author: Laura Langston
published: August 1st 2014 by Razorbill
pages: 293
my rating: 4 out of 5 stars
After a school video she produced goes viral, sixteen-year-old Sloane Kendrick is given a chance at a film school scholarship. She has less than two weeks to produce a second video, and she’s determined to do it. Unfortunately, she must work with Isaac Alexander, an irresponsible charmer with whom she shares an uneasy history.
On the heels of this opportunity comes a horrifying discovery: a bald spot on her head. No bigger than a quarter, the patch shouldn't be there. Neither should the bald spots that follow. Horror gives way to devastation when Sloane is diagnosed with alopecia areata. The auto-immune disease has no cause, no cure, and no definitive outcome. The spots might grow over tomorrow or Sloane might become completely bald. No one knows.
Determined to produce her video, hide her condition, and resist Isaac's easy charm, Sloane finds herself turning into the kind of person she has always mocked: someone obsessed with her looks. And just when she thinks things can't get any worse, Sloane is forced to make the most difficult decision of her life.
This is a relatively short but surprisingly emotional book about beauty and appearance and what impact they can have on everyone, even those who don't want to care about how they look.
Sloane is a high school student determined of getting a scholarship in a film school when she notices her hair is falling out. Pretty soon she has to admit that unlike she always claimed she does care about being pretty. The growing spots of missing hair throw her into a panic and she desperately tries everything she can to hide the spots, while also trying to produce a video to apply for the scholarship with Isaac whom she doesn't want to talk to much less produce a video. On top of all that she can't rely on the help of her mother and has to stay with her dad and her much hated stepmother.
Even though I sometimes wanted to shake Sloane and tell her to finally admit her true emotions to herself, I really understood her. I don't know much about her illness, alopecia, but I can only imagine how hard it must be to cope with.
Obviously there are illnesses that are way worse but that doesn't change anything about the fact that it can really mentally impact someone's life and be hard to come to terms with, even though it doesn't have a big physical impact.
This book really had a great take on beauty: it explains very well how there is a difference between beauty and appearance and how you can care about beauty and not be shallow or obsessed with looks. It also made me realize how much I take hair for granted and made me consider how the loss of it would make me feel.
Her passion for film was another big part of the book. It was obvious that she cared a lot about it and passion for a hobby, job,… is always a great trait characters should have.
I was very emotional during most parts of the book and the ending was also beautiful. Highly recommend it.
No comments:
Post a Comment