New York Times bestselling author Megan McCafferty returns to her roots with this YA coming of age story set in a New Jersey mall. The year is 1991. Scrunchies, mixtapes and 90210 are, like, totally fresh. Cassie Worthy is psyched to spend the summer after graduation working at the Parkway Center Mall. In six weeks, she and her boyfriend head off to college in NYC to fulfill The Plan: higher … The Plan: higher education and happily ever after.
But you know what they say about the best laid plans…
Set entirely in a classic “monument to consumerism,” the novel follows Cassie as she finds friendship, love, and ultimately herself, in the most unexpected of places. Megan McCafferty, beloved New York Times bestselling author of the Jessica Darling series, takes readers on an epic trip back in time to The Mall.
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Both a laugh-out-loud pean to those bygone cathedrals of the 1990s, and a zippy coming-of-age tale, THE MALL is a delightful read for any generation. So tease your hair, grab your hotdog on a stick and prepare to have a freaking blast!
It’s 1991…Madonna, Paula Abdul and Mariah Carey are topping the charts, your hair is most likely in a scrunchie, and Desert Storm is in full force.
Does it get any worse?
Yes, you work at a cookie store in the food court at The Mall and just got dumped by your boyfriend while recovering from mono.
I loved this hilarious time hop back to my days working at Express.
Lighthearted, funny, and poignant this blast from the past will delight whether you spent your days and nights working at The Mall or not.
I. Loved. This. Book. I am an 80s and 90s girl through and through so this book was right up my alley. The entire book takes place in a mall in 1991. So much nostalgia!
Book 175 towards my goal of 290! 3/5 stars for this YA Historical Fiction read. Yes, 1991 is Historical. Whew. Not my favorite YA read. Not a whole lot going on character and plot wise. The cover is fine. Narration is good. Going to have to say pass on this one.
This was a lot of fun!! I really enjoyed the mall setting, and it really brought back memories of how important the mall used to be. I absolutely loved the part that talked about how everyone has “their” way to enter the mall, because it’s so true! I really liked seeing each of the characters grow, and grow up, and figure out their lives and who they are. Definitely recommend this if you need a lighthearted read!
The Mall, by Megan McCafferty, is a retro, over-the-top YA story about mall culture and the summer after high school. Cassie plans to spend her final summer in New Jersey working along side her boyfriend at America’s Best Cookie, but turns out that while she was home recovering from mono*, her perfect boyfriend started dating the girl from Bath & Body Works. So Cassie goes to work at Bellarosa boutique instead, she flirts with the surf shop guy and the mall arcade guy to get back at him… the mall is the center of post-high-school life in this novel.
Life at this mall blends Cinnabon and Panda Express with a mysterious treasure hunt for Tommy and Vince D’Abruzzi’s hidden Cabbage Patch millions.
Totally rad! This former 1990s mall teen loved The Mall, an ode to tall bangs, boys with good taste in music, and female friendship, set in the only place that mattered. What a joy to have a new book from Megan McCafferty, who knows exactly how to make us laugh, cry, and fall in love with her characters.
This was really well done. It’s as simple as that.
How well done? I thought I’d start a book to relax to at the end of the night… next thing I knew, I was finished the book and the sun was coming up.
I completely got lost in this excellent coming-of-age story. The storytelling was so smooth and reading it felt effortless.
The Mall was to 1991 teenagers what the iPhone is to today’s generation: EVERYTHING. This delightful novel about that particular time and place is loaded with fun, warmth, intelligence, big hair and an even bigger heart. I loved it.
What a pleasure it is to spend time in a McCafferty universe. Her writing is sharp, smart, sexy and oh-so-real. I’ll read her forever.
A delightful, funny, sweet and affecting real life adventure with such a big heart, it’ll make you cry the happiest tears. The Mall is something special.
This book is 90’s GENIUS.
I am so in love with this story and I never wanted it to end. I have to say that I was about the same age as Cassie at the same year in this book so it resonated so much with me.
The references used were spot on! New generations will never know what it was like when malls used to be your whole world and everything happened there instead of social media.
I wish my words could adequately describe how I feel about this book. I am overwhelmed with how witty and brilliant the whole premise behind this book was. All of the crazy, strange characters and personalities were just the type of people that you encounter at the mall and in life.
Cassie endures so many things coming at her all at once that I couldn’t help but sympathize with her and how well she handled (even though she really didn’t) all of the changes. And while everything spins out of control, the way it wrapped up at the end was perfection.
My heart is just bubbling as I am writing this review and I am so excited for everyone to be able to read this. YA GOLD.
Well, this one sure brought me back! As a Jersey Girl, born and raised, growing up in the 80s and 90s, I couldn’t ask for a book that gave me more nostalgic feels than “The Mall”!
I went to Sam Goody, I worked at the Garden State Plaza, and I dreamed of getting out of my small “village” after high school. I literally worked at Bath and Body Works! Spraying cucumber melon on strangers was my jam! Obviously, I related to Cassie on so many levels., including the heartbreaking first love breakup. Rude.
This books is sprinkled with 90s pop culture references on every page, and they all made me roar with laughter. Everything from “90210” job rankings to Z Cavariccis was thrown into this book, and I devoured it all. I loved the treasure hunt. It was ridiculous and whimsical.
This book is basically Season 3 of Stranger Things for girls.
My only complaint about this book was Cassie’s lack of experience, despite having had a long-term boyfriend. Call me a hoe, but that’s NOT how I remember growing up in New Jersey in the 90s. I was third in my high school class, and even I was rolling my eyes at her “plan”, so it’s not a geek thing since I was one, too.
I loved Drea. Fun, funny, witty, daring, beautiful and talented, all in one package. You couldn’t ask for a more fun character with which to hunt for treasure. And her mom and their store? I thought it sounded so cozy to be Drea. Ever want to crawl up into a character’s life and live there? That’s me with Drea.
Cassie’s parents both being dentists was funny to me because my brother and his wife are both dentists. The scene in the book where they simultaneously refer to teeth as “number 8 and 9” could have been stolen right out of my brother’s living room. Cute plot point.
I definitely recommend this young adult book to young adults and children of the 80s and 90s like me. It was incredibly fun and whimsical.
I loved the prominence of mono in the book. I remember everyone fearing and contracting mono in high school. I envied their ability to stay home for months and watch crappy tv. I love that Cassie is fresh into a mono recovery. So relevant for the time. What was it about the 90s and mono anyway? Do kids still get that?
Reading THE MALL was like taking a stroll into memory lane for me when I used to work in a video store, sitting in the corner rewinding VHS tapes for those returning their rentals not following the sticker that says, “Please Be Kind Rewind”. I was working in a mall next to Sam Goody’s always high over the scents of Cinnamon and Vanilla from Cinnabon’s, and the lotions and candles of Bath and Body works.
Many won’t even relate to rewinding your VHS or Betamax for that matter, but I sure related to this and an homage to my Cabbage Patch dolls sealed the deal. I thought this was a great story about Cassie who was out on a six week quarantine recovering from one of the worst case of Mononucleosis her physician has seen in over forty years. Surviving a swollen ready to burst spleen fared far easier than what the rest of her summer was about to give her. There at the mall, her summer adventure began and what a crazy ride McCafferty delivered!
While at the Mall Cassie rekindles her childhood friendship with Drea while she worked for their clothing store doing the books and inventory. The characters were absolutely a delight to read and oh so funny! I loved the addition of the mall side-adventure treasure hunt and also the side fling. All in all, this was a great coming-of-age story about the summer of 1984 before the pivotal stage of moving into the adult hood, entering the college years.
The book is fast paced, easy to read, and a great summer tome to enjoy in an afternoon. Nostalgic, modern, and absolutely heartwarming story with a strong female character you will love. Read this!
This 90s-inspired novel transported me completely to The Mall. McCafferty had me wanting more from the 90s and wanting to be born a little bit earlier than 1994.
Cassie cannot wait to head out of New Jersey and straight to New York at the end of the summer. In the mean time, her plan is to work alongside her boyfriend, until that plan fails. Her boyfriend dumps her and she ends up getting fired. She ends up finding a job at a boutique, owned by her ex-best friend’s mom. Soon, the girls put aside their differences when Drea pulls Cassie in on a treasure hunt around The Mall.
This novel was adventure-filled and had me glued to its pages! Cassie is a quirky and fun character I enjoyed. Being inside her head was lots of fun. Drea was a character I adored! I want this girl’s self-esteem. She embraces herself and doesn’t care about the rumor-mill.
This friendship was the highlight for me in the story. You guys know I love to read books with romance. Basically, if it doesn’t have romance, I don’t want it. Let me tell you that this book had me forgetting it didn’t have romance, and had me rooting for the friendship, the treasure hunt, and just everything! I honestly couldn’t stop reading this wonderful masterpiece. I loved the tribute it gave to the 90s, with the jean jackets, the pins, the music, the mall itself.
Speaking of which, I felt like The Mall was its own character. I don’t know how the author did it, but she managed to have me caring for a building. I was never once bored with the setting just being the mall. It actually enhanced the reading experience because a lot could be touched on with depth, instead of brushing it off.
Aside from friendship, this book also focused on finding oneself. Cassie had a lot of soul-searching to do, and I think this book touched on everything it needed without it feeling too much. Cassie slowly grew throughout the novel and in the end, she ended up becoming “the best possible version” of herself.
Overall, The Mall is a nostalgic and adventurous 90s-inspired novel with a lovely focus on friendship and discovering oneself.
3.5*
The Mall was an entertaining and enjoyable look back at the 90s. It’s a fairly quick, easy read – good for a little escapism, which I’m sure we could all use a bit of lately. I enjoyed the pop culture references and reliving the time when the mall was the place to be. The scavenger hunt was a fun addition to the story, making for some good bonding time between Cassie and her old best friend Drea.
Cassie was an interesting character. There were times I felt bad for her, and other times I didn’t really like her. While I could empathize with her about some of the things she was going through, quite often she didn’t come off as a nice person, which was a shame. I’d say for a soon-to-be college freshman she had a lot of growing up to do, but who of us didn’t at that age. And by the end of the book she did kind of redeem herself after having a bit of a “lightbulb” moment.
Overall though, this was a fun read. The Mall is definitely a homage to the late 80s/early 90s, and for someone who graduated college in ‘91 it brought back feelings of nostalgia. While I do think many of the references might be lost on teens today, I’d say this would be a good read for just about any age.
I loved this book so much. No, it’s not the latest literary masterpiece, nor did reading it make me any more intelligent, but it’s just a really good story that takes place in a really nostalgic place for me….the mall.
I was born in 1980, so my entire teen years took place in the 1990’s. From 1993 when I turned 13 to 1999 when I turned 19.
I spent an ENORMOUS amount of time at our local mall in Southeastern Connecticut…The Crystal Mall. I even worked there briefly at, I’m sorry to say, Sears (a Sad, Sad Scott Scanlon).
This story follows Cassandra in the summer between her graduating from high school and going off to college. She’s lost her boyfriend, her job, and her comfortable sense of security at home. We follow her as she comes to terms with all the changes in her life, the new friends she makes, and the old friends she gets reacquainted with. It’s funny, it’s sad and it’s real. I loved it.
I absolutely recommend this to any teens of the 90’s. The references to all the stores and the trends will bring back all kinds of memories (they did for me at least), and I really enjoyed it.
One thing though…Nirvana’s Nevermind album was released in September of 1991…not July. It’s ok…I can forgive that since I believe inserting Nirvana at that time represented all the change that was on the horizon not just for Cassie, but for everyone in the story.
Highly, highly recommend this book. I loved every minute of this.
When I was a teenager, back in the late 70s and early 80s, nothing felt more freeing, more adult, more exciting than going to the mall. All those shops! The food court! Movie theatres! Spencer’s Gifts! Going to the Harmony Hut for records and albums thrilled me. The smell of the cardboard sleeves, the music thrumming through the speakers. The mall, my friends, was THE place to go.
My time in the mall may have predated Cassie Worthy’s by a decade, but reading about her adventures filled me to bursting with nostalgia. And that’s the joy of this book. Joy, yes, joy! Megan McCafferty lets you indulge in memories, both about your own trips to the mall and also about what it was like to be a teenager.
Cassie isn’t always likable, which is something I liked. (Then again, Megan McCafferty writes those characters so well. If you read her Jessica Darling series, you know how problematic Jessica could be at times.) She is self-indulgent, self-centered, self-focused, and self-conscious, four hallmarks of a teenager. Cassie has her plans, and when those don’t work out the way she anticipates, she first blames others. She says hurtful things to people, not realizing her remorse until later. If someone asks something of her that isn’t part of those plans, she will decline unless she can find something in it for herself.
Aside from a few scenes in cars, nearly all the action takes place in the mall. McCafferty takes you into the stores you remember, reconnecting you with toys, music, and clothing from the 90s (with some cameos from the 80s). Cassie gets much more out of this last summer before she starts college, and none of it was on her to-do list. She even gets involved in a mystery of sorts, the outcome of which made me guffaw with laughter.
Some parts of this book do make you laugh, while others make you a little misty. You care so much for Cassie that her pain becomes your pain every bit as much as her silliness becoming your silliness.
I found myself wondering what today’s teenagers will make of this book. Will they look at mall life of the 90s and feel as if they’re missing out? Will they find it cute in a patronizing way? Undoubtedly they will connect with Cassie, occasionally cringing over her antics, occasionally admiring her willingness to learn.
I need more Megan McCafferty’s books.
3.5 Stars
This book was very cute! I loved all the nostalgic references being a 90’s girl myself. It is not going to change any lives but it was a cute story that was a quick and easy read.
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.
Fans of the the throw-back will adore this look at teen mall life as told by a witty narrator nailed by Megan McCafferty. Heartwarming and thoughtful, this is a can’t miss YA.