The List

Nice read. I see a lot of people were unhappy that the book ended where it did, but the point of the book was to talk about how these characters reacted to the list, and the culmination was homecoming.

Margo realized the homecoming crown was cheap plastic, that this thing that seemed important and that Jennifer and Margo wanted so much was shoddy, as the principal tried to tell Jennifer. We find out just how damaged Jennifer is, and how she took her pain and inflicted pain on others. Bridget cannot see herself as beautiful, because she is in the grip of her disease. Sarah learns that she really is loved, and hopefully puts aside her need for self-destruction. Abby moves closer to appreciating her sister and got to see through Fern how painful the list could be. Danielle valued herself not to stay with a boy who was not ready to stand by her side, and began to see her strength was beautiful and sexy. Lauren made steps to try to separate herself from her over-possessive mother, but struggles with a desperation to be liked. Candace became kinder, because she realized she'd alienated her friends and saw that Lauren's kindness was a lot of what made her pretty.We also get to see that the list was largely arbitrary -- one person's prejudiced opinion treated like truth.

(Maybe slightly spoilerish ...)
I was overall disappointed. Hence the 2 stars. I wanted it to be better than it was. Maybe I expected too much of it. If so, I'm sorry, The List.

So, each year at Mount Washington High School, on the Monday before Homecoming, a list is put up all over school, naming the prettiest and ugliest girls in the school. It's a “tradition” that everybody puts up with. Even the faculty, unfortunately (don't even get me started on that).

I really thought I'd like this book - it was well-written, yes, and had a meaningful premise. But it just left a bad taste in my mouth. I was disappointed because the book had so much potential to be really powerful and convicting. It isn't just about pretty vs. ugly - it's about loyalty, and friendship, and the power of words in general. I felt like the book ended so abruptly, and didn't address a lot of those issues, or answer the questions I had.

Like, what did the list-maker do with the stamp? (I mean, not that anybody NEEDS the stamp to recreate the emblem - hello, copy machines & photoshop?) Did Fern and Abby work out that they're both jealous of each other, and start learning to just help each other instead of insulting each other? Did Sarah start trusting Milo, or get her self-confidence back? Did any of the nameless groups of “friends” (Candace's, Margo's) actually learn a lesson from all this, did they truly CARE about anybody? Did Candace learn her lesson, did she start being nicer to people?

And, I don't know, I get that there's something to be said for leaving some questions unanswered - I don't believe that a book has to answer every single question, that there's some things we can decide for ourselves for the characters.

But I felt like the ending, SPOILER HERE with the plastic tiara bit, was overdone and insulting. We've all seen Mean Girls, we get it. There were so many other powerful and meaningful places the book could have gone at the end, and how it ended was a little bit of a cop-out. Not to mention obvious - we've just read an entire book detailing how calling people pretty or ugly damages self-esteem and self-confidence on both sides of the line - we didn't need to be told, again, with an overused metaphor, “Oh by the way, only caring about being pretty is just gonna make you seem really fake.” We got that already.

What about how the blind, unwavering need to constantly be told you're pretty can completely damage you from the inside out, making you so exhaustingly annoying that it's impossible for anybody to ever want to be close to you? What about how ANY harsh words, whether they're related to beauty or intelligence or WHATEVER, can make you do some pretty stupid things to try and compensate? What about, assuming someone is a certain way (like, “a slut”) based on circumstantial evidence (kissing your boyfriend...?) and then punishing them for it ... that's pretty messed up.

And there's more - there's so many “life lessons” that could definitely have used a bit more spelling out, but instead, we focus on the trite and obvious “Hey kids - don't judge a book by it's cover.” It's a good lesson to learn, but there's so many other good lessons that The List approached but didn't touch.

And ya know, maybe I'm asking too much of the book? But then again, why bring up all of those issues if you weren't going to address them? Why leave all of that up to the imagination?

K, I'm done.