AOM Review: Beautiful by Amy Reed

Title: Beautiful

Author: Amy Reed

Rating: 9/10

Summary: (Taken fromAmazon)

When Cassie moves from the tiny town where she has always lived to a suburb of Seattle, she is determined to leave her boring, good-girl existence behind. This is Cassie’s chance to stop being invisible and become the kind of girl who’s worth noticing.

Stepping into her new identity turns out to be easier than Cassie could have ever imagined…one moment, one choice, will change everything.

Cassie’s new existence both thrills and terrifies her. Swept into a world of illicit parties and social landmines, she sheds her virginity, embraces the numbness she feels from the drugs, and floats through it all, knowing that she is now called beautiful. She ignores the dangers of her fast-paced life?but she can’t sidestep the secrets and the cruelty.

Cassie is trapped in a swift downward spiral tinged with violence and abuse, and no one—not even the one person she thought she could trust—can help her now.

My Thoughts: Beautiful is one of those book you expect to be good from the start. The cover draws you in first, then the summary, and when you start it, the first chapter alone makes you want more.

While I can’t relate to a lot of what happened in the book, as I am extremely straight-edge, I could relate to Cassie and I think a lot of other girls will also be able to. All of us have to deal with feelings we can’t control, peer pressure, crushes, and wanting to fit in, among all of the other things Cassie has to deal with and that makes Beautiful more realistic for teens who find Cassie’s world foreign.

 As much as I loved Cassie and the plot, I would’ve loved to see some of the minor characters developed more because I kept confusing some of them and I also would’ve liked to have seen more added onto the ending, though that’s partly because I didn’t want to see the book end.

 Overall, I completely recommend this but only for older/mature teens, due to the content. (I also think fans of Stephanie Kuehnert’s books would enjoy this.)

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