published: 2016 // Emiliy Bestler/Atria Books
pages: 391
isbn: 978-1-5011-1959-0
read from: 10/24-28/2016
rating: 1) didn't care for it 2) liked it 3) LOVED IT
honestly, i have no idea how i feel about this book. i hated it but not because it was a bad book. i just don't know.
"the world doesn't owe you any favors.
but it will bend to your will." -Jan
first and foremost, i FINALLY scored my personal Marked by Mary bookmark!!
I've been stalking her like crazy on her ig, missed the last pre-order by mere seconds and was lucky enough to score the second time she had another release.
i do tag all my reads with that hashtag but i just really like that it'll be in all of the pictures so anyone and everyone can have a look see.
buuut lets get to it.
friends Evie, Krista, and Willow are just trying to make it through their mid-twenties in New York. They’re regular girls, with average looks and typical quarter-life crises: making it up the corporate ladder, making sense of online dating, and making rent.
Until they come across Pretty, a magic tincture that makes them, well...gorgeous. Like, supermodel gorgeous. And it’s certainly not their fault if the sudden gift of beauty causes unexpected doors to open for them.
But there’s a dark side to Pretty, too, and as the gloss fades for these modern-day Cinderellas, there’s just one question left:
What would you sacrifice to be Pretty?
SPOILERS
Krista is at a bar where some girl she used to do improv with gives her a plain purple bottle called Pretty.
you take one drop and its legit makes you a total babe: boobs, butt, tiny waist, amazing hair. everything. basically everything that they had trouble with, gone.
for one whole week.
first Willow takes it.
then Krista
then, reluctantly, Evie.
WILLOW
will is all sorts of messed up.
its a childhood thing.
shes dating mark but she doesn't trust him. she has major self issues. shes doesn't like the way she looks or anything.
so she takes the pretty and decides to spy on mark at a bar. from there she kinda builds a friendship with him and even though he admits to having a girlfriend, she still deems him a dick.
she ends up sleeping with him as Caroline all for the sake of her art.
what got me mad about this was that some dude tried hitting on her at a bar except he had a fiancee and she gave him so much shit about it. but here she is, a pretty, doing the same thing to her boyfriend.
anyway, she fucks with marks emotions to get real life photographs of Caroline going through the motions. so i guess it works for her to bend her rules when it benefits her.
but at least these shots got her enough emotions to grant her another solo show that would actually sell. (she's photographer who cannot take criticism to save her life.)
its because of her that mark actually finds out that she was indeed Caroline.
KRISTA
she dropped out of law school to pick up acting and eventually lands a role within 5 minutes of being a pretty.
which she manages to fuck up 2-3 times and all the while managing to get whatever situation she's in fixed.
other than being a very sexual being, she doesn't, to me, play that big of a role. i mean, she does, the story is also about her, but her role is just being an irresponsible woman who cant fill the ice tray and is swimming in a lot of debt.
and that shes the one that gets the pretty.
EVIE
she works for a magazine named salty that sexualizes women to a whole 'nother level.
which is the worst job for her because she's about as big a feminist as i am a living breathing woman.
she fights the pretty until she realizes that she can use it to get close to Velma and then doesn't stop using it because shes stupid in love with Velma. she also uses it to score a role on Extra Salty, a web series, where she thinks she can talk about all these real life issues only to find out she was played. oh, did i mention she stole this part from Krista? hey, bff!
i think shes the one who ended up taking it the most at 3 times. and the last time she was about to take it (making it her 4th) she catches Velma going down on some other chick.
sooo....yea. she realizes that maaaaybe being a pretty ain't all that its meant to be.
she finally returns to a "regular" and quits her job at salty after telling her boss that her job is basically useless bullshit. only to get picked up 5 minutes later by a connection of Velma's, as her regular self, not the pretty version.
MY THOUGHTS
just thoughts on the book itself
i didn't hate the book but i didn't love it.
and i think it has to do with the fact that its a feminist book.
and its not even that it was a book about feminism but the fact that evie fought so hard to come off as this "women are just as good if not better" person but then went and did everything she was against.
she hated her "regular" self but as soon as she saw what her pretty self could get her, she forgot about all that she stood for.
she still fought but....ugh.
and i get that we all sometimes lose our vision like that but UGH!
what i hated about this book was how two faced they all were.
everything they complained about as a regular came to them super easy as a pretty.
and when that was the case they gave no fucks.
this is going to sound, i don't know, weird? but when it comes to an argument or an issue or just anything, i don't see sex or friendship. meaning i don't care if you're my girl bestfriend. if you cheated on your boyfriend, i still believe that's a dick move.
i don't care if you're my brother, if you did anyone dirty and expect me to be on your side just because you're family, i wont. right is right wrong is wrong.
i wont stop being your friend. i'm just going to be honest with you.
and that is basically all that happened in the book.
when it happened to them it was the end of the fucken world but when they did it, oh, it's okay cause its helping further their whatever the heck they're looking for.
so based of that assumption, you can tell that willow was my least favorite character.
i know she was hurt as a child courtesy of her dad but Jesus!
i just hate when someone thinks that they can get away with whatever the fuck they want just because of their sex.
NO it doesn't work like that.
if you're going to stand for one thing, stand for it all the way. even when the roles are reversed and it can benefit you when it didn't before.
and i don't mean that woman to man i mean that in this case too! regular to pretty.
ugh, i liked the book but it hella pissed me off.
have you read this book? what are your thoughts?
....but also, this pretty premise...total Uglies series. and i loved that better!
thanks for reading.
Post a Comment
thanks for taking the time to read my blog. (: