If you are into characters that absolutely love candy (besides Willy Wonka) this is the book for you. It is kind of intersting how the main character swears off candy after her mother dies, and it really makes you feel the strain on her relationship with her father. Then comes along Megan, and by the end you're left with a mystery of who she was before. At first I was mad that you aren't ever told Megan's exact story, but then it leaves you to sift through the candy stories to imagine her history. I was kind of surprised at the crudeness in some parts of the story, but it's about life in highschool, and things like that do come around.
3Q, 3P; Cover Art: Awesome!
This book is best suited for highschoolers.
It was selected due to the cover and the fact that candy was part of the title.
Grade (of reviewer): 11th
(JP-AHS-NC)

Reviewed by Randstostipher "tallnlankyrn" Nguyen for TeensReadToo.com

What the new girl wanted was to start over, find a completely new identity. Now that she and her dad had moved, she was able to do just that. She had it all mapped out--start the new school year at a new school, make some new friends and become part of the "in" crowd. Then all chances of being popular were ruined when Megan Chalmers entered the scene, with her weird self, eating candy all the time.

But now the girls befriend each other, united by one bond--candy. One who absolute despises it when she discovers the effects, while the other loves it to death. Well, that and the evil forces of MAL--Meredith, Angela, and Laura, the girls who rule the school and whose targets are the two girls.

All the new girl, now dubbed Dead Girl by MAL, and Megan Chalmers need to do is get back at MAL and eat candy, the only thing that will help Dead Girl hide the pain. But it isn't simple when MAL gets meaner by the minute and no one is able to help them. It's all up to the two girls to stand up for themselves, but is it possible?

At first glance THE CANDY DARLINGS seems to be like any other "Mean Girls" story, but once the reader delves deeper into the novel, they discover a completely different universe. Christine Walde interweaves candy stories along with her main storyline to create a novel that is hard to divide into what is the real world that the girls live in and what is just the fantasy world that Megan creates. A unique novel that makes for an interesting read. ( )

The Candy Darlings seems to elicit opinions that really run the gamut. I can't tell you the number of people who have said something along the lines of "OHMIGOD! You must read this! This is like the best book evar!" And then there are people like me, apparently, who were just sort of weirded out by it all.

It is the story of an unnamed first person narrator (people keep latching on to this detail as if it were a really big deal... why?) who has just experienced the death of her mother which, thanks to a glucose drip, she now irrevocably associates with candy. She and her father move to a new town for a fresh start, and she's doing amazingly well -- the school's three most popular girls appear quite ready to invite her into their world, for instance.

And then Megan arrives, sucking on a piece of candy -- something she is never without. And so, the girl who loves candy and the girl who has vowed never to eat it again recognize a sort of kindredness, and become the best of friends. But all is not as it seems. Megan tells some very dark and disturbing stories -- all revolving around candy, of course -- but is there some truth to them? And why does she disappear for days at a time, only to come back with a new hair color and look?

It was this mystery that kept me reading, despite the rather gross-out details of Megan's storytelling. I'm sure they revealed some sort of dark and disturbing truth about Megan, but, frankly, I was disgusted enough not to want to pry too deeply.

The subplot, wherein the three girls that the narrator abandons for friendship with Megan seek increasingly wild revenge, simply got out of hand. I've seen a lot of comparisons to Heathers and Mean Girls. I've not seen the latter, but the former had a delicious sense of absurdity that this novel lacked.

The novel comes to no conclusions. And that is, perhaps, the crux of my dissapointment. This book delivers no answers. I don't demand tidy conclusions from my books, but when my only reason for reading quickly became to have certain mysteries solved and be done with it, the lack of resolution was highly frustrating.

Despite how highly unsatisfying I found the novel, as I mentioned, others just rave about it. It's target demographic, Young Adult readers, seems to have a particular fondness for it. Perhaps that is the problem? Maybe I'm just too old. ( )