Proud Professional Reader
Thursday, 25 April 2013
Title: The List
Author: Siobhan Vivian
Date Published: April 1, 2012
Grade: B+
It happens every year. A list is posted, and one girl from each grade is chosen as the prettiest, and another is chosen as the ugliest. Nobody knows who makes the list. It almost doesn't matter. The damage is done the minute it goes up.
This is the story of eight girls, freshman to senior, "pretty" and "ugly." And it's also the story of how we see ourselves, and how other people see us, and the tangled connection of the two.
Review: This book. Ugh. From the start to the finish, I found myself constantly rolling my eyes, sighing in frustration, and shaking my head, annoyed. Yet, somehow, for some crazy unknown reason... I just couldn't put it down. I mean, sure, it was super cheesy and frustrating half the time, but how do you rate a book so negatively when it was near impossible to release from your grip? Obviously, this book had great aspects to it. It tackled many major and realistic teen issues that teenage girls face in high school today; rejection, anorexia, cliques.
Let's start with the characters. Vivian tackled a pretty big feat by having the points of views be from eight different characters. This had both its advantages and disadvantages. It kept the plot interesting and complex, and at the same time, it was impossible for the characters to each be completely developed, therefore making it hard to really invest into a character. Some of the characters' stories were more interesting than others. For instance, Danielle's storyline was my favourite to read because she was a swimmer, and it was easy to relate to (also someone should go punch Andrew), rather than Lauren's storyline, which was pretty boring for me to read. Furthermore, although the characters were very annoying at times, (I guarantee you will want to throw every single one of them off a cliff as some point) they were still- unfortunately- pretty relatable.
This being said, I was extremely annoyed with the ending. I was left with a very unresolved ending, which made me frustrated in ways I cannot even begin to describe. Out of the eight characters, only a couple of them had their ending's resolved. The ones that weren't mentioned again kind of just faded away as if they weren't important (like Danielle! :( ). Also, it wasn't exactly a happy ending, not to give away any spoilers or anything, I just didn't feel entirely happy after finishing the book.
The writing itself was decent. It felt really simple, and I guess that can be a good thing if you're looking for a light read. Overall, The List really was an interesting read. It did a pretty good job of showing the different perspectives of teenage girls facing different challenges throughout high school. It showed how much pressure is put on girls to look "beautiful" in society, and it did a painfully good job of showing how most girls depend on the opinions of others to feel good, or bad, about themselves. Although it did focus on a bunch of serious issues like anorexia, it was still a really easy, light contemporary.
Thanks for reading!
PAULA :)
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