BOOK REVIEW: Beautiful

BOOK: Beautiful
AUTHOR: Amy Reed
CAKESTER RATING: Awesome Awesome

THOUGHTS

This book is a haunting portrayal of one 7th graders descent into a harrowing world filled with drugs, violence and no one way out. Cassie is new in Seattle and she's looking to be someone different. She gets her chance when she is invited to the "popular" table by her new instant best friend named Alex. As soon as she sits down she asked if she's "straight" meaning does she abstain from drugs. Her answer changes everything.

This book was a tough read. Don't be fooled by the fact that the main character is a 7th grader. This book is suited for older readers both by subject matter and prose. Cassie's narrative is stark and unflinching. There is a dreamy quality to it as she drifts in and out of various drugs and frightening situations. The other characters drift in an out of her consciousness and Cassie notices them just long enough to get through the next hit. However, she becomes strangely close to two of them, her boyfriend and her best friend Alex's half sister. Each of them affect her lives in devastating way.

Just like Cassie, I spent the book looking for signs of hope. Cassie is also looking for a change through the pills and the sex and hiding from most people. She got out of one bad experience just to be trapped in another. The lyrical nature of the story is part of the redeeming beauty and Cassie is obviously very self-aware, very intelligent. There has to be a way out of this mess she's in but it's very hard to see this path for a long time.

The book moves quickly and slowly at different times. Sometimes it's like moving through a dream or better yet a nightmare. It's hard to imagine a reality where kids do these things and parents are this neglectful but it's somebody's life. If you've seen it, this book will remind you a lot of the movie Thirteen. But the toxic friend is even more toxic and there's honestly no redeeming adult character present at all.

The book goes from intense to sad to intense to sad and intense and more intense. It hardly lets up, a ball of tension, so you can feel how hard it must be to live Cassie's life. It's an important perspective for so many different reasons. This is a book that sticks to your brain after you've read the last word. I think the last chapter is the hardest.

Recommended if you're ready for something heavy and haunting and heartbreaking but ultimately there's a undercurrent of strength in Cassie's story that hopefully you can apply to your life.

Really recommended if you love Ellen Hopkins' books!


-- Liana
#TEAMNODUNK