Review: Beautiful by Amy Reed

Tags: YA, sex, drugs, apathy

Rating: 3.5 out of 5


Summary

13-year-old Cassie moves to Seattle from a small town and decides to embrace a darker, more grown-up lifestyle. However, falling into sex and drugs and being called beautiful by older boys doesn’t seem to ease the pain that Cassie carries inside of insecurities and a dislike for her dysfunctional family. As she becomes more and more wrapped up by her manipulative “best friend,” others’ ideas of her, and her own helplessness, there seems to be no way out for Cassie.

Review

There is something disturbingly haunting about BEAUTIFUL. Debut novelist Amy Reed writes Cassie’s dark story in a prose that stuns and lingers.

BEAUTIFUL is similar to edgy movies like Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen in terms of content, but it is nearly poetic in its descriptions. Reed’s writing allows Cassie to distance herself from all situations she doesn’t want to be in, while simultaneously letting readers into Cassie’s mindset. The result both characterizes Cassie and effectively draws us into her frightening world.

My main issue with this book was the lack of information we were given on Cassie’s past, which would’ve acted as a comparison to and justification of Cassie’s current behavior. Throughout the book Cassie hints at an unhappy life in her old town—but is she a former good girl rebelling against her past? What is her motivation for falling in with the crowd she does? It is unclear to me what drove her to engage in the lifestyle she does, which made connecting with the story a little difficult.

Even so, BEAUTIFUL is a great read if you can stomach the material. It’s eye-opening, gut-churning, and exquisitely written.

Similar Authors
Ellen Hopkins
Patricia McCormick
Beatrice Sparks
Elizabeth Scott

Writing: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Plot: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5


Cover discussion: 3.5 out of 5 - It's beautiful and bold, disturbing yet mesmerizing.

Simon & Schuster / Oct. 6, 2009 / Hardcover / 240pp. / $16.99

Won in a contest, asked to review by author.

Waiting on Wednesday (23)

Beautiful by Amy Reed

Summary from GoodReads:

When thirteen-year-old Cassie moves to a suburb of Seattle, she is determined to leave her boring, good-girl existence behind. She chooses some dangerous new friends and is quickly caught up in their fast-paced world of drugs, sex, secrets, and cruelty.

Cassie's new existence both thrills and terrifies her. She embraces the numbness she feels from the drugs, starts sleeping with an older boy, and gets pulled into a twisted friendship triangle that is tinged with violence and abuse. Cassie is trapped in a swift downward spiral, and there's no turning back.

I absolutely loved, and at the same time was horrified/fascinated by, the movie Thirteen, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, which came out a few years ago. This book sounds similar to the movie, which means it's a definite want for me. I'm always intrigued by stories with darker plots, stories of lives that could happen to any of us if we're not careful.

And isn't the cover great? I love the unusual title treatment, and the picture looks like a good girl gone bad. It's really compelling. I can't wait!

Beautiful will be published by Simon Pulse in hardcover on October 6, 2009.

What are you waiting on this Wednesday?

(And let me know how you think of the slight tweaks I've made to my layout! I like it a lot more now--there are still things I need to continue to work out, as well as some very necessary features such as "About Me" and "Review Policy" posts, but overall I'm happy that I was able to figure out the HTML on my own. One of the few perks of being an insomniac!)