{"id":21191,"date":"2013-07-21T15:22:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-21T19:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=21191"},"modified":"2013-07-21T15:22:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-21T19:22:26","slug":"review-of-gorgeous-by-paul-rudnik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=21191","title":{"rendered":"Review of Gorgeous, by Paul Rudnik"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Gorgeous<\/em><\/p>\n

by Paul Rudnick<\/p>\n

Scholastic Press, New York, 2013. 327 pages.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a light-hearted and upbeat modern fairy tale, with sly jabs at the fashion industry, celebrity culture, and popularity.<\/p>\n

Becky Randle\u2019s mom doesn\u2019t go out much. She weighs almost 400 pounds and seems afraid of life. But Becky loves her fiercely.<\/p>\n

However, on Becky\u2019s eighteenth birthday, her mom dies and leaves Becky a phone number. When she calls the number, she\u2019s offered a thousand dollars and a plane ticket to New York.<\/p>\n

In New York, she\u2019s offered a bargain from the mysterious and glamorous designer Tom Kelly.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s talk about you,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re eighteen years old, you\u2019ve finished high school and you couldn\u2019t be more ordinary. Yes, you have the tiniest hint of your mother, but don\u2019t kid yourself. You\u2019re nothing. You\u2019re no one. And you look like \u2013 anyone. You don\u2019t exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

I knew I should punch him or shoot him or at least disagree but I couldn\u2019t, for one simple reason. He was right.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo here\u2019s my offer,\u201d he said, sitting up straight, as if he was about to conduct serious business. \u201cI will make you three dresses: one red, one white, and one black. And if you wear these dresses, and if you do everything I say, then you will become the most beautiful woman on earth. You will become, in fact, the most beautiful woman who has ever lived.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She decides to try his offer. She gets poked and prodded and measured by an entire crew of people, including handmade shoes and custom jewelry. I love the part where they take a blood sample:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is couture,\u201d explained Mrs. Chen, depositing the spool in a test tube. \u201cEvery garment will be custom made, only for you. You will become a part of each dress.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When the first dress, a red one, is finally ready, Tom Kelly takes Becky out to a gala. <\/p>\n

We passed a large framed poster, under glass, announcing the schedule for upcoming operas and concerts, and I was inches away from the glimmering reflection of a woman who was not only unthinkably beautiful, but at ease with herself and entertained by my gaping. And that was when I first suspected that the reflection, and the woman, and the miracle, might be me.<\/p>\n

My instantaneous response was a screaming brainload of panic. I pulled my arm away from Tom and I ran down the nearest available hallway, to the ladies\u2019 room.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Looking in the ladies\u2019 room mirror, she sees her old self. But when someone else walks in, her reflection again shows Rebecca Randle, the most beautiful woman in the world.<\/p>\n

And then Tom Kelly adds the kicker, another fairy-tale element:<\/p>\n

\u201dBy the way,\u201d said Tom Kelly; he was leaning into the room with both hands braced against the door frame, like a warm-hearted Christmas Eve dad, checking that I was tucked in and that sweet dreams were on their way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should mention something. You have one year to fall in love and get married. One year, or all of this, by which I mean Rebecca, all of it disappears forever.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, Becky\u2019s adventures begin as the most beautiful woman who\u2019s ever lived. I love her sense of humor about it, as well as her friendship with the down-to-earth Rocher, from back home. She meets the teen heartthrob she\u2019s had a crush on since childhood (Turns out, he\u2019s gay.) and gets to star in a movie with him. She meets royalty and other celebrities. Who is she, really, under that astoundingly beautiful exterior? Is Rebecca Randle, most beautiful woman in the world, a real person at all?<\/p>\n

The book has an unexpected but completely satisfying ending. The last paragraph is one of my favorites ever and made me laugh out loud.<\/p>\n

Oh, and the author has mastered the art of chapter endings that make you want to keep reading. If you don\u2019t want to spend half the night reading this book, let me give you a hint: stop in the middle of a chapter! I didn\u2019t, and was sorry the next day.<\/p>\n

For a modern fairy tale about beauty and identity, with plenty of humor along the way, try Gorgeous<\/em>, by Paul Rudnick.<\/p>\n

thisisteen.com\/books<\/a>
\nscholastic.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Teens\/gorgeous.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a>