The List

 

 Author: Siobhan Vivian
Series: Standalone
Pages: 332
Challenge: Goodreads Challenge 2013
Genre: Contemporary
Acquired: Library
Rating: ★★★★

*****

Goodreads Summary:

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.

  *****

 My Thoughts:

The List follows eight girls in high school as they deal with their school tradition of The List. This list every year names the prettiest and ugliest girl in each grade. The list is done anonymously and gets posted a couple of months after the school year starts. This novel follows the girls on the list and how they cope with being on the list and also with their very different issues/problems in their lives because of it.

I related to the characters Lauren, Abby, and Abby's sister, Fern, the most out of all of the characters. I connected with Lauren just because she is a shy and genuinely nice girl and I like to think of myself as being the same. I connected with Abby and her relationship with her family, and Fern and I were similar in our priorities and level of intelligence.

This story gives insight to each girl's unique situation and life while not being a first person point of view novel, it was more third person with insight into each of the character's feelings. I loved that the story was believable and completely realistic. I also loved that the characters faced real-life situations and problems.

Another thing I liked was that you got to see how each girl grew throughout the story and how their lives were when the book ended in comparison to their lives in the beginning. My favorite scenes were actually those scenes where each girl learned their unique lesson from each of their experiences.

I did not really have a distinct dislike for this book so I rated it ★★★★. It was enjoyable and I really liked reading it. Based on the cover, I would give it a rating of a ★★★½. It encompasses what the is about and the horrors of what the list does to both types of the people on the list. I just feel that the cover was perfect for the book.

I did have an issue though with the ending of this book. I feel that it was rushed and could have ended smoother. I went through the entire book learning and connecting with the characters too well for it to have ended so abruptly. I  felt that the ending of the book was summed up too quickly, in like 2 pages.

Also with it being a contemporary, I was not really kept guessing but I will say that I did not guess who wrote the list in the end, but I felt that, once explained, it made since as to why that person would have written the list. In the end, I would recommend this book to contemporary loves who are in the mood for a realistic read that takes place in high school with girls of different ages.

*****