Looks (original 2008; edition 2009)

I couldn't finish this book because I just didn't have it in me to go to the dark places teen novels so often take you these days. The story centers on a two girls: one extremely overweight and one terribly anorexic, who use food in similiar ways to express themselves. They navigate the deadly halls of high school and team up together to get revenge on those who have wronged them. This, as far as I could tell from the 50 or so pages I read, is the basic plot.
I just. couldn't. do . it.
On one hand, I feel like I have read this story so many times already since I took the plunge and started reading lots of teen fiction: disaffected teens, painful interactions with peers, betrayal, misery, etc. On the other hand, however, this author is an exceptionally good writer and I think she may have ultimately taken this tale in a more original direction than its predecessors.
I won't find out, though. Because I'm not going to read it!

I read the book "Looks" by Madeleine George. Its about a girl named Meghan Ball. Kids at school say things about her right in front of her. Some of the things are about her size and she sometimes feels like she does not exist. This book is also about another girl named Aimee Zorn. Aimee is a very thin girl. Meghan and Aimee become friends because they find out they have something in common. This is a book I would recommend to others. ( )

Looks by Madeleine George is about two freshmen girls struggling in a high school environment due to their very different physical appearances--one, Meghan, is extremely obese and one, Aimee, is extremely thin. George does a remarkable job of delineating the nuances of high school students, including how they act during passing periods in school and the way the students view their teachers as just teachers, not humans. Occasionally characters fall flat, such as Cara Roy and "J-Bar"--they are both too hyperbolized to be believable. What is most interesting is that these two main protagonists may look like polar opposites but their feelings and experiences are nearly identical. George emphasizes this fact towards the satisfactory end of the novel, stating a universal truth (that no matter how we appear on the outside, we are all similar on the inside) without becoming overly maudlin. Aimee's gift for poetry enhances the novel's diction without being a distraction and provides a welcome respite from the prose and teen-speak.

4Q 4P S

Here are some favorite quotes/passages:

"She gets flashes, quick vivid images, of all the foods she ate today, every single bite of every single item. She can see, like she's zooming down through the lens of an electron microscope, into the inner structure of each food, the ingredients and then the cell of the ingredients and then the proteins in the cells and then the molecules in the proteins that made up each thing she put in her mouth today. Rapidly she examines the vibrating molecular structures for fractures or tumors, anything that could be triggering an allergic reaction in her body, summoning other white blood cells from every corner of her body, all of them rushing like emergency personnel to the scene of the crime, globbing up into a goopy, translucent ball around the offending molecule and making her whole body heave and writhe, blinding her and deafening her in a flood of metallic pain..." (33).

"Aimee reaches for her coat, lying in a heap beside her on the rug, and extracts from the pocket the stack of poems she brought with her, folded up into a hard square of printer paper. She unfolds them into her lap and stares down at them. It's hard to know which one to bare in front of Cara--each one is so raw and personal. Reading any of them aloud will be like ripping off a Band-Aid and shoving the fresh wound beneath Cara's face" (104).

"The fat girl who loses her only friend sees, all at once, how everything works. She sees that all promises are fictions, all friendships are games with winners and losers. The fat girl left alone in the world sees that every human being has a value assigned to them that they are helpless to change no matter what they do, and she sees that people trade each other like baseball cards: three cheap friends for two valuable friends, a whole group of worthless friends for one popular friend. It's like dying and coming back to life, being a fat girl who loses her only friend; it gives you an insight into the people around you that the average person couldn't bear to have" (143-144). ( )

Great book about 2 very different girls (by appearance) that find each other. ( )

Reviewed by Karin Librarian for TeensReadToo.com

Meghan is obese. She is the largest person at Valley Regional High and her hulking size, oddly enough, allows her to blend into the background. Most people are too uncomfortable to make eye contact and most teachers are content to allow her to remain silent during class discussions. Meghan doesn't have any friends, but she knows a lot about everyone at school.

Aimee is reed thin. Her list of foods that give her a "bad reaction" grows every day. About the only things she allows herself to eat are Jell-o and carrot sticks. Her big, floppy hats and black, long skirts make her all but invisible in the school's halls. Invisible to everyone except Meghan, that is...

Meghan feels the need to connect with Aimee. She begins to follow Aimee in order to try and find an excuse to talk to her, but it isn't until Aimee is betrayed and she and Meghan share a common enemy that they team up for a little payback.

LOOKS deals with many issues - eating disorders, friendship, bullying, and high school dynamics are the most evident. George's unique writing style in the first and last chapters give the reader a voyeuristic feeling and, at times, the lyrical and figurative language tricks the reader into thinking they are reading an extended poem rather than a work of prose.

While the author doesn't wrap the story up in the traditional way of most young adult novels, it is definitely an accurate picture of the atmosphere in a typical high school. ( )