The List - Siobhan Vivian

Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 336
Publisher: Push
Release Date: 01/04/2012 
Find The Author: (Website / Twitter
Find The Book: Book Depository / AbeBooks UK / US 
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An intense look at the rules of high school attraction - and the price that's paid for them.

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.

At some point in her life Siobhan Vivian decided that having a 350 page book with eight different points of view was a fine idea, and no-one sat her down and suggested that maybe, no.

Quite frankly that could really sum up the whole book without a full review. However I do feel I should cover the Whole Thing, including the underused characters, the stories that never were and the complete lack of ending. The majority of characters get no closure whatsoever. It just stops. A couple of characters get a decent ending but not a single character comes away from the story without leaving unanswered questions. Potentially some spoilers as I'm discussing who got a decent ending. 

Freshmen: Ugliest - Danielle. Prettiest - Abby. I think most readers can agree that Danielle could easily hold up an entire novel by herself, she's a great character that struggles with being viewed as masculine, while loving to swim competitively. She has a boyfriend she met at camp that's acting weird around her and a great backstory about how they met. Easily a standalone. On the other hand, Abby is not really memorable or interesting and she may have the least amount of chapters. Abby's sister was easily more intriguing, she's a geek that struggles with not being as pretty as her younger sister and later on (view spoiler).

Sophomores: Ugliest - Candace. Prettiest - Lauren. Candace is labelled as ugly due to her personality, which you basically never see. Lauren has just moved to town after previously being homeschooled and is almost a Carrie character, if Carrie was attractive and accepted by girls. Candace seems hurt by her friends but you never see the ugly personality mentioned. If anything, Candace and Lauren end up with an interesting almost-friendship that could also have been explored in it's own book. The ending for Lauren ends with a lot of questions as to what will happen in her future.

Juniors: Ugliest - Sarah. Prettiest - Bridget. Sarah gets called Ugly so naturally, she decides to wear the same clothes and not bathe for a week. She somehow gets so disgusting that no-one wants to stand near her. Anyone who's been stuck in a depression spiral knows that this is greatly exaggerated and unless you're running track every single day you're not going to be as greasy and smelly as Sarah is on Day 3. I found her obsession with Milo's ex pretty annoying but she did have an okay ending. Bridget has an eating disorder, which the List just makes a hundred times worse. She gets no ending really, no closure, not even a clue as to if her disorder will be dealt with before it's too late. It was a very strange ending, almost flippant which you never want to be about a subject as serious as this. 

Seniors: Ugliest - Jennifer. Prettiest - Margo. Jennifer and Margo have a history and they're yet another pair that could fill a whole book. Margo was a good point of view to have, as she showed the hard decisions people have to make to fit in, and the way friendships change as you grow up. I found the reasons Margo had for disliking Jennifer to be pretty understandable in the end at least.


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