From the very first page I was drawn into this novel and couldn't put it down. Inspired by the movie 13, this book tells the story of Cassie, a 13 year old whose family moved to Seattle to start over new. Cassie, so desperately wanting to fit in at her new school, soon finds herself friends with the wrong crowd. Doing drugs and having sex, whatever she has to do to keep her reputation and friends. Before she knows it, she's spiralling out of control
and it costs her the only genuine friend she's ever known. I definitely recommend this book to everyone who enjoys a good YA book. ( )

I'm in the middle of reading it right now but so far it's very good! ( )

After a move from a small town to the big city of Seattle, Cassie decides to change herself from the invisible 13 year old she is, to an out going, try anything, party chick. A girl, who takes drugs, has under age sex and frequents party after party. One choice changes everything and as her life balances on the knife-edge a hand of friendship is extended.

Likened to a modern-day Go Ask Alice the story falls short of the mark. Told in the first person, the dialogue between Cassie and her so called friend lacks realism, and although Reed portrays the sex/drug scenes throughout with conviction, they still fail to grab my attention. ( )

When I first started this book, I didn't really like it. It seemed like a rip-off of the film Thirteen. It also wasn't explaining itself very well. After the initial hurdles, I found myself enjoying it a little bit more. While I don't regret reading it, I wish that I had picked up this book at the library instead of purchasing it.

One thing that you can say about Beautiful is that it is a page-turner. I read this literally in two hours without moving from where I was sitting. It was extremely intense and gritty. So much that I found myself flinching with the certain situations that the characters have gone through (mainly Sarah's backstory). The book did not drag one bit and the "action" starts almost immediately. Yet, that right there was what worked against it.

The shift between Cassie's "good girl" status to her "bad girl" persona just went too quickly. One minute she's excited about being accepted into the popular smarties clique and the next minute she's hanging out with Alex doing drugs and having sex. I didn't get a clear picture of who Cassie was as a good girl. So it was a bit difficult to empathize with her at the beginning. Cassie wasn't all that fleshed out until she started rebelling. That was when all of her emotions just burst out and you understood her pain.

Cassie wasn't the only character that lacked developing. Delving into Alex's background could've been extremely interesting considering how different her and Cassie seem. Cassie was sort of thrust into this life while Alex seems like much more comfortable with it. It seems like that was the life she had always known. All of the characters had potential yet it seemed like it was wasted.

So, I thought Beautiful was just okay. Like I said, the book is an extremely fast read, yet that can be because it's pretty short (a little too short; it could've benefited from having about a hundred more pages to build up the main character). It's just that there was too much of a mystery when it came to Cassie that it was too hard for me to connect to her and because of that I was detached from the story. I still recommend this book, but I suggest you get it from the library. ( )

Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

BEAUTIFUL is a gripping, gritty, and realistic look into the life of a lonely girl finally shown some attention...albeit the wrong sort of attention.

Cassie and her family have moved from Bainbridge Island to the Seattle suburbs. It's the start of seventh grade, and Cassie has grown into her beauty. The kids at her new school don't know who she was prior to the move.

She starts to form tentative bonds with girls she would never have been welcomed to befriend at her school, when tough girl Alex grabs her from the cafeteria and instantly insists they be friends. She takes Cassie to where some of the older boys are hanging out during lunch, and Cassie is struck when the obvious leader of the boys calls her beautiful. It's from this point on that life spirals downward for Cassie.

Though things with James quickly go sour, she is absolutely caught up in the limelight that surrounds the new boy, Ethan. And Ethan wants HER! He can even drive. Cassie does anything and everything Ethan asks of her. But it's the destructive relationship she has with Alex that does the most damage.

Cassie literally does everything and anything in the pages of BEAUTIFUL. She goes from being the unnoticed nothing girl to the girl who has done acid, had sex, and dresses trampy, according to her father. Cassie's voice is almost defeatist in the way she acquiesces to everything suggested to her. It's not until she befriends Alex's half-sister that Cassie really starts to show any personality of her own. She finally learns to stand on her own two feet, ready to fight for what is right.

There are only two concerns I have regarding BEAUTIFUL. The first is that I still am not sure who the intended audience of the book is aimed at. Though Cassie is only thirteen and in seventh grade, the language, drugs, and sexual situations are for a far older reader. Also, for those that require a definite backstory for Cassie (i.e.: how she came to be beautiful and why they moved from the island to the mainland), they won't find it here.

Outside of those two concerns, though, BEAUTIFUL is definitely an eye-opening read. ( )