From Goodreads:
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.
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.
This book is told from the perspectives of eight different girls. EIGHT. That's a lot of narrators! And potentially, eight narrators could end really terribly. It could be confusing or there could be no character development and it could take away from the story. But that is not the case with this book.
Siobhan Vivian manages to make each girl a character of many layers. Each girl stands out. Each girl is wildly different from the rest of the girls. And the constantly switching points of view is not confusing at all.
The book centers around a list posted at a high school, with the names of the ugliest girl in each grade and the prettiest. Hundreds of copies of this list are printed and passed around school.
Which is disgusting. This kind of crap actually happens in high schools. There were certain parts of this book that literally made me sick to my stomach at the way people treat each other. It turns me into a giant squid of anger and I just want to run around screaming WHHHHYYY!?!?!?!? No one should have to deal with anything as cruel as a list like this.
The list was a really good way to explore what teenage girls deal with on a daily basis. Between problems with body-image and friends and boys and school work, everyone is struggling with something, whether you're pretty or ugly, popular or not popular.
This is the kind of book that I want to shove into the hands of every high-schooler and make them read it immediately. BECAUSE THIS KIND OF STUFF HAPPENS EVERYDAY. (I'm sorry. I'm having a really hard time not ranting right now.)
Anyway, I'm really glad I read this book. All teenage girls should read this. The List deals with many difficult topics that high schoolers struggle with on a daily basis, while still managing to be an interesting and entertaining story. I'm seriously considering buying hundreds of copies of this book and shoving into the hands of random people at school.
-Rachel
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