The Market is about Kate Winthrop. She is a senior at Millbank High School and a complete and total nobody, until the MSSM (Millbank Social Stock Market) comes along. The MSSM is a game that the boys in her grade put together. Only the stocks are all of the girls in the grade. The person who makes the most money by graduation wins. Kate was ranked at number 71 out of 140 girls. Her and her friends came up with a plan. They decided to turn Kate into the most popular girl in school and invest a lot of money into her stock. Their plan is going fine, but her relationships with other people are not. One of her friends becomes so into the game that she tells Kate that one of her relatives died in front of everyone to have people give her sympathy, even though Kate told her friend not to do that. People she thought were her friends betrayed her. They would talk behind her back and it turns out that they invented the game. They also did almost the exact same thing her friends did. They were the popular kids and the also put a lot of money into Kate's stock then let her hang out with them, so she could become popular and her ranking would move up. Kate always knew the whole idea of her doing what she did could only end badly, but she tried it anyway. by the end of the book she learns that she was right and that your true friends will stay by your side no matter what.
Katie was a very smart girl, and she tried her hardest to never let the MSSM get to her head. She also always had a lot of trouble living up to the expectations that her mom had for her. Her mom expected her to be like her perfect older sister. Kate's sister was pretty, popular and smart, but she was also nice and not full of herself. Although Kate fit that definition almost exactly, she thought her mom liked her older sister more. When the truth is the only difference was that her older sister was popular. Kate's two best friends are Callie and Dev. Dev gets sucked into the MSSM and she doesn't even realize it. Calle was more level headed and because she was always a little wiser and had street smarts. Gretchen was the most popular girl in school. I have never read a book where the popular girl was so full of herself. Will B. and Jack C. were best friends and the most popular guys in school. They both fell for Katie and Katie fell for both of them, only Will only liked Katie after the makeover and then he realized that she was a great person and that he would like her without the makeover. But it turns out Jack had liked her since he first really looked at her, which was before the makeover.
I liked this book. I really like books where people get major makeovers, I really don't know why. The only thing I didn't like was the ending. I felt like it was rushed, but I don't know if I think that because it really was rushed or because I really liked the book and I didn't want it to end.
I wrote post-it notes throughout the book, and I visualized. The post-its really help me remember what happened on that page, I write down some thoughts and predictions. I like to write a really long post-it at the end of each chapter to summarize what happened in that chapter.
J.M. Steele is not the real name of the author. There is actually two authors. They are sisters. One lives in New Jersey and the other lives in New York. They have written The Taker and The Market.
