Sometimes beauty is multicolored like a sunset. Sometimes it resembles Peaches and Cream Barbie. And sometimes beauty looks like a badass punkrock chick with pounds of eyeliner, screamin' red lipstick, and ripped up fishnets tucked into combat boots. Cassie wants to be one of those hard-beauty girls, because nobody messes with them.
When 13 year old Cassie's family moves from a tiny town to a suburb of Seattle, she has a rare opportunity to reinvent herself. No longer will she be the even-nerdier-than-the-smart-kids geek. When the most popular, but feared girl in school Alex decides to befriend Cassie, her whole world shifts. She is dosed with acid, and begins spiraling into a drug and sex filled existence. While she is still in all the advanced classes in school-- and acing them, by the way-- her private life is in shambles. Only neurotic Sarah, who was locked in a closet and raped by her father for the first ten years of her life, gets through to Cassie on a personal level... and it isn't until disaster strikes that Cassie's eyes are opened to the life she has been living (if you can even call it living). Oh, and don't forget this: Cassie is only 13.
So, obviously not light reading, right? Honestly, it reminded me a lot of that movie Thirteen. There are a lot of girls who love harsh, realistic books like Living Dead Girl, and the tomes of Ellen Hopkins. So, Beautiful isn't for everyone, and although the protagonist is a 13 year old, I would still only recommend this to older teens.
P.S. I freaking love the cover. It fits the book *perfectly*.
1 comment:
This one was a bit much for middle school, but I could see it being successful for high school students.
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