Pink Polka Dot Books: The List By Siobhan Vivian

This years list is up!! The prettiest and ugliest from each grade has been announced, just as it is every year...
This year the "lucky" 8, who are center of attention, all have different reactions to the list. And the book follows all 8 girls over the week after the list is put up:

Pretties-
Abby, is over-joyed to be named prettiest freshman, too bad she is failing science and has a brainiac sister who makes everything that much harder for her.
Bridget, starts feeling the pressure as soon as she sees her name in print... she's been starving herself all summer, and she knows the list has just validated the fact that she was doing the right thing.
Lauren, the new girl. Home schooled, sheltered Lauren has no clue what this list is or means, but she's unexpectedly happy with all the attention she starts getting.
Margo, she's happy that she's going to be homecoming queen, but she doesn't like the attention Jennifer's (the only 4-peat ugly in school history) been getting.

Uglies-
Danielle, student athlete with a newish boyfriend. Completely blindsided by the list, and it immediately starts affecting her relationship with her football player boyfriend.
Candace, she knows she's pretty god-damn it!! So why would she be named ugliest sophomore? Oh yeah, maybe it's because she's a bitch!
Sarah, social outcast and likes it that way (or so she says). After seeing the list she takes a vow to be as ugly and dirty as possible (umm not changing her underwear....ewww!!!)
Jennifer, the only 4-time list maker, and she's proud of it... I mean what else is she gonna do? When Margo's friends start inviting her along with them and actually campaigning to get her elected homecoming queen, it's like a dream come true for her... maybe she can finally be the pretty girl for one night... but then Margo steps in and the whole thing blows up.

*Some Spoilers*

This book was definitely one of the ones I've most looked forward to this year... and I wish it would've lived up to the hype, but it kind of didn't. I liked the premise and all of the girls stories were pretty great, but the ending... the ending killed me!! What happened to half of them?? How can you just leave a girl with an eating disorder with no conclusion?? What happened with Jennifer and Margo?? and did Lauren really have to be home schooled by her horrible mother? There was too much left up in the air for me.

The other thing I wasn't crazy about was the tense it was written in. Abby looks down at her shoes... Margo walks across the room.... I guess when you are writing from 8 different POV's it's probably easier to do it that way, but it just didn't flow right for me. PersonallyI love when books are written in different POV's, but 8 alternating back and forth may be a lot for some people to follow. And maybe it's just me, but I didn't get the Margo/Jennifer thing. I wanted to feel bad for Jennifer, but the author wouldn't let me... somehow I ended up feeling sorry for the homecoming queen?? I didn't like Margo at all, but you could tell the author was pushing her, which I didn't get.

Overall I gave it a higher rating than I initially wanted to for 2 reasons:
1. I think I had way too high of expectations going in, and that's not fair.
2. I think it covered some pretty cool topics.

P.S.-It reminded me of Slam Books... remember those things??
Add it to your To-Read List!

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