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.