If ever a book cover did disservice to a fantastic story, it would be this one. Leila Sales’s Mostly Good Girls is a story that really stands out in a crowd and would appeal to so many readers, but unfortunately, this cover kills me. It suggests the story is something else entirely, and while it will draw some readers in, it won’t draw the readers in who probably want this story most of all.

Violet and Katie are best friends, and they have been for a long time. The two of them attend an all-girls private school near Boston, and both of them are go-getting type of girls: Violet is working hard to improve her standardized test scores and put together the school’s literary journal, where she serves as editor, and Katie has earned a perfect score on her tests and works with Violet on the junior yearbook. We begin this story as the two of them list other girls in their class and “how far they’ve gone.” Both get a good giggle out of the girls who are more experienced, as neither of them is all that interested in any particular boys. But that will change. . .

Mostly Good Girls follows Violet and Katie’s changing friendship through their junior year of high school. When Katie earns her perfect test score, Violet becomes envious, and in her determination to outdo her best friend, she misses her best friend change. Katie, despite having everything, chooses to start dating Martin, a high school graduate who chose to work as a barista instead of attend college. In Violet’s eyes, Katie’s lowered her standards, but that’s because she can’s see the true problem brewing within Katie. This will be the tipping point in the story, and it will ultimately redefine their friendship and call to question what friendship even is.

Sales’s book is not written in a completely traditional narrative story but is instead told in vignettes. We know the story takes place over one school year, but the chapters are brief snippets in time and in place. This works exceedingly well in this book, as so much of what the story would do to fill in time and space holes would bore readers. Violet and Katie are normal characters. Neither has a particularly challenging aspect to their lives; they are utterly relatable but in the course of being so, they don’t have a huge obstacle to overcome physically or emotionally. Or at least, that’s kind of what we’re led to believe.

Not only is there a non-traditional method of story telling at work here, but the humor! This is a funny book. There was more than one time I laughed out loud while reading it, and there may or may not have been passages I read out loud for my husband because I found them spot on funny. Violet and Katie are a little snarky, and they conquer problems in a manner I would. When the literary journal had some extra space due to a profuse amount of garbage being submitted, the girls write a joint story that mocks their school. I may or may not have done that once in my life, too.

Besides being funny, the situations the girls find themselves in ring true on so many levels. When Katie pairs off with Martin, she invites Violet along. Violet, in the interest of being a good friend, follows along, despite being extremely uncomfortable in this environment. She wants to be a good friend. And when she sees what Martin and his roommates are like, she’s further unsettled. Who hasn’t found themselves in a similar situation?

There is a little romance in this book. We see Katie pair off with Martin, and while we don’t necessarily see the romance blossom as readers. But we do see and experience a number of great moments with Violet, as she develops a crush on Scott. He attends a nearby all-boys school. Unfortunately, a lot gets in the way of their relationship developing beyond friendship, and some of these interruptions are downright hilarious (in particular, Violet needs a ride home from a night out with a bunch of Scott’s classmates and Katie, and when Scott pipes in to offer the ride, we see her imagining this being what leads to their ultimate marriage. Unfortunately, another guy — a less appealing one — offers a ride over Scott’s, since he lives closer. A dream deferred, if you will). Did I mention I was laughing a lot while reading this because I could relate to more than one incident here?

Back to my cover comments: this cover does not work. It does not scream that this is a story about friendship or that it’s a funny book. Instead, it says this is a school drama, and it probably involves skanky girls (look at how short her skirt is). The cover will appeal to fans of Pretty Little Liars and similar titles, but this book will not necessarily make most readers of that series happy. This is a much lighter book, with little to no interpersonal drama. Instead, this is the kind of book fans of Sarah Dessen, Jenny Han, and Siobhan Vivian will love. Many teen girls will NEED this book, to show to them that friendship isn’t always constant and that things change and shift and that that is okay and normal. This is contemporary, realistic, and funny, and without a lot of good handselling, I’m afraid it might not get into the hands of those who need it most and those who would see themselves and their friendships played out here. But believe me when I say this is a title that most teen collections need; there are too few stories about friendship that play out so realistically.

* Review copy picked up at BEA.