SYNOPSIS: A hilarious new novel from Elizabeth Eulberg about taking the wall out of the wallflower so she can bloom.
Don't mess with a girl with a Great Personality.
Everybody
loves Lexi. She's popular, smart, funny...but she's never been one of
those girls, the pretty ones who get all the attention from guys. And on
top of that, her seven-year-old sister, Mackenzie, is a terror in a
tiara, and part of a pageant scene where she gets praised for her beauty
(with the help of fake hair and tons of makeup).
Lexi's
sick of it. She's sick of being the girl who hears about kisses instead
of getting them. She's sick of being ignored by her longtime crush, Logan.
She's sick of being taken for granted by her pageant-obsessed mom. And
she's sick of having all her family's money wasted on a phony pursuit of
perfection.
The
time has come for Lexi to step out from the sidelines. Girls without
great personalities aren't going to know what hit them. Because Lexi's
going to play the beauty game—and she's in it to win it.
REVIEW: Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality
by Elizabeth Eulberg delivers everything a contemporary young adult
novel should: characters that readers wish they could be friends with, conflict that keeps readers gripped to the page, and just the right amount of crush-worthy boys.
Eulberg
does an excellent job of developing her main character, Lexi. I had no
problem understanding how Lexi felt about the way she was treated both
at school and at home. Despite her two best friends, Benny and Cam,
Lexi wants more. She wants to be seen, to be respected. Her decision to
fight for those wants provides the main action of the story.
The romance in Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality could not be better. I found myself relating to Lexi’s fantasy of Logan,
a fantasy that continues even after she starts hanging out with a
pretty likeable guy, Taylor. Benny’s hesitation to ask his crush, Chris,
on a date was so honest, and I could not contain my excitement as their
relationship developed. Cam’s cynicism about relationships provides an excellent contrast to all of the love going around.
One of my favorite things about Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality
is that it does not focus on only young adult characters. Including
adult characters beyond the brief mention of, “My parents don’t
understand me,” in young adult novels seems to be getting more and more
rare (road trip novels, anyone?). But Eulberg develops her adult
characters—Lexi’s parents—just as much as she develops her young adult
characters—Lexi’s friends and love interests. The divorce between Lexi’s
parents was not described just through Lexi’s eyes; it was described
through her mother’s eyes as well. Unable to cope with the pain of her
husband leaving her, Lexi’s mother turns to food and pageants to fill
the void. Lexi’s father—who detests pageants—allows his issues with the
pageants and his ex-wife to get in between him and his daughters. The
interactions between Lexi and her parents are highly realistic and far
from shallow.
Eulberg
diverges even farther from the current only YAs in YA trend by casting a
seven-year-old as one of her main characters. Mackenzie, Lexi’s little
sister, thinks the world revolves around her. She’s the beautiful
sister, and pageants have programmed the idea that she should always be
the center of attention into her. But there is a lot more to Mackenzie
than the spoiled brat Lexi sees. Mackenzie’s story arc complements that
of Lexi, allowing the two girls to change together.
Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality
by Elizabeth Eulberg is one of the best contemporary YA novels I have
read in a long time, and I sincerely hope that it will become on of
yours, too.
Rating: 5/5 DIAMONDS
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