The List [Hardcover]

Siobhan Vivian (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2012

An intense look at the rules of high school attraction -- and the price that's paid for them.

It happens every year. A list is posted, and one girl from each grade is chosen as the prettiest, and another is chosen as the ugliest. Nobody knows who makes the list. It almost doesn't matter. The damage is done the minute it goes up.

This is the story of eight girls, freshman to senior, "pretty" and "ugly." And it's also the story of how we see ourselves, and how other people see us, and the tangled connection of the two.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Offering a well-differentiated cast of complex characters and a thoughtful focus on femininity, sisterhood, relationships, eating disorders, and what it means to be singled out, Vivian proves that beauty and ugliness aren't always a matter of appearance. -- STAR, Publishers Weekly 

This riveting exploration of physical appearance and the status it confers opens a cultural conversation that's needed to happen for a long time. Vivian refuses to falsify or avoid the uncomfortable realities that looks alone confer status, and their power is greatest when obscured by the pretense that "looks don't matter." - STAR, Kirkus

Praise for Not That Kind of Girl:

* “Another powerful, involving exploration of teen girls' identities and relationships…don't miss this round.” – Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Praise for Same Difference:

* “Readers who have wondered, 'are these the friends and the life I want to have?' will see themselves reflected in Emily's achingly real struggles, heartbreaks and triumphs.” – Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Praise for A Little Friendly Advice:

“Cultural references keep the narrative hip, but it's Vivian's skill at subtly shaping the personalities that makes the book work.” – San Francisco Chronicle

“A bright new voice that holds nothing back.” – Cecil Castellucci, author of Boy Proof

About the Author

Siobhan Vivian is the acclaimed author of Not That Kind of Girl, hailed by Kirkus Reviews as a “powerful, involving exploration of teen girls’ identities and relationships,” Same Difference, and A Little Friendly Advice. A Jersey girl by birth and a Brooklyn girl at heart, Siobhan currently lives in Pittsburgh, PA, and on the web at www.siobhanvivian.com.

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Push (April 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0545169178
• ISBN-13: 978-0545169172
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,015 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

my name is siobhan, which is pronounced SHOVE-ON. i like writing books. i hope you like reading them. visit me at www.siobhanvivian.com !

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very meaningful book June 8, 2012

By Evie Seo (Bookish blog)

Format:Hardcover

The List is a smart and provocative contemporary novel, and one that made a huge impression on me. Featuring themes like love, friendship, sisterhood, family, and anorexia, The List is a harrowing exploration of the judgements that teen girls face regarding their physical appearance and popularity, as well as the social pressure for them to be pretty, skinny, and flawless in every way. In this wonderful, thought-provoking book, Siobhan Vivian raises many important questions. And it's up to us to find the answers.

Told in alternating view points, The List takes place in Mount Washington's high school. A place that wouldn't be all that different from any other American school out there if not for one thing - its cruel annual tradition. See, every year, on the Monday preceding the homecoming, a certain list is posted all over the school. It's pinned to every board and glued to every locker, and it's practically impossible to miss. Everyone knows about this tradition and everyone is equally thrilled to find out who'll make the list this time. On the list are the names of girls that were chosen to be the prettiest and the ugliest of each grade. Chosen by who? Nobody knows. For what purpose? We can only guess. The fact is, other than blindly accepting the list, and either worshipping the girls voted the prettiest, or making the lives of the ugliest ones as miserable as possible, no one is really interested in getting to the bottom of it.

The List tells the story of eight girls who have been "voted" the prettiest and the ugliest. We get to follow each of them for one week (the one leading up to the homecoming party). We see how they react to seeing their name on the list, how it affects them, how they feel about it, what they think. Each one of the girls has a different, entirely unique story to tell, as every single one of them has a distinct personality. They each have their own voice, their own hopes, dreams, and fears. And the list does affect them in more ways than they could've ever imagined possible. Their stories intertwine with each other, painting an incredibly vivid picture of just how cruel high school life can be. How merciless and full of judgement. How completely unfair.

In her book, Siobhan Vivian explores the emotional and psychological consequences of being included on the list. She talks about beauty and its meaning, vanity, emotional abuse (bordering on bullying), morality, friendship, love, and finding one's identity. With her utterly compelling prose and excellent character development, she tackles some extremely relevant issues, from self-esteem and emotional devastation, to eating disorders and overprotective (dysfunctional) families. And she does all that with amazing sensitivity, not only perfectly capturing the dynamics and complexity of high school relationships, but also beautifully depicting all the burning emotions caused by the list. This book offers so much more than just solid plot and interesting characters. Filled with meaningful messages, important observations, fascinating conclusions, and eye-opening reflections, The List is one of the few books that have the potential to change someone's life. And just how often do you come across a book like that?

Inspired by real-life events, The List is a powerful and rewarding read, filled with stories that are just as fascinating as they are disturbing, and just as inspiring as they are sad. Honest, insightful and very thoughtful, it's a book that deserves a special place on your bookshelf. It should be appreciated and cherished, as it speaks the heartbreaking truth about modern-day society, pointing out its many flaws and weaknesses. I loved it. I'm sure you will, too!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent April 1, 2012

By Tina

Format:Hardcover

I have read Siobhan Vivian's previous novel and was thrilled to read `the List'.

A few thoughts came to mind as I was reading this book. Firstly, Vivian's books are always so vivid and incredibly difficult to read (for me anyway). Why? Because they are so true - they touch the areas where I feel the most vulnerable and then, take the storyline even further - by playing out human nature's true self.

Wow! That sounded kind of deep, but that is how I felt when I read The List.

Can you imagine being a teenage girl in high school (which is hard enough to begin with) only to discover that some mysterious person has created the List. What is on this list? the names of 8 girls who have been ranked either pretty or not, in each class grade.

I can't imagine the horror of finding your name on that list - under the `ugliest' category.

However, the author takes it one step further and examines the lives of 8 girls who have been `put' on that list - the pretty ones AND the ugly ones. While you might think that the pretty ones `have it made', the author does an amazing job of showing us just how being labeled - one way or the other can affect who you are, how you feel and how you act.

I cringed as I read this book - because there is so much truth to the stories told here. The pretty girls discover that they may not be all that pretty after all and the ugly girls discover that there is more to life than just your face - actually, this is kind of the morale of the book, in a round about way.

What a wonderful book to read if you are a young adult who does not believe that you fit it anywhere. This book, while incredibly difficult, was also kind of uplifting in a way. The writing is frank and, at times, raw, which simply gives the author and her storyline all that much more credibility.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good novel...until the ending May 28, 2012

By silenceiseverything VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

After reading young adult books like The List and Some Girls Are, I am even more grateful for my own high school experience. Here's the thing: in high school, I was the honor student who's nose was always stuck in a book. I was a nerd and proud of my nerd status. I wasn't popular. But here is the beautiful thing: NO ONE in my school was. My graduating class was pretty small, less than 120 students, so we basically all knew each other. I'm not saying we were all close, singing "Kumbaya" on a daily basis or that we all talked regularly. But we all knew each other. We all had our own group of friends, but no one in our class was considered the "popular" group. In fact, when the time came for us seniors to fill out the forms for our superlatives, mostly everyone had crossed off the "Most Popular" field because there was no one person who was popular. That category was not included in our school yearbook. And I'm always proud of that fact. I'm sure some bullying happened, but when taken in context with the bullying that went on in other schools, I think all of us were extremely lucky. That's why books like "The List" and "Some Girls Are" are so horrifying to me...because I can't even fathom something like this going on in a school.

Okay, now back to the book. When I first started reading The List, I LOVED it. It was so fascinating seeing how the list of prettiest and ugliest girls affected all of the ones on the actual list and those around them who weren't on the list. It was done in such an amazing way that there were no outright martyrs involved and no outright villians. Each one of the eight girls had their own flaws. This book wasn't stereotyping that all pretty girls are evil and mean and certainly wasn't saying that those who are not considered "traditionally pretty" are sweet and innocent and oh-so-loving. It was a unique spin (particularly the culprit who made the list that year) on the characters and allowed them to remain interesting throughout the whole novel. And I think that right there was the problem.

The problems and home lives of all of the 8 girls intrigued me; so much that I don't think enough time was given to each character to take advantage of everything the premise of The List had to offer. 300+ pages is not enough to fully delve into 8 characters and explore each facet of their personality. Sure, we're given some insight into the girls' personalities: what makes them tick, what makes them happy, how those things changed once people's perception of them were magnified either in a positive or negative way, but we don't get to completely KNOW the characters...And that's rather disapointing.

That problem sort ties in to the main problem The List had for me. This problem was so huge that I had to deduct two starts from my original assessment of The List: the ending. It was abrupt in the worst possible way. I was in shock and kept turning the "page" of my Kindle thinking "Why the hell are the acknowledgements showing up where the next chapter is supposed to be?!" I kept wondering why there wasn't more when clearly the story had not in any way been finished. Now, while reading The List, I did keep wondering how the author would end it and what ending would satisfy me. Clearly a transformation where the "ugly" girls are vindicated and turn beautiful and are loved and adored by the high school class would have been hokey and cheesy and as a result highly unrealistic would not have been accepted well by the masses. A semi-uplifting ending where at least SOME things were wrapped up would have sufficed. However, I feel the author copped out in not providing an ending at all. The ending was way too open ended that you don't know what the hell happens to the characters and you get no insight into what CAN happen to these characters. You're given nothing except for a big black hole where the next couple of chapters SHOULD have been.

So, I did like The List. I loved the message that it provided. I loved the writing. I loved the characters. I did not love the ending. In fact, I didn't even like it. And since I doubt the author is going to come out with a "The List 2", I'm left with all of these questions about the characters and no answers for them, which basically sucks. So, The List gets 3 stars.