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FindingJane
Sep 12, 2016FindingJane rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
“Gorgeous” is a curious sort of novel, combining a faint whiff of the supernatural with the all-too-real world of raging adolescence, a place where misplaced rumor and scandal are just phone clicks away and boredom, frustration and despair are every-day companions. Welcome to high school. Poor Allison Avery is the middle child, neither a brainiac like her perfect older sister Quinn nor a beautiful sweetheart like her younger sister Phoebe. She’s certain that she’s mean spirited (well, she can be), too normal and too bland to be pretty. Then she sells her cell phone to the Devil. Neat twist, huh? This novel grabs you from the first line and doesn’t let go until its hopefully-ever-after ending. The inclusion of the supernatural is at times smirkingly funny, but you have to wonder just how much the Devil is really involved. He’s handsome, suave, probing and slick, just as you’d expect him to be. But you have a sneaking suspicious that a lot of what’s happening to Allison may simply be her own doing rather than the machinations of Nick Scratch. Allison finds herself in one quandary after another due to her ill temper, her initial submission to her two supposed best friends and her entanglement with the spunky girl from the big city…or rather, the Big Apple. She’s becoming someone different and her friends and family wonder what’s going on with her. Sometimes she wonders too. This book keeps you guessing about Allison, the Devil, her friends, family and the ultimate choices she’s going to make. It’s not deep literature (Allison is the typical millennial; when her teacher speaks about Faust and the deal he makes with the Devil, she has only a vague idea of having heard about him somewhere.). But it’s an above-average way to spend a day.