Customer Reviews

Just Like Beauty: A Novel

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I read a great review on this book and absolutely had to buy it. It's Lisa Lerner's first novel. It is set in the future in a society that is just kooky enough to seem simultaneously unrealistic and plausible. Edie Stein is participating in an annual "Feminine Woman of Conscience Pageant", a pageant that is so reputable that successful enrollment is seen as a high honor. It is no ordinary pageant though, to win you have to pass all sorts of strange tests. The pageant, in short, delivers as a winner any girl that can embody all the feminine qualities that would make her desirable to a man. Edie enters the pageant to make her mother happy and, although she doesn't admit it, she secretly wants to win - but doesn't know how she is going to kill her pet rabbit, in the "Sacrificial Rabbit" event (I won't spoil it, but you won't be disappointed in her decision). There's another problem that Edie wonders about, she's falling for her next door neighbor, Lana. Lana is against the pageant and all that it stands for. Edie is aware of the superficiality of it too but plays along to please her mother. Because of her contestant status, being outside (getting to school, etc.) becomes an obstacle course for Edie and any other enrolled contestant. A group of school bullies (that, I did not realize until later in the book, were employed by the Pageant committee - making the whole idea of the Pageant even more sinister) hunt with an aim to hurt or even kill (I think, although none do) the contestants so that they are rendered ineligible to compete. There's some dark stuff in this book but all in all, its hilarious and, above all, mocking of a society that has become so artificial that even food, for example, bread (called, "Just Like Bread" in the book), is only related to the real thing by being "Just Like" it.

Okay, I have to admit, I bought this book because the cover looked so fabulous, and it sounded weird and cool. But once I started reading I was gripped. Apocalypse, eco-disasters, futuristic cults--all of that paled in comparison with how much I cared about Edie and her confusion about whether she wanted to be a beauty queen or an eco-terrorist. Lerner makes us see the appeal of both. So in the end I don't know -- maybe you CAN tell a book by its cover.

Considering its ambitious scope, the Orwellian satire "Just Like Beauty" is a surprisingly enjoyable read. With teenage love (think innocence, beauty, good intentions, etc.) pitted against the outgrowths and least sensible notions of a consumerist, gender-biased society, we're in for a generous helping of righteousness that is well timed and right on the mark. Lerner has crafted a grotesque social landscape inhabited by a cast of sometimes twisted, sometimes touchingly sane characters, all of which have been plucked right from the equally bizarre world we live in. Reading this book has not only restored my faith in the storytelling skills of our generation but also the unambiguous moral defaults, with which we are all born.

This is one of the best books I have ever read, but I can understand how many would find it preverse or just too bizarre. You must have an open mind and an understanding of societal influence in order to grasp the concept. When you find yourself appalled by the events in the book, it's more than likely reflective of what's going on in your own world, or the precursor to its happening in the future. It's not so unbelievable that soon there will be widespread violence in all suburbs, a strange fascination and competition with young girl's sexuality, and the physical world itself changing and becoming less accomidating to humanity due to pollution. This is not a book I'd reccomend to someone who would has read and thoroughly enjoyed "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya sisterhood". It is not meant to cheer you up, it is not meant to tug at your heart, it's mean to make you think.

This would make a better movie! Lisa Lerner creates an interesting future world and sets up a great situation but I think the book moves a little slowly for my taste. The world she creates is definitely worth spending time in its just that I wish the book would have zipped along faster.Still worth buying!

A book that talks to all of us, because--man or woman--we all face the beauty contests in our lives, and all confront the choice of killing the rabbits we love for the sake of some Just Like Reward.

Lisa Lerner has given us a mesmerizing read with this fascinating look to the future. Through the eyes of Edie Stein, tomorrow is already upon us and the world is a dangerous and insecure place. Yet her conclusions are filled with hope. Edie Stein is a loving, funny, courageous yet terribly vulnerable 14 year old. I was able to feel her loneliness and her passion, and when the last page was savored, I longed to hug this pre-pubescent protagonist. I look forward to this talented writer's next work.

A science-fiction social satire filled with commentary on our society! Tale of teen angst and self-image set against the backdrop of a teen beauty pageant in a near future filled with gang warefare, robots, synthetic products and fake foods. (Everything is Just Like Something but never the Real Thing.) To put a cherry on the Just Like Ice Cream Sundae, Edie, the heroine, has to demonstrate sex on a male robotic figure for the pageant, but the human target of her desires is the gorgeous GIRL next door. I recommend this beauty of a book for everyone, teen or adult, gay or hetero, male or female, for its brilliant portrayal of a twisted tomorrow

Ms. Lerner's "just like" world is a two-way mirror-- just slightly warped. She transports the reader with precise descriptions of the not so far off future and with characters we can know and care about. Sometimes sweet and longing, sometimes scary and sad, Just Like Beauty is an a funny and disturbing look at who we are.

Just Like Beauty is a fantastic first novel about growing up female in a future world that is eerily recognizable. Lisa Lerner's energetic satire is fast and funny; little Edie Stein will make you laugh and will break your heart as she mounts the treacheries of teen beauty pageants, adolescent crushes, capitalist conspiracies, and maternal betrayals. A wonderful read for girls (and women) of all ages.