Review: Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick

Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick
Publisher: Scholastic
Publication date: 30th April 2013
My rating: 3 stars

Inner beauty wants out. When eighteen-year-old Becky Randle’s mother dies, she’s summoned from her Missouri trailer park to meet Tom Kelly, the world’s top designer. He makes her an impossible offer: He’ll create three dresses to transform Becky from a nothing special girl into the most beautiful woman who ever lived. Becky thinks Tom is a lunatic, or that he’s producing a hidden camera show called World’s Most Gullible Poor People. But she accepts, and she’s remade as Rebecca. When Becky looks in the mirror, she sees herself – an awkward mess of split ends and cankles. But when anyone else looks at Becky, they see pure five-alarm hotness. Soon Rebecca is on the cover of Vogue, the new Hollywood darling, and dating celebrities. Then Becky meets Prince Gregory, heir to the British throne, and everything starts to crumble. Because Rebecca aside, Becky loves him. But to love her back, Gregory would have to look past the blinding Rebecca to see the real girl inside. And Becky knows there’s not enough magic in the world. A screamingly defiant, hugely naughty, and impossibly fun free fall past the cat walks, the red carpets, and even the halls of Buckingham Palace, Gorgeous does the impossible: It makes you see yourself clearly for the first time.

But instead I'm the most useless sort of Prince; I'm a idiot with a closetful of extremely uncomfortable formal clothing and a trunkful of extremely impressive engraved stationery for writing notes of abject apology to everyone. And I have no idea what to do, because after everything you've told me and after the fact that I've chosen to believe it, I'm still left with only one very real question."

"Which question?"

"Who are you?"

 
Gorgeous was a strange book, overall I did enjoy it, but I can’t exactly say that I loved it. There were parts that I adored and parts which had me utterly baffled, hopefully I can put my finger on what I mean in my review because I feel as if I’m on a bit of a see-saw.

When Becky’s mum dies, she makes her promise that she will say yes. Becky is heartbroken over the loss of her mum but also baffled by what her promise means, until eventually she finds out.  She’s left a number by her mum and immediately she’d plucked from normal Becky Randle from East Trawley to top super model for Tom Kelly Rebecca Randle. Within the first few weeks she’s making movies with heart throb Jate Mallow and covering Vogue magazine. But she doesn’t get how Tom did it, he designed her one beautiful red dress and it changed her dramatically, Becky’s more confident than she’s ever been, but her features have also changed within an instance, she’s hardly recognisable as Becky Randle, but super imposes as a glamorous model. What exactly has Tom Kelly done? And what are the repercussions? Becky can’t just expect this all for free can she?

Everything happened so suddenly for Becky that I did not understand anything either. Becky did deserve her time in the limelight she’d been living 17 years in a trailer with her mother who was eating herself away. But what I wanted to know was why Tom Kelly picked Becky amongst millions and how did he work his magic? Some of the explanations behind Becky’s big change I wasn’t expecting, but one of the big surprises I didn’t really get the purpose of, even when I think about it weeks after finishing Gorgeous I’m still confused about.

Despite my qualms about the mystery, there were some decent secondary characters which made this book for me; Rocher and Prince Gregory. What I liked about both of the characters was that they weren’t afraid to say what they thought. I definitely prefer characters that get to the point instead of faffing about. Also despite following a dark shady path, the story is laced with some nice humorous scenes along the way; one of my favourites was Rocher’s kerfuffle with Lady Jessalyn at Ascot.

At times I did feel like giving up on Gorgeous as there were passages which were so rambly, descriptions of people could go on for a bit, which at times I did find unnecessary. But I think the ending to Gorgeous did win me over. So if you’re looking for a different type of read with an unexpected twist, a story about growing up and finding your place in the world I would definitely recommend giving Gorgeous a try.