A little over a year ago, Rachel Vail published a fantastic book called Lucky, about a thirteen-year-old girl whose family suddenly found themselves in reduced circumstances.
Gorgeous continues following the Avery family, starting from about the same place Lucky started but from the perspective of middle sister Allison, who wants more than anything to be … beautiful.
And the first sentence is a doozy. Guaranteed to suck you right in. Takes the whole Avery saga in a very strange direction. Makes you think, “You did what to whom???”
I won’t hold out on you. Here ’tis:
“I sold my cell phone to the devil.”
YES! We need more books involving people selling stuff to the devil. There have been a few good ones. (Soul Enchilada by David McGinnis Gill, for starters.) But we need more. And I’m glad Rachel is contributing to the genre.
Really, though, Gorgeous is not some bizzarro foray into the realm of religious fantasy. The whole “sold my cell phone to the devil” thing is a vehicle for exploring Allison Avery’s struggle with regular teen stuff: beauty, popularity, boys, and of course wealth.
I won’t tell you too much for fear of spoiling the plot, but the gist is this: Allison makes her deal with the devil. People find her more attractive. And then she accidentally finds herself sought out by the modeling industry.
Back when I reviewed Lucky I wrote that it was really refreshing for an author to tackle the subject of wealth in such a direct way. What I love about Rachel’s sequel is that she’s continuing to embroider the story of the Avery sisters (and their financial struggles), and she’s not sticking to a boilerplate to do it.
So. Great book. Twenty-seven gold stars, fifteen green stars, nine hundred blue stars and seventy-nine red stars.
If you haven’t already read Lucky, start there. Then check out Gorgeous while eagerly awaiting the final book in this trilogy, Brilliant.
And look out for an interview with Rachel here on the site some time soon.
Tags: rachel vail
Rachel Vail books= awesome!
You really seem to have gotten this book. I read it and found it refreshing, funny, and just incredibly timely, what with the economic collapse and the reduced circumstances, as you put it, that so many teens find themselves in right now. The devil in the book lends an air of magical realism to the story–or is it just a dream inside the head of wacky Allison. Great characters, great fun…I loved it!
I think dealing with the devil is something most of us think about, consciously or unconsciously throughout our lives. Rachel’s book shows that this fantasy can seem like reality and it makes us think about what we really want out of life. Bravo for Gorgeous, which gets right to the point and zeros in on a fantasy most, if not all, females have at one point or other. And bravo to Rachel for once again pinpointing exactly what is on the mind of someone going through all the tortures of young adulthood.
[...] a great review of Gorgeous from YA New York. Who wouldn’t want to read a book with a great first line like that, [...]