The concept of the book intrigued me. The whole idea of naming the prettiest and ugliest girl in each school year is cruel to say the least. This book follows the 8 characters that are named on the list and I thought it would be interesting to see not only how the people labeled ‘Ugly’ would react, but this labelled ‘Pretty’ as well as that could be detrimental as well. Would it go to their head? Would their friends be jealous?
This book delves into several issues, including eating disorders and parents that act mysteriously controlling, but I feel that there are a lot of missed opportunities. I think this is in part because the book only focuses on one week of their lives, meaning that the issues that made me wonder the most wouldn’t be able to be resolved in that time.
This also meant at the end of the book that other than a couple of the characters, I felt very unsatisfied with their journeys and conclusions. I could see that if the book was to carry on over a few months or a full school year I’d have more answers, rather than all the questions. Why does Lauren’s mum acted the way she does? Does Abby improve over the year, or could it be something more serious holding back her academic abilities like dyslexia or something similar? Did Bridget get some help after Lisa’s intervention? Did Candace stop being Mount Washington High School’s answer to Regina George?
I don’t think I’ve been in the position before when having finished a book I’m left with so many questions, and I had to download the kindle version of the book, just to see it truly did end there, that the whole audiobook had downloaded and I wasn’t missing anything, even just an epilogue chapter telling us what had happened 6 months later or whatever. Nope, it ended where it did, leaving me wanting so much more. Which is incredibly disappointing, had it been expanded upon (even if following less characters) it would have been a very good book, as it stands, it seems like wasted potential.
I would definitely read more by Siobhan Vivian though, as other than my disappointments mentioned above, I did enjoy the writing and the subject, so would love to see what else she has written.
Published by: Mira Ink
Gratefully received from the Publisher for review
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