Title: Revenge of the Girl With the Great PersonalityHow many people love the movie She's All That? Or how about the Melissa Joan Hart gold mine Drive Me Crazy? Clueless? With Revenge of the Girl With the Great Personality, I've found the book equivalent to these classics, and I loved it.
Author: Elizabeth Eulberg
Publisher: Point
Release Date: March 2013
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The storyline was predictable, and the message a little saccharine, but I thought Eulberg's writing was excellent and clever, and fell in love with her main character of Lexi.
Lexi is your average teenage girl ridden with self-esteem issues and a sarcastic outlook. She and her best friend Benny dream of moving to New York City the moment they graduate to escape the confines of their current Texan lives. While Benny is gay and (mostly, kind of) in the closet, Lexi spends all of her time catering to the needs and whims of her overbearing mother and pageant queen little sister, Mackenzie. Lexi loathes the pageant world and the emphasis it places on looks over intelligence or personality. As a result, she puts no effort into her appearance. Her peers consider her funny and say that she has a "great personality," but Lexi has never had a boyfriend and it doesn't seem as though anyone is interested. When Lexi and Benny begin daring one another to do things that they wouldn't normally otherwise - like wear makeup to school (Lexi) or ask a boy to coffee (Benny) - their lives change dramatically.
Everyone loves a good makeover story. Really. Everyone. Though the plot isn't the most original or daring, Lexi's wit and charm make reading it new and engaging. Though most people cower in the face of a popular girl's bullying, Lexi replies with a comeback I wish I could use myself: "So am I a slut or a prude? You really need to make up your mind - it'd really help me with my college applications." Though Lexi is able to think on her feet faster than I've ever been able to (how many times have I thought of a comeback hours after the encounter?), she's realistically full of self-doubt. The effects of her parents' divorce and her mother's devotion to Mackenzie are present and obvious, and Lexi jumps off the page as a real teenager. Though the trope of her character may have been seen before, Eulberg made Lexi seem like much more than that.
4 comments:
I wanted to like this one, but I struggled too much with that ending. It felt completely unfinished, but not in the.. choose your own ending kind of way. I literally went to the next page, thinking there was more, only to find the acknowledgments. Not the best way to finish a story, haha. Also how awful was her mother?! Ugh she irritated me to no end.
I liked Revenge of the Girl, but I didn't love it. I think I was expecting something different, so maybe that was my problem. I also didn't really care for the part where Lexi dresses up beauty contestant and gives that speech at the end. I just wasn't feeling that.
But I'm really glad you liked it.
Oh my goodness, the mother was SO terrible, I was flabbergasted. The ending was definitely a little...open, but I didn't mind too much since I wasn't too invested in the story. The light ending fit the light story for me, basically.
This sounds quirky and cute. And since I love the movies you mentioned, I feel like I have to get my hands on this one.
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