The Look

THE LOOK is trying to say something, it really is. It tends towards the theme that inner beauty is more important that outer beauty. Unfortunately this wasn’t done very strongly, so I got what was trying to be said but I didn’t actually believe them, it seemed more like an afterthought, something shoved in during the last chapter to pack in some extra meaning.

Which didn’t really work.

The main character’s (Ted) sister Ava is diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the book. A lot of deep stuff could have come out of this, with bits of touching talks and great epiphanies about life. Instead it comes across as an excuse for Ted to do ridiculous things to entertain Ava. This is rather disappointing, because there was such potential, and also a bit exasperating, it just doesn’t seem like Ted really cares about Ava, she tells you she does, but it doesn’t feel like it.

The characters on a whole were a bit weak and flat, some of them hosting some of the most obnoxious dialogue I have ever witnessed to boot. Ted was genuinely funny at times, but I also wish she could have gotten more serious every now and then.

This book seemed to have a bit of an identity crisis. It’s written by an English author, about English people, in England. And yet, it felt very American. There are hardly any of the language quirks or slang that I would have expected. In the end it was just kind of distracting, because I had to keep reminding myself they weren’t in Mississippi or somewhere, opposed to being cultural.

All and all THE LOOK is a book about modeling and a girl trying to figure it out. She learns some life lessons and figures out what matters in life. It has a good message, and it could have been very inspirational to some people. It just would have been more powerful if it was done with a bit more feeling.