especially at school. Never really fitting in and only being invited to anything by default. But when Ash moves into town Bethany finds that she has found the missing bits of her life. After a few disastrous encounters with the boys at their school Bethany and Ash find a points system on Bethany’s brothers old computer. Although things start off well it ends disastrously and Bethany learns more about herself than she expected.
This was a great story not only about female equality but also about how people can get so focused on righting a wrong that they don’t see the wrongs that they are also committing. Bethany and a lot of the other female students often experience rumours and slurs against them in school because of the way they did or didn’t act. This story addresses some of this as well as how sometimes what you use or do to fight back can be worse.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review

I wish this book was around when I was younger. It handles the whole 'first discovering and deciding to be a feminist' quite well and warns emulating poor behaviour isn't the way to get even. At times the characters were quite immature and the timeline was fast (which I loved) so you got to see how they changed quite dramatically. I would love for future books to be more inclusive of intersectional feminism rather than white feminism. However, this is a good introductory book for young girls.

I am conflicted whilst I liked the core message of this novel about self-love and gender equality in schools. I think this book was almost one-note in its feminism both of the main characters were white, everyone in the club was a girl - in 2020 I think not including gender diverse, transgender individuals and male-identifying people in a club centred around feminism is an oversite. I think if I was younger this may have clicked with me more but it never quite hit right for 23-year-old me. I like that Bethany was flawed and able to recognise and reflect for self-improvement. Perfect characters are boring and the characters in this book for YA are fairly complex. I think it is a little problematic that in a book about lifting women up the main character seemingly hates a girl she went to school with for no reason.

Overall this book reads almost like a movie or a tv show a significant amount of time passes in this book and if you aren't paying attention you'll miss that. I think this is a solid introduction to feminist literature for young teens.

"Points" by Lisa Doyle is a highly enjoyable YA novel for any girl that has had to deal with being badly treated by a male or has felt like an outcast in school.

Bethany and Ash are two best friends who bonded over being slightly different, in a town where it seems as though people would never get out of the 1950s. After both have been treated badly one too many times by members of the opposite sex, they decide to take a page out of Bethany's older brothers book and grade future boyfriends on a point system, breaking up with them before they themselves can get hurt.

Anyone who is a fan of "Clueless" or perhaps "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" (the TV show) will find this story enjoyable, as Bethany tries to guide herself and the folks from Snow Ridge into a more feminist driven time. Dealing with issues that so many girls face from sexism, to rumors to unfair dress codes, this book is definitely one I think that will help teenage girls feel better about who they are. With great lessons, and a little introspection, Bethany is a protagonist that is easy to root for.

**Received this book as an ARC from Netgalley and publisher. Thanks to both for the opportunity**

These are always difficult to write, but reviews are reviews. I was initially excited and hopeful when starting this book. The author’s writing style is eerily similar to my own and it felt comfortable right from the start. But then it just.. fell out for me. I’m as feminist as it comes, but honestly this was a one note subjugation of anger. It was like a political version of Mean Girls but with almost no likable characters, depth, or complexity, or true examination of a different perspective. There were anecdotes here and there, but felt more like window dressing than plot themes.

It was an endless array of cliches and frankly, undercooked writing. My suggestion would be to work on this with a different editor. There was no remarkable character arc for Bethany. She simply mea culpa’ed to what she’d done but in the end, the author still came to her rescue with the big finish that was just self flagellation at that point. The central problem is she was so unlikable throughout most of the book and her turnabout happened too late and was so under-realized that the ending just fell far short of its mark.

The entire novel was about shattering the patriarchy, yet the only thing both girls cared about the majority of the time were their looks and boys, and crying foul when they didn’t get their way. Another pass here to bring depth to both this story and the characters would surely be welcome.