Reviews for Stacey and the Fashion Victim: (The Baby-Sitters Club: Mystery Series #29) - Ann M. Martin -...

The average rating for Stacey and the Fashion Victim: (The Baby-Sitters Club: Mystery Series #29) - Ann M. Martin -... based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2021-04-26 00:00:00 Todd Tatum This book was more exciting when I read it as a kid. Now as an adult I look back on it and think about how cheesy it is, lol. It was all right for standard BSC Mystery fare, so I give it a neutral 3 stars because hey, this WAS written for kids, not adults.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-05-29 00:00:00 Alan Holmes this one gets four stars, just for the LOLs. stacey is spending the day at bellair's with her mother, for take your daughter to work day. another employee, mrs. malkin, notices stacey & invites her to model in bellair's upcoming fashion week. stacey says something about how she once won a modeling contest at bellair's & it wasn't a great experience. what? when the hell did that happen? i have read every single babysitters club book ever at least a couple of times, & i have no recollection of that. anyway, stacey thinks it wouldn't hurt to give modeling another try. she can put her paycheck toward her college fund & have a good time. mrs. mcgill is reluctant, but finally agrees. when stacey shows up for her first day of modeling, she runs into cokie mason. apparently an agent named dylan trueheart "discovered" her & she's going to be modeling in fashion week too. stacey is not excited to see cokie, but because they are familiar faces to one another, they chat. cokie gives stacey the scoop on all the other models. sydney is a real pro & is practically a supermodel, according to cokie. (then why is she modeling at bellair's fashion week in stoneybrook, connecticut?) she has been dating roger bellair, heir to the bellair's fortune, but they recently split. roger is around also. he is assisting the photographer on the catalogue shoots. (stacey has arranged for claudia to assist roger.) cynthia rowlands could be sydney-level big, but she's getting sick of modeling & is thinking about going back to regular high school. blaine is an up & coming model. she's pretty ambitious. & harmony is a great model, she could be huge, but her mom is a total stage mother. after the first day of runway rehearsals or whatever, everyone is in the backstage area changing back into their street clothes & taking off their make-up when harmony suddenly doubles over with a stomachache. her mother immediately starts screaming about how harmony has been poisoned, railing against the lax security, etc etc. everyone is pretty scared. harmony was drinking tea. any of the other models & everyone else backstage could have easily had some tea as well. stacey wonders if any of them could have been poisoned, & wonders what the poisoner is trying to accomplish. harmony says she just needs some time & she'll be okay. the next day, they are shooting catalogue shots. some of the girls are supposed be wearing flannel pajamas & bunny slippers. when they go backstage to put on the pajamas, they discover that they have been shredded, & the heads have been lopped off the bunny slippers. everyone is really freaked out, again. no one has any idea who could be responsible for this. really? granted, i have not modeled unless you count this one time at a department store when i was like eight years old, but i've watched enough "top model" to know that the backstage areas at photo shoots & runway shows are usually pretty crowded, with tons of people coming & going. how could someone have cut up three pairs of pajamas & sets of slippers without anyone seeing them? it must have taken a while, you know? then weird messages start appearing on the bathroom mirrors, written in lipstick & eyeliner. stuff like, "pretty is as pretty does until pretty DIES." i'm starting to suspect r.l. stine. that sounds like his style. the babysitters decide they have a mystery on their hands, & they start writing up notes & observations in the mystery notebook. stacey is a model, so she's in the thick of the action. claudia is the photographer's assistant's assistant, so she has access to everything that's happening. mary anne & mallory are helping out with the day care area at the store, so they are around & can occasionally slip away to look for clues. they write up their list of suspects, which includes pretty much everyone. maybe dylan trueheart is tryping to scare the models away so that his client, cokie, can get better assignments. maybe ambitious blaine is trying to do the same thing for herself. maybe roger bellair is still carrying a torch for sydney & has decided to express his affections by being a creepy motherfucker. abby suggests that the culprit is jamie the photographer. everyone's like, "why?" & abby's like, "why not?" this is why i like abby. she just doesn't take anything seriously. a day or two later, they are doing another catalogue shoot up on the roof. harmony & stacey are modeling shorts or something. jamie puts them in lounge chairs, but harmony says his idea is stupid & that they would look better on the edge of the roof, with the stoneybrook skyline (such as it is) in the background. jamie agrees & they move to the roof. stacey leans on the railing & it collapses. both stacey & harmony fall on to a slightly lower section of roof. stacey bangs up her wrist a little, but they're okay. harmony looks shocked & says, 'sorry." stacey says, "why not? it's not your fault." while they are climbing back up to the main roof, stacey notices that someone took the bolts out of that section of railing, so that it would collapse at the slightest touch. it's sabotage, but she doesn't know who is responsible. she's scared though. she thinks & thinks & thinks some more, & by the next day, she thinks she's got it figured out. she shares her suspicions with claudia, mary anne, & mallory, all of whom go with her to bellair's early the next morning. they each hide in a stall in the women's restroom. someone else comes in while they're hiding & pauses in front of the mirror. stacey hears a little "snick" noise & sees a motion like an arm sweeping across her field of vision (she's peeking through the crack in the door). she jumps out & catches harmony in the act of writing a threatening message on the mirror. harmony is just like, "so, you caught me. it was me. i poisoned myself, & then i cut up the PJs, & then i wrote threatening messages everywhere, & then i loosened the bolts on the railing. it was all me & i acted alone because i don't want to model anymore & i hoped that if i tricked my mom into thinking that modeling was dangerous, she wouldn't make me. but it's just your word against mine, so now what?" that's when stacey unveils her witnesses. it's still harmony's word against theirs, it's halfways plausible that stacey could get her friends to lie for her. but i guess harmony doesn't see it that way because she's like, "oh well, i am totally busted." claudia cleans off the mirror & stacey says they won't tell anyone what harmony did if she promises to talk to her mom & tell her that she wants to quit modeling. harmony agrees. harmony immediately runs off to find her mom & break the news. she does model in the final runway show that night, which goes off without a hitch. well, for everyone but cokie. dylan trueheart kind of dumps her as a client to take on blaine instead. i don't know why he can't work with both of them. cynthia also decides to give up modeling & shows stacey the brochure from the posh private high school she has chosen for herself. mrs. maslin's eight-year-old daughter wants to model, & after some resistance, mrs. maslin agrees to cast her in the final runway show. everyone is awed by her & dylan trueheart begs to take her on as a client. mrs. maslin says they can talk again when the girl is 15, if she still wants to model then. stacey decides she had fun, but modeling isn't really her bag. cool? the B-plot is so tedious. basically, abby catches buddy barrett & his stepsister lindsey dewitt with a cigarette. they sneaked it out of mr. dewitt's briefcase & they were about to try smoking it. really? they're eight years old. i guess some people experiment with smoking that young, but...it's pretty uncommon. anyway, abby busts them before they have a chance to light it, & she basically shames them into promising they will never smoke. they then decide to stage the great stoneybrook smoke-out, in which kids sign pledges never to smoke, & adult smokers they know sign pledges to give up smoking for one day (with the hope that they will quit for good). the kids sign up everyone they can think of. adults in stoneybrook who smoke include mr. dewiit, mrs. hobart, watson (cigars only), & aunt cecelia. the smoke-out is a big hit. watson dresses up in a tuxedo & stages a funeral for his expensive cigars. the kids go all over town, providing the adults trying to quit with baby carrots & gum. because there's nothing more appealing to someone trying to quit than a pack of precocious, earnest moppets bearing vegetables. oh wait. that would just make me want to double-fist cigarettes. the way the smoking plot is handled is VERY after-school special & preachy. its connection to the A-plot resides in the fact that several of the models for bellair's fashion week smoke to keep their weight in check (i only wish that actually worked) & stacey finds it disgusting. please make a note of how TERRIBLE stacey looks on the cover. she looks like a fifth place winner of a farrah fawcett look-a-like contest held in the basement of a pizza hut somewhere.