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Summary
Summary
She's looking good . . . but Allison Avery can't believe it. Growing up with beautiful, blond sisters, Allison has always been the dark-haired, "interesting-looking" Avery. So when the devil shows up and offers to make her gorgeous, Allison jumps at the chance to finally get noticed. But there's one tiny catch, and it's not her soul: The devil wants her cell phone.
Though her deal with the devil seems like a good idea at the time, Allison soon realizes that being gorgeous isn't as easy as it looks. Are her new friends and boyfriend for real, or do they just like her pretty face? Allison can't trust anyone anymore, and her possessed phone and her family's financial crisis aren't making things any easier. Plus, when she finds out that she might be America's next teen model, all hell breaks loose. Allison may be losing control, but how far is she willing to go to stay gorgeous forever?
Following the critically acclaimed Lucky, Rachel Vail continues her poignant sisterhood trilogy with the rebellious middle Avery sister, Allison. Fiery, sarcastic, and just plain fun, gorgeous captures the heartbreak and hilarity in one girl's attempt to have it all.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7-9-This second book about the Avery sisters retells the events in Lucky (HarperTeen, 2008) from the perspective of middle sister Allison. She sees herself as the plainest of the three, stuck "between two pillars of perfection," and wishes she, too, were gorgeous. The ninth grader also has to come to terms with the effect that the loss of her mother's high-powered job has on the entire family. One night, she dreams that she has sold her cell phone to the devil in return for at least seven people who think she is gorgeous, and strangely, after the dream, things start to change in her life. She becomes friends with new girl Roxie Green, who talks her into cutting school and going to Manhattan for an open call for models for teen magazine zip. To her utter amazement, Allison is selected as a finalist in its cover-model contest, but she then has to deal with the fallout from keeping this a secret from her family and from Roxie and with her fading friendship with her best friend. As always, Vail is spot-on in her depictions of young teen girls and their complex relationships with friends and family, and her treatment of the cliched "girl whom everyone thinks is plain becomes successful" is fresh, innovative, and realistic. Allison is an engaging, funny character, and girls will identify with her disappointment with her looks and her longing for respect and recognition.-Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
(Middle School) Allison Avery's six-word autobiography? "Sold my cell to the devil." It's quite simple, really: the ninth-grader has a vivid dream in which the devil agrees to make her gorgeous to seven people; in return, he gets to control her cell phone. When it starts emitting crazy ringtones and shutting off randomly, the dream certainly seems real. So when she's chosen as a semifinalist in a modeling competition and longtime crush Tyler Moss finally notices her, Allison refuses to think that these developments are anything but the devil's end of the bargain. If that weren't enough, there are family dramas and shifting best-friendships to deal with. The book is charged with emotion: the scenes between Allison and her parents, for example, are heartbreakingly tender. Allison is self-effacing and funny, privileged yet vulnerable. She and her friends are completely authentic, right down to their text messages ("I am ur BFF now"). Those who've read Lucky (the first book in the trilogy, told from little sister Phoebe's perspective) will enjoy Allison's side of the story -- and eagerly look forward to getting to know oldest sister Quinn in the upcoming Brilliant. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
With two popular and beautiful sisters, Allison Avery feels like she'll never measure up. She'd confide in her best friend, Jade, except that Jade is hypercritical of Allison's appearance. Jade is also interested in Ty, the boy Allison's been crushing on forever. When the devil appears in Allison's room one night, she trades her cell (not her soul) for the chance that seven people will think she's gorgeous. The deal seems to be legit; Ty now seems to notice Allison exists, and her cell phone has taken on a life of its own. As the end of Allison's ninth-grade year approaches, friendships in flux and her chance to win a modeling contest show her that there's more to being gorgeous than outward appearances. Allison is sarcastic and often moody, but she also cares deeply for her friends, traits readers will recognize.Vail shows a clear understanding of the everyday turmoil faced by today's teens and handles them with wit and obvious affection. If they haven't already read its predecessor, Lucky (2008), teens will want to after finishing this one. (Fiction. YA) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Because each title in the Avery Sisters Trilogy follows the same events from a different sister's point of view, teens can approach each novel as a stand-alone title. In this second installment, ninth-grader Allison feels like the unnoticed cynic of the family, trapped between two superstar sisters. In a dream sequence she sells her cell phone to the devil in return for being gorgeous, a dubious but eventually beneficial decision. Once again,Vail authentically captures the adolescent female experience, while interweaving the important message that Allison was uniquely beautiful all along.--Hubert, Jennifer Copyright 2009 Booklist