Inner beauty wants out. When eighteen-year-old Becky Randle’s mother dies, she’s summoned from her Missouri trailer park to meet Tom Kelly, the world’s top designer. He makes her an impossible offer: He’ll create three dresses to transform Becky from a nothing special girl into the most beautiful woman who ever lived. Becky thinks Tom is a lunatic, or that he’s producing a hidden camera show called World’s Most Gullible Poor People. But she accepts, and she’s remade as Rebecca. When Becky looks in the mirror, she sees herself – an awkward mess of split ends and cankles. But when anyone else looks at Becky, they see pure five-alarm hotness. Soon Rebecca is on the cover of Vogue, the new Hollywood darling, and dating celebrities. Then Becky meets Prince Gregory, heir to the British throne, and everything starts to crumble. Because Rebecca aside, Becky loves him. But to love her back, Gregory would have to look past the blinding Rebecca to see the real girl inside. And Becky knows there’s not enough magic in the world. A screamingly defiant, hugely naughty, and impossibly fun free fall past the cat walks, the red carpets, and even the halls of Buckingham Palace, Gorgeous does the impossible: It makes you see yourself clearly for the first time.
Publication Year: 2013
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4.5/5
When I was in middle and early high school, I was obsessed with Meg Cabot. There was something playfully magical about her books, kind of like an incredibly fluffy cupcake that you don't want to eat because it looks too pretty. There wasn't much substance to her prose--she preferred the chatty to the poetic--but you didn't need that. And it wasn't like sugar, which is actively bad for you.
Eventually, something stopped clicking with Cabot and me. Her latest offerings just haven't hit it. I've missed, however, that chick-lit-with-a-brain kind of book that Meg used to release, and I think that Paul Rudnick may have filled that opening. I love Gorgeous for entirely different reasons than, say, why I love The Book Thief or The Raven Boys. But I still love it.
There is a moral to Gorgeous about inner beauty and that's nice and all, but it's not why I enjoyed the book. Rudnick is so snappy, and so surprisingly good at getting a teenage girl's voice. There's a raciness to the language and the sexual references that I've noticed make a lot of people question whether or not the book is okay for teens. Of course it is! It's perfect for teens because it gets them just right. (Albeit in a very mature, crazy situation.)
I can't really say what was real and what was fantasy or magic in Becky's weird adventure. And that's great, too. A lot of time is covered in the novel at a breakneck pace, but it doesn't seem rushed. The only reason why I took half a point off the rating is because the romance isn't really that detailed or developed. But it's still pleasing, and kissing really isn't the point of this one, so it's not a big deal.
Gorgeous is well-padded with excellent supporting characters, all quirky and unique. In particular, Becky's foul-mouthed best friend Rocher is a favorite, as is the mysterious Tom Kelly. I love books that satirize the celebrity culture, and Gorgeous does that like a champ. There was never a point where I wasn't interested in what was going on. (I also had a good laugh throughout, which is nice and palate-cleansing.)
Anything's possible, but I think you'd have a hard time going wrong with this one.
The Cover: Really simple and really pretty. I love that we got a hint of the impossibly beautiful Rebecca and the impossibly beautiful dress, without seeing all of them. It kept some mystery. The red skirt and red of the dress, as well as that lovely font, sticks out very well against the black background. 4/5
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