SIOBHAN VIVIAN: The List

I forgot to put a book in my bag on Sunday and ended up getting done at work before my mom, so I darted over to Target to get one. This is what I picked. The premise is simple. Every school year, right before homecoming, a list is posted. Two girls are selected from each grade. One is the prettiest. One is the ugliest. This book is about the eight girls on the list and how it affects them during the week. The list is posted Monday, so the book is split up into 8 chapters (1 for each girl) for Mon-Sat. None of the characters is truly likeable. You've got the pretty freshman with the frumpy junior older sister and they have a conflict. You've got the ugly freshman whose boyfriend is a piece of shit and doesn't take the news well. (She's the character I ended up liking most.) The pretty sophomore is a new girl who has been homeschooled her entire life so far, while the ugly sophomore is beautiful, but ugly on the inside. The pretty junior is the one I liked least, because I get really bored by eating disorder stories. The ugly junior is the school's rebel, who decides to truly be ugly and doesn't shower, change her clothes, wash her hair or brush her teeth for the entire school week. She ends up very unrealistically filthy. Like dirt just does not build up in layers that quickly, nor would bad acne form that quickly on a typically clear-skinned person, which it's noted she is. Her hair would be relatively nasty and her mouth would be bad, but five days without a shower is not going to turn you into a walking pile of filth. She's got a rather interesting story, but she's certainly not a likeable character. The prettiest and ugliest seniors have an old conflict to settle. It's a really fascinating premise to see how people react to this list in different ways and the author does real life credit by not everyone getting a happy ending. I wouldn't recommend it to buy, but it's library worthy.