Hating Alison Ashley

Australian children's / young adult novel written by Robin Klein, later turned into a movie starring Australian pop star Delta Goodrem.

Erica "Yuk" Yurken is a precocious (and slightly snotty) lower-middle class adolescent who belongs to a family she considers to be freaks and goes to what's widely considered to be the worst school in Australia. Dreaming of future stardom and considering herself on a higher level than most of her schoolmates, her parade is quite heavily rained on when new girl Alison Ashley is put in her class. Alison, from a wealthy family, is richer, prettier and more talented and quickly gains more interest from the other students than Erica, who quickly finds herself being consumed with envy and engaged in increasingly desperate attempts to one-up Alison, not realizing that Alison's life isn't as great as Erica thinks it is.


 * All Girls Like Ponies: Erica's little sister Jenna.
 * Always Someone Better: Provides most of the conflict.
 * The Beautiful Elite: Played with; Erica thinks that Alison's one of these, but it's mostly her own jealousy blowing things out of proportion; Alison is actually genuinely nice and only wants to be Erica's friend.
 * Dawson Casting: In the movie, the kids are in high school, around year nine (which, for those not familiar with the Australian school system, would make them around the 14- to 15-year-old mark). They're played by 21-year-olds. In the book, they were in the last year of primary school, year six (age 11-12).
 * Fail O'Suckyname: Erica Yurken.
 * Green-Eyed Monster: Erica is consumed by this towards Alison.
 * Lonely Rich Kid: Although Erica's too blind to see it, Alison's home life really isn't that great.
 * Most Writers Are Writers:
 * Unreliable Narrator: Erica, as well as misjudging Alison, tends to overestimate her own wit and popularity.
 * Verbing Nouny: The title.