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Making Pretty
Montana and her sister, Arizona, are named after the mountainous states their mother left them for. But Montana is a New York City girl through and through, and as the city heats up, she’s stepping into the most intense summer of her life.
With Arizona wrapped up in her college world and their father distracted by yet another divorce, Montana’s been immersing herself in an intoxicating new friendship with a girl from her acting class. Karissa is bold, imperfectly beautiful, and unafraid of being vulnerable. She’s everything Montana would like to become. But the friendship with Karissa is driving a wedge between Montana and her sister, and the more of her own secrets Karissa reveals, the more Montana has to wonder if Karissa’s someone she can really trust.
In the midst of her uncertainty, Montana finds a heady distraction in Bernardo. He’s serious and spontaneous, and he looks at Montana in the way she wants to be seen. For the first time, Montana understands how you can become both lost and found in somebody else. But when that love becomes everything, where does it leave the rest of her imperfect life?
With Arizona wrapped up in her college world and their father distracted by yet another divorce, Montana’s been immersing herself in an intoxicating new friendship with a girl from her acting class. Karissa is bold, imperfectly beautiful, and unafraid of being vulnerable. She’s everything Montana would like to become. But the friendship with Karissa is driving a wedge between Montana and her sister, and the more of her own secrets Karissa reveals, the more Montana has to wonder if Karissa’s someone she can really trust.
In the midst of her uncertainty, Montana finds a heady distraction in Bernardo. He’s serious and spontaneous, and he looks at Montana in the way she wants to be seen. For the first time, Montana understands how you can become both lost and found in somebody else. But when that love becomes everything, where does it leave the rest of her imperfect life?
368 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 12, 2015
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May 18, 2015
“The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.”
----Bob Marley
Corey Ann Haydu, an American author, pens her new novel, Making Pretty which is based on the fragile as well as promising lines of friendships, family values, sisterly bond and relationship, in short, it's more about finding the respect and love despite of the challenges in one's life.
Synopsis:
Montana and her sister, Arizona, are named after the mountainous states their mother left them for. But Montana is a New York City girl through and through, and as the city heats up, she’s stepping into the most intense summer of her life.
With Arizona wrapped up in her college world and their father distracted by yet another divorce, Montana’s been immersing herself in an intoxicating new friendship with a girl from her acting class. Karissa is bold, imperfectly beautiful, and unafraid of being vulnerable. She’s everything Montana would like to become. But the friendship with Karissa is driving a wedge between Montana and her sister, and the more of her own secrets Karissa reveals, the more Montana has to wonder if Karissa’s someone she can really trust.
In the midst of her uncertainty, Montana finds a heady distraction in Bernardo. He’s serious and spontaneous, and he looks at Montana in the way she wants to be seen. For the first time, Montana understands how you can become both lost and found in somebody else. But when that love becomes everything, where does it leave the rest of her imperfect life?
Montana and Arizona are two sisters who belong from a dysfunctional family background, well thanks to their plastic surgeon father who can't stop himself from getting married and divorcing after a few years. He has a series of girlfriends and have had four wives. Their father wants to fix every flaws of the women in this world, from his girls to his wives and girlfriends, but Montana never accepted the world of plastic surgery with her heart, her beliefs lied in the ugly truth behind plastic surgery.
Due to her father's habit of getting married and getting divorced, Montana finds herself being friends with a don't-care-attitude girl named, Karissa. Their bond of friendship lies in the imperfection of their worlds.
Her life becomes colorful and bright when she meets the next-door-neighbor-kind-of-boy named, Bernardo and Montana does everything that a normal teenager would do to make themselves look desirable in the eyes of an opposite sex.
The author's writing is incredible, I mean the plot develops at a snail pace, but it has so much to offer, so many flaws turning into one big problem and then saving the characters from that mess. I mean whole situation that the author put up through Montana's life was pretty messed, filled with never-ending flaws and sadness. There were so many issues-mature ones thrown at Montana's life only to make us see how she surfaces through them.
Montana cannot be compared to a typical teen, since she goes through a lot of drama that her life has to offer, father's problems, plastic surgery, his sister, her friend, Karissa with her emo secrets and drama, Bernardo, the man she is trying hard to impress. The last aspect I loved the most, I mean it's true we only let others see us in a way we want them to see, and we do that often when we are in love. Montana's life was constantly dictated by the negative and irrational choices that made her look cool in the eyes of her friends, whereas her narrative voiced just the opposite of what she did.
The characters are all kept closer to reality and their authenticity was very evident from their demeanor and especially the way they acted in a messed up situation- vulnerable and impulsive. The relationship between Bernardo and Montana was not very promising, I mean they fell very fast and moved very fast in the pace of their relationship. They acted more like lusty teenagers, who can't get enough of each other.
Overall, it's an enlightening book especially given the theme of the story and it is quite emotional too. If you have a nose for unusual plot and compelling storyline, then do read this book.
Verdict: If you're are a huge realistic YA fan lover, then definitely grab a copy f this book.
Courtesy: Thanks to the author's publicist for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
----Bob Marley
Corey Ann Haydu, an American author, pens her new novel, Making Pretty which is based on the fragile as well as promising lines of friendships, family values, sisterly bond and relationship, in short, it's more about finding the respect and love despite of the challenges in one's life.
Synopsis:
Montana and her sister, Arizona, are named after the mountainous states their mother left them for. But Montana is a New York City girl through and through, and as the city heats up, she’s stepping into the most intense summer of her life.
With Arizona wrapped up in her college world and their father distracted by yet another divorce, Montana’s been immersing herself in an intoxicating new friendship with a girl from her acting class. Karissa is bold, imperfectly beautiful, and unafraid of being vulnerable. She’s everything Montana would like to become. But the friendship with Karissa is driving a wedge between Montana and her sister, and the more of her own secrets Karissa reveals, the more Montana has to wonder if Karissa’s someone she can really trust.
In the midst of her uncertainty, Montana finds a heady distraction in Bernardo. He’s serious and spontaneous, and he looks at Montana in the way she wants to be seen. For the first time, Montana understands how you can become both lost and found in somebody else. But when that love becomes everything, where does it leave the rest of her imperfect life?
Montana and Arizona are two sisters who belong from a dysfunctional family background, well thanks to their plastic surgeon father who can't stop himself from getting married and divorcing after a few years. He has a series of girlfriends and have had four wives. Their father wants to fix every flaws of the women in this world, from his girls to his wives and girlfriends, but Montana never accepted the world of plastic surgery with her heart, her beliefs lied in the ugly truth behind plastic surgery.
Due to her father's habit of getting married and getting divorced, Montana finds herself being friends with a don't-care-attitude girl named, Karissa. Their bond of friendship lies in the imperfection of their worlds.
Her life becomes colorful and bright when she meets the next-door-neighbor-kind-of-boy named, Bernardo and Montana does everything that a normal teenager would do to make themselves look desirable in the eyes of an opposite sex.
The author's writing is incredible, I mean the plot develops at a snail pace, but it has so much to offer, so many flaws turning into one big problem and then saving the characters from that mess. I mean whole situation that the author put up through Montana's life was pretty messed, filled with never-ending flaws and sadness. There were so many issues-mature ones thrown at Montana's life only to make us see how she surfaces through them.
Montana cannot be compared to a typical teen, since she goes through a lot of drama that her life has to offer, father's problems, plastic surgery, his sister, her friend, Karissa with her emo secrets and drama, Bernardo, the man she is trying hard to impress. The last aspect I loved the most, I mean it's true we only let others see us in a way we want them to see, and we do that often when we are in love. Montana's life was constantly dictated by the negative and irrational choices that made her look cool in the eyes of her friends, whereas her narrative voiced just the opposite of what she did.
The characters are all kept closer to reality and their authenticity was very evident from their demeanor and especially the way they acted in a messed up situation- vulnerable and impulsive. The relationship between Bernardo and Montana was not very promising, I mean they fell very fast and moved very fast in the pace of their relationship. They acted more like lusty teenagers, who can't get enough of each other.
Overall, it's an enlightening book especially given the theme of the story and it is quite emotional too. If you have a nose for unusual plot and compelling storyline, then do read this book.
Verdict: If you're are a huge realistic YA fan lover, then definitely grab a copy f this book.
Courtesy: Thanks to the author's publicist for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
March 9, 2015
2.5 stars
(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to HarperCollins and Edelweiss.)
“I don’t remember how I got here, but I remember enough of the night to know Dad has a new girlfriend and Arizona has a new boy and Roxanne has a new life and I only really have Karissa to keep me sane and happy.”
This story started out okay, but I lost interest.
Montana seemed to be a girl who felt quite lost. She’d been let down by her mother when she left them, let down by her sister who went away to college, didn’t speak to her for a month, and seemed to come back looking and acting like a totally different person, and let down by her best friend also.
“I hate that the word sister has this shifting, changeable definition that doesn’t mean two people who share a room and a brain and a speech pattern and a body type anymore.”
The storyline in this book seemed to be about Montana, and her sister, family and friends. I found Karissa (the new best friend) to be quite an odd girl, and I really was surprised by what she was getting up to behind Montana’s back. Montana seemed to be clinging to the idea of a new best friend, as something to hold onto, when everything else in her life was changing, which made Karissa’s then shocking revelation all the more upsetting for her.
“You and me against everything that has sucked in our lives. Two sad girls together. Can we toast to two sad girls?”
Montana’s sister Arizona seemed to have changed too, and it seemed very strange the way she had changed quite so drastically, when previously Montana had believed they so similar they were almost the same person.
“I got my boobs done in April. I didn’t want to tell you over the phone because I thought it would sound like I got porn-star boobs or something, but I wanted you to see it’s like a teeny-tiny upgrade.”
Montana’s father was quite possibly the strangest of all though. Who gives their 13-year-old daughter a gift certificate for plastic surgery? I mean really? Talk about making your daughter feel like there’s something wrong with her?! And the wives? He seemed to have been married and divorced 4 times since Montana’s mother left, and was then moving on to another girl!
“He actually said Tess’s name?” I say. It’s not the point, but he never says the wives’ names after they’re gone. Like if we don’t speak of them they never existed.
The ending to this was okay, although I didn’t really feel like much had been resolved, and I also felt like Montana was still clinging to someone just for the sake of feeling loved. It seemed like she was still behaving exactly the same way as she had at the start of the book, and maybe even doing exactly what her father was doing, and possibly making a huge mistake too. I almost feel like I needed an epilogue to find out if things would really work out for her or not.
5 out of 10
(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to HarperCollins and Edelweiss.)
“I don’t remember how I got here, but I remember enough of the night to know Dad has a new girlfriend and Arizona has a new boy and Roxanne has a new life and I only really have Karissa to keep me sane and happy.”
This story started out okay, but I lost interest.
Montana seemed to be a girl who felt quite lost. She’d been let down by her mother when she left them, let down by her sister who went away to college, didn’t speak to her for a month, and seemed to come back looking and acting like a totally different person, and let down by her best friend also.
“I hate that the word sister has this shifting, changeable definition that doesn’t mean two people who share a room and a brain and a speech pattern and a body type anymore.”
The storyline in this book seemed to be about Montana, and her sister, family and friends. I found Karissa (the new best friend) to be quite an odd girl, and I really was surprised by what she was getting up to behind Montana’s back. Montana seemed to be clinging to the idea of a new best friend, as something to hold onto, when everything else in her life was changing, which made Karissa’s then shocking revelation all the more upsetting for her.
“You and me against everything that has sucked in our lives. Two sad girls together. Can we toast to two sad girls?”
Montana’s sister Arizona seemed to have changed too, and it seemed very strange the way she had changed quite so drastically, when previously Montana had believed they so similar they were almost the same person.
“I got my boobs done in April. I didn’t want to tell you over the phone because I thought it would sound like I got porn-star boobs or something, but I wanted you to see it’s like a teeny-tiny upgrade.”
Montana’s father was quite possibly the strangest of all though. Who gives their 13-year-old daughter a gift certificate for plastic surgery? I mean really? Talk about making your daughter feel like there’s something wrong with her?! And the wives? He seemed to have been married and divorced 4 times since Montana’s mother left, and was then moving on to another girl!
“He actually said Tess’s name?” I say. It’s not the point, but he never says the wives’ names after they’re gone. Like if we don’t speak of them they never existed.
The ending to this was okay, although I didn’t really feel like much had been resolved, and I also felt like Montana was still clinging to someone just for the sake of feeling loved. It seemed like she was still behaving exactly the same way as she had at the start of the book, and maybe even doing exactly what her father was doing, and possibly making a huge mistake too. I almost feel like I needed an epilogue to find out if things would really work out for her or not.
5 out of 10
July 24, 2015
This might be my favorite Haydu book yet, which feels weird to say because I really, really loved the other two, and it's hard to compare. OCD Love Story was the book so intense and well crafted I had to repeatedly put it down, Life by Committee was the book so compelling I couldn't put it down, and Making Pretty was the book I didn't want to put down; it was just too engrossing watching Montana's growth, being in her head, seeing all the ways she reflected some of my own weirdest and most uncomfortable thoughts and also adjusting to a rapidly changing life and all these weird situations and falling in love and, just, everything. I love all the NYC-ness in this book, and that the father who could've so easily been a relatively stock villain was given these layers and sympathetic qualities, and that no one was revealed to be the same at the end of the book as they'd been at the beginning. If I were a more arrogant, self-centered person, I'd say Corey Haydu was probably put on Earth to write books for me.
Oh look, I am that arrogant and self-centered. *preorders everything else Corey Haydu will ever write, ever.
Oh look, I am that arrogant and self-centered. *preorders everything else Corey Haydu will ever write, ever.
September 6, 2015
Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales
Quick & Dirty: Unforgettable and breathtaking, Making Pretty explored raw, complex emotions while creating a unprecedented set of characters that destroyed me completely.
Opening Sentence: June 2nd: A List of Things to Be Grateful For.
The Review:
Montana’s life isn’t going too great. Her father is a plastic surgeon, obsessed with creating the most flawless possible women, including his two daughters. Her mother left them: her, her sister, her father. They haven’t seen her in awhile, and all the contact between them is within a birthday card once a year. Since then her father has been through a long series of divorces and girlfriends. He sucks them in, fixes them up to his ideal with plastic surgery, then spits them out. Since Montana’s sister and best friend left for college she’s been all alone except for the beautiful 23 year old actress that she’s met, someone who seems to understand her, someone who has a tragic backstory and whom Montana thinks could be her replacement best friend. Except she’s more than that. If Montana’s father has his way, this new friend will be his new girlfriend, possibly stepmother.
Montana was a complex character, one that I really enjoyed exploring. She constantly suffered with feeling not good enough, faking a smile and trying as hard as possible to fit in. This insecurity made her a relatable character but also hit super hard. It dated back to her thirteenth birthday when her father gave her a gift certificate for free plastic surgery when she turned eighteen, a promise that he would fix whatever was still wrong with her then. She was also suffering because her sister left for college and took her best friend with her, Roxanne. They are experiencing new things without her, and she felt entirely left out, and it didn’t help that her sister came back with a new boob job, which makes her feel betrayed. Her emotions were constantly so strong, so raw, that at certain points I had to put down the book and separate myself from her head. She was one of those characters that was hovering on the edge of depression but wasn’t quite there yet.
Her romance with Bernardo was also a highlight of the book, especially toward the end. Her whole life she had watched these women of her fathers come and go like the seasons, and all she knows is that she wants the kind of love that lasts. She doesn’t know what kind of love that is, however, having never been in love. She barely knows who her true family is, at some points. My emotions toward their relationship shifted as the book went on. It started out light and cute, a crush, but then bloomed into something consuming and large. The passion was so great that it was hard for Montana to get a grasp on reality when she was with him, she got so caught up in the flurry of emotions. One thing I did enjoy about their romance was that, unlike her father and his wives, Montana and Bernardo supported each other the way they were, instead of looking for flaws to fix.
There are quite a few other problems that play a part in this riveting, complex book by Haydu, much like her other book I reviewed (Life by Committee). One of those was the constant pull towards both of the girls rooted in her life – Karissa, her friend and her father’s new girl, and her sister Arizona. She feels a certain loyalty to Arizona after all of these years being the only stable parts of their family. But she also feels a bond with Karissa and all the things they shared together before her father’s relationship with the young girl screwed it all up. At points the two are fighting over her, and she can’t find middle ground. Stick with one, betray the other. It was hard to watch her moral dilemma. Another problem was how she treated the stepmoms. Arizona and Montana have always played little games and played fun at their father’s romances. For example, they have on game where they bet on how long a relationship will last, and the closest at the end of the relationship gets a little prize. It’s the only way to ground themselves and make sure they remain unhurt and don’t get too attached — if hope grew, it would only shatter them when things fell apart. But does this make them bad people, the way they poke fun at other’s lives?
I have to say that this book was completely riveting. It totally immersed me in Montana’s lives and emotions, as well as the emotions of the other characters, which were just as strong. That was one thing that Haydu did incredibly. She created a world in which even the side characters had many different facets and played different parts in building the main character’s world. This book destroyed me at points. I am not a book crier, I don’t cry very easily, but I swear that I almost did reading this novel. Unforgettable and breathtaking, Making Pretty explored raw, complex emotions while creating a unprecedented set of characters that destroyed me completely. I would totally recommend this book to lovers of The Fault in Our Stars and other sad contemporaries — this is not a fluffy book.
Notable Scene:
“I’d never done any of this before,” Tess said. “Movie night and making dinner and worrying about you getting home by curfew and cleaning the blades of the ceiling fan and saying I love you to someone every night before bed. That was all new to me.”
“Yeah. See, it wasn’t really new to us,” I said.
“That’s the worst fucking thing I’ve ever heard,” Tess said. “This should make you feel something.” She pointed to her pile of moving boxes, the truck outside, the burly man heaving the boxes from our apartment to the truck.
“I mean, we’ll miss you for sure,” I said, but I knew it wasn’t convincing enough. I couldn’t muster up tears or even a crack in my voice or a big sigh or anything.
“Today I feel bad for me,” she said, “But in, like, six months I’m only going to feel bad for you.”
FTC Advisory: Katherine Tegan Books/HarperTeen provided me with a copy of Making Pretty. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
Quick & Dirty: Unforgettable and breathtaking, Making Pretty explored raw, complex emotions while creating a unprecedented set of characters that destroyed me completely.
Opening Sentence: June 2nd: A List of Things to Be Grateful For.
The Review:
Montana’s life isn’t going too great. Her father is a plastic surgeon, obsessed with creating the most flawless possible women, including his two daughters. Her mother left them: her, her sister, her father. They haven’t seen her in awhile, and all the contact between them is within a birthday card once a year. Since then her father has been through a long series of divorces and girlfriends. He sucks them in, fixes them up to his ideal with plastic surgery, then spits them out. Since Montana’s sister and best friend left for college she’s been all alone except for the beautiful 23 year old actress that she’s met, someone who seems to understand her, someone who has a tragic backstory and whom Montana thinks could be her replacement best friend. Except she’s more than that. If Montana’s father has his way, this new friend will be his new girlfriend, possibly stepmother.
Montana was a complex character, one that I really enjoyed exploring. She constantly suffered with feeling not good enough, faking a smile and trying as hard as possible to fit in. This insecurity made her a relatable character but also hit super hard. It dated back to her thirteenth birthday when her father gave her a gift certificate for free plastic surgery when she turned eighteen, a promise that he would fix whatever was still wrong with her then. She was also suffering because her sister left for college and took her best friend with her, Roxanne. They are experiencing new things without her, and she felt entirely left out, and it didn’t help that her sister came back with a new boob job, which makes her feel betrayed. Her emotions were constantly so strong, so raw, that at certain points I had to put down the book and separate myself from her head. She was one of those characters that was hovering on the edge of depression but wasn’t quite there yet.
Her romance with Bernardo was also a highlight of the book, especially toward the end. Her whole life she had watched these women of her fathers come and go like the seasons, and all she knows is that she wants the kind of love that lasts. She doesn’t know what kind of love that is, however, having never been in love. She barely knows who her true family is, at some points. My emotions toward their relationship shifted as the book went on. It started out light and cute, a crush, but then bloomed into something consuming and large. The passion was so great that it was hard for Montana to get a grasp on reality when she was with him, she got so caught up in the flurry of emotions. One thing I did enjoy about their romance was that, unlike her father and his wives, Montana and Bernardo supported each other the way they were, instead of looking for flaws to fix.
There are quite a few other problems that play a part in this riveting, complex book by Haydu, much like her other book I reviewed (Life by Committee). One of those was the constant pull towards both of the girls rooted in her life – Karissa, her friend and her father’s new girl, and her sister Arizona. She feels a certain loyalty to Arizona after all of these years being the only stable parts of their family. But she also feels a bond with Karissa and all the things they shared together before her father’s relationship with the young girl screwed it all up. At points the two are fighting over her, and she can’t find middle ground. Stick with one, betray the other. It was hard to watch her moral dilemma. Another problem was how she treated the stepmoms. Arizona and Montana have always played little games and played fun at their father’s romances. For example, they have on game where they bet on how long a relationship will last, and the closest at the end of the relationship gets a little prize. It’s the only way to ground themselves and make sure they remain unhurt and don’t get too attached — if hope grew, it would only shatter them when things fell apart. But does this make them bad people, the way they poke fun at other’s lives?
I have to say that this book was completely riveting. It totally immersed me in Montana’s lives and emotions, as well as the emotions of the other characters, which were just as strong. That was one thing that Haydu did incredibly. She created a world in which even the side characters had many different facets and played different parts in building the main character’s world. This book destroyed me at points. I am not a book crier, I don’t cry very easily, but I swear that I almost did reading this novel. Unforgettable and breathtaking, Making Pretty explored raw, complex emotions while creating a unprecedented set of characters that destroyed me completely. I would totally recommend this book to lovers of The Fault in Our Stars and other sad contemporaries — this is not a fluffy book.
Notable Scene:
“I’d never done any of this before,” Tess said. “Movie night and making dinner and worrying about you getting home by curfew and cleaning the blades of the ceiling fan and saying I love you to someone every night before bed. That was all new to me.”
“Yeah. See, it wasn’t really new to us,” I said.
“That’s the worst fucking thing I’ve ever heard,” Tess said. “This should make you feel something.” She pointed to her pile of moving boxes, the truck outside, the burly man heaving the boxes from our apartment to the truck.
“I mean, we’ll miss you for sure,” I said, but I knew it wasn’t convincing enough. I couldn’t muster up tears or even a crack in my voice or a big sigh or anything.
“Today I feel bad for me,” she said, “But in, like, six months I’m only going to feel bad for you.”
FTC Advisory: Katherine Tegan Books/HarperTeen provided me with a copy of Making Pretty. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
January 3, 2016
I received a free copy via Edelweiss for review purposes.
When Montana meets Karissa, she begins to feel comfortable in herself. She feels like her own person, especially as she grows apart from her sister Arizona. But as Karissa's secrets are revealed, Montana is not sure she knew her at all. In the midst of this, Montana meets Bernardo and she feels completely comfortable with him.
It took me a long time to finish this book and there were quiet a few occasions I wanted to DNF. Montana was not an easy character to like - in fact, none of them were. Booze and smoking is so casually thrown in there like it's a thing all teenagers do, and should do, to be seen as 'cool'.
I was interested in the narratives about plastic surgery and dysfunctional families, and Corey Ann Haydu has a way with words, but that's where my enjoyment ended. I didn't feel connected with the characters at all and the pace was mind-numbingly slow and I ended up skimming most of it. And not to mention insta-love. Bernardo was not interesting in the slightest and felt like a 2D character.
Overall, not a book I would personally recommend.
When Montana meets Karissa, she begins to feel comfortable in herself. She feels like her own person, especially as she grows apart from her sister Arizona. But as Karissa's secrets are revealed, Montana is not sure she knew her at all. In the midst of this, Montana meets Bernardo and she feels completely comfortable with him.
It took me a long time to finish this book and there were quiet a few occasions I wanted to DNF. Montana was not an easy character to like - in fact, none of them were. Booze and smoking is so casually thrown in there like it's a thing all teenagers do, and should do, to be seen as 'cool'.
I was interested in the narratives about plastic surgery and dysfunctional families, and Corey Ann Haydu has a way with words, but that's where my enjoyment ended. I didn't feel connected with the characters at all and the pace was mind-numbingly slow and I ended up skimming most of it. And not to mention insta-love. Bernardo was not interesting in the slightest and felt like a 2D character.
Overall, not a book I would personally recommend.
March 31, 2015
One of those books that I kept trying to put down to GET THINGS DONE, and kept picking right back up again. I loved the main character and found her extremely relatable. It's sometimes an uncomfortable read, only because the characters feel SO so real, and the topics are a little tough if you've ever struggled with body image issues, but I mean that in a positive way.The author doesn't shy away from the tough stuff, and it's just refreshingly real. Like I said, I adored this book and want to shove it into everyone's hands. *shoves*
May 31, 2015
I don't know if it's because of my crappy mood or if it's because I just couldn't relate to the book; but I freaking hated this book. It was immature and bland. I was bored the entire time I read it. Sorry but I just didn't like it.
May 13, 2015
2.5
Originally Posted at Confessions of an Opinionated Book Geek
The synopsis of this book doesn’t give a clear summary of what this book is about. Like, at all. MAKING PRETTY is about one of the most messed up families I have ever encountered. Which is a feat considering there is no drugs or obvious abuse. Montana wasn’t raped and isn’t hiding in closets from her father, but still calling this family dysfunctional is putting it lightly.
Montana and Arizona are two years apart in age, but have done everything together. Except, for College. Being two years younger Montana just can’t go off to university like her older sister. She’s left behind in New York with her useless father. Their father loves them and he provides for them, but he is one of the worst dads I’ve ever read, because he’s a horrible parent. He’s the kind of guy who brings work home, literally. As a plastic surgeon he spends his time making people “more beautiful” and he doesn’t stop at the office. He looks at every woman around him and sees flaws he can fix. Even on his own daughters. For their 13 birthdays, their dad gave them gift certificates for plastic surgery! Way to tell your child that they are not good enough or beautiful.
The other horrible thing about their dad is that he can never be alone. Never. Which has lead to dozens of girlfriends and 4 ex-wives. Think about that. Montana is 17 and her father has already been divorced 4 times. The selfishness of a parent who brings that many people for his impressionable daughters to lose is beyond my comprehension. It’s disgusting and rage inducing.
Rage inducing is a good description for my relationship with MAKING PRETTY. I hated so many characters. Hated all the things they said and all the things Montana didn’t say to them. Especially, after her dad tells her that he’s in love again and that it’s different this time! The moment we meet the new girlfriend, someone that Montana knows intimately, the book spirals into an uncomfortable coming of age family drama that kept me on a roller coaster of anger and pity.
Corey Ann Haydu is a talented author. Her style is smart and rhythmic and pulls you into every detail of the story. I was pulled in. I felt for these characters as if they were real. As if Montana was my friend telling me the story. The author pulled emotions out of me like a puppet master.
The problem is that I believe that I hate this book. Not in the way that I hate offensive or condescending books. It’s not bad. The characters are developed and the story clear. There is the small problem that Montana does not sound 17. She sounds 15. She doesn’t have the voice of someone who has the pressure of SAT’s and the big choices ahead of her. 17 year olds have to decide on colleges and begin the path of who they want to be and what they want to do. Nothing about Montana tells me she has that kind of stress. I say 15, because by then you’ve been through a year of high school which is a life of its own. You’ve had some life experience and some struggles, but the hard choices are still ahead of you. Montana was an immature 17 which worked for the dysfunction of the book.
I hate this book because it pulled emotions out of me and then left me hanging. The ending is no ending at all. One of those pretentious books where the ending is all open ended and nothing is resolved and nothing is concluded.
It’s not that I need things wrapped up in a pretty bow (though that would be nice). No, it’s that Montana doesn’t get to grow. I don’t have any idea what will happen to her on the other side of the last chapter. I have no idea how she will deal with the choices she’s made. I have no idea if her and the boy she falls in love with, will stay together for awhile or if they will break up. Then there’s the fact that no one changes. In the beginning of the book, Montana thinks “I should tell him this. I should say that. I should voice my opinions for once in my life.” At the end of the book, Montana thinks “I should tell him this. I should say that. I should voice my opinions for once in my life.”
That is what I found most frustrating. This is a girl who received such bad parenting she literally doesn’t know what it means to be in a family. She doesn’t know what it means to love. Her parents have screwed her up and she never gets a chance to express herself! When there are small moments of arguments it’s never completed.
I guess that’s supposed to mimic real life, but really it’s b.s. Why did I read a book where people make the same choices. Then, Montana and Arizona begin a journey at the end of the book which is just a cheap ending for me, because I have no idea where it’s leading them or how it will help them. I don’t think it will help them. I think it will break them and the author gave me no clues that their world will have any kind of satisfying or happy conclusion. In fact, their journey probably will make a better story than the one I got.
I can’t quite figure out what the message behind this book is. Here is a girl who doesn’t have a real family life. Who has been left behind and abandoned more times than she can count. Understandably, she latches on to people like her boyfriend or Karissa the young woman she idolizes. But, she never learns what it means to be in a family besides the glimpses she sees of other families. Beyond her sister, she never grabs on to a healthy relationship. In all honesty, I think Montana is going to get knocked up a few times, divorced a few times and still search for a place to belong, because the author gave me no concrete evidence that it will end any other way.
A very weak ending. Disappointing, because I sincerely believe you should read her other book Life by Committee.
Originally Posted at Confessions of an Opinionated Book Geek
The synopsis of this book doesn’t give a clear summary of what this book is about. Like, at all. MAKING PRETTY is about one of the most messed up families I have ever encountered. Which is a feat considering there is no drugs or obvious abuse. Montana wasn’t raped and isn’t hiding in closets from her father, but still calling this family dysfunctional is putting it lightly.
Montana and Arizona are two years apart in age, but have done everything together. Except, for College. Being two years younger Montana just can’t go off to university like her older sister. She’s left behind in New York with her useless father. Their father loves them and he provides for them, but he is one of the worst dads I’ve ever read, because he’s a horrible parent. He’s the kind of guy who brings work home, literally. As a plastic surgeon he spends his time making people “more beautiful” and he doesn’t stop at the office. He looks at every woman around him and sees flaws he can fix. Even on his own daughters. For their 13 birthdays, their dad gave them gift certificates for plastic surgery! Way to tell your child that they are not good enough or beautiful.
The other horrible thing about their dad is that he can never be alone. Never. Which has lead to dozens of girlfriends and 4 ex-wives. Think about that. Montana is 17 and her father has already been divorced 4 times. The selfishness of a parent who brings that many people for his impressionable daughters to lose is beyond my comprehension. It’s disgusting and rage inducing.
Rage inducing is a good description for my relationship with MAKING PRETTY. I hated so many characters. Hated all the things they said and all the things Montana didn’t say to them. Especially, after her dad tells her that he’s in love again and that it’s different this time! The moment we meet the new girlfriend, someone that Montana knows intimately, the book spirals into an uncomfortable coming of age family drama that kept me on a roller coaster of anger and pity.
Corey Ann Haydu is a talented author. Her style is smart and rhythmic and pulls you into every detail of the story. I was pulled in. I felt for these characters as if they were real. As if Montana was my friend telling me the story. The author pulled emotions out of me like a puppet master.
The problem is that I believe that I hate this book. Not in the way that I hate offensive or condescending books. It’s not bad. The characters are developed and the story clear. There is the small problem that Montana does not sound 17. She sounds 15. She doesn’t have the voice of someone who has the pressure of SAT’s and the big choices ahead of her. 17 year olds have to decide on colleges and begin the path of who they want to be and what they want to do. Nothing about Montana tells me she has that kind of stress. I say 15, because by then you’ve been through a year of high school which is a life of its own. You’ve had some life experience and some struggles, but the hard choices are still ahead of you. Montana was an immature 17 which worked for the dysfunction of the book.
I hate this book because it pulled emotions out of me and then left me hanging. The ending is no ending at all. One of those pretentious books where the ending is all open ended and nothing is resolved and nothing is concluded.
It’s not that I need things wrapped up in a pretty bow (though that would be nice). No, it’s that Montana doesn’t get to grow. I don’t have any idea what will happen to her on the other side of the last chapter. I have no idea how she will deal with the choices she’s made. I have no idea if her and the boy she falls in love with, will stay together for awhile or if they will break up. Then there’s the fact that no one changes. In the beginning of the book, Montana thinks “I should tell him this. I should say that. I should voice my opinions for once in my life.” At the end of the book, Montana thinks “I should tell him this. I should say that. I should voice my opinions for once in my life.”
That is what I found most frustrating. This is a girl who received such bad parenting she literally doesn’t know what it means to be in a family. She doesn’t know what it means to love. Her parents have screwed her up and she never gets a chance to express herself! When there are small moments of arguments it’s never completed.
I guess that’s supposed to mimic real life, but really it’s b.s. Why did I read a book where people make the same choices. Then, Montana and Arizona begin a journey at the end of the book which is just a cheap ending for me, because I have no idea where it’s leading them or how it will help them. I don’t think it will help them. I think it will break them and the author gave me no clues that their world will have any kind of satisfying or happy conclusion. In fact, their journey probably will make a better story than the one I got.
I can’t quite figure out what the message behind this book is. Here is a girl who doesn’t have a real family life. Who has been left behind and abandoned more times than she can count. Understandably, she latches on to people like her boyfriend or Karissa the young woman she idolizes. But, she never learns what it means to be in a family besides the glimpses she sees of other families. Beyond her sister, she never grabs on to a healthy relationship. In all honesty, I think Montana is going to get knocked up a few times, divorced a few times and still search for a place to belong, because the author gave me no concrete evidence that it will end any other way.
A very weak ending. Disappointing, because I sincerely believe you should read her other book Life by Committee.
May 7, 2015
Intense and crazy. Excellent writing and characters. A few things I'd like to have seen fleshed out a bit more at the end, but story really drove me nuts and sucked me in -- in an uncomfortable but good way!
May 22, 2015
2 stars
Having heard many positive things about Corey Ann Haydu’s previous contemporary novels, I was quite excited to pick up her latest YA, Making Pretty. The premise itself is intriguing: Montana is a teen girl living in NYC – however, she struggles to live life happily because of her father, a plastic surgeon who remarries and dates so often that there is no sense of consistency in her life. Montana’s bond with her sister, Arizona, also starts falling apart. I was sure I was in for a story about self-discovery with strong family elements. I got a bits and scraps of those qualities, but I was also surprised with some other aspects of the story that I didn’t enjoy at all.
First off, Montana is an extremely difficult character to like. I thought it was just going to be temporary and that we would see some character growth by the end. However, Montana doesn’t progress much at all. She’s extremely naive and complains so much about her life. Yes, her father isn’t the best father out there, but she makes it difficult to sympathize for her. Montana is also a very hypocritical character. She complains about one thing, but does exactly that. For example, she complains about her dad marrying someone he met just a few days ago, but then she finds a boy and falls instantly in love with him. An extremely drastic declaration of love even happens later in the story for Montana, and I completely rolled my eyes. I saw her as a very confused teenager who is desperately looking for the answers on How to Live Life. By the end of the story, I was still having a hard time connecting with Montana.
Another quality in this story that isn’t the most favorable is how seemingly all of the characters drink heavily. I mean, these characters are in their prime time – late teens to early twenties – so it’s understandable that there is going to be some underage drinking, but these girls drink so much. No wonder they’re all so confused and impulsive. There’s drinking in every chapter. How am I supposed to trust Montana’s point of view when she’s drunk out of her mind half the time?
I’m not even quite sure what redeeming qualities there are for this book let alone how I stuck through the end. Perhaps Haydu’s writing is decent. I’m honestly quite disappointed with Making Pretty though, with its less-than-endearing main character and static character growth. I’m willing to give Haydu’s books another try though, but I’ll have to lower my expectations a bit.
Check out this review and more at Books and Other Happy Ever Afters
Having heard many positive things about Corey Ann Haydu’s previous contemporary novels, I was quite excited to pick up her latest YA, Making Pretty. The premise itself is intriguing: Montana is a teen girl living in NYC – however, she struggles to live life happily because of her father, a plastic surgeon who remarries and dates so often that there is no sense of consistency in her life. Montana’s bond with her sister, Arizona, also starts falling apart. I was sure I was in for a story about self-discovery with strong family elements. I got a bits and scraps of those qualities, but I was also surprised with some other aspects of the story that I didn’t enjoy at all.
First off, Montana is an extremely difficult character to like. I thought it was just going to be temporary and that we would see some character growth by the end. However, Montana doesn’t progress much at all. She’s extremely naive and complains so much about her life. Yes, her father isn’t the best father out there, but she makes it difficult to sympathize for her. Montana is also a very hypocritical character. She complains about one thing, but does exactly that. For example, she complains about her dad marrying someone he met just a few days ago, but then she finds a boy and falls instantly in love with him. An extremely drastic declaration of love even happens later in the story for Montana, and I completely rolled my eyes. I saw her as a very confused teenager who is desperately looking for the answers on How to Live Life. By the end of the story, I was still having a hard time connecting with Montana.
Another quality in this story that isn’t the most favorable is how seemingly all of the characters drink heavily. I mean, these characters are in their prime time – late teens to early twenties – so it’s understandable that there is going to be some underage drinking, but these girls drink so much. No wonder they’re all so confused and impulsive. There’s drinking in every chapter. How am I supposed to trust Montana’s point of view when she’s drunk out of her mind half the time?
I’m not even quite sure what redeeming qualities there are for this book let alone how I stuck through the end. Perhaps Haydu’s writing is decent. I’m honestly quite disappointed with Making Pretty though, with its less-than-endearing main character and static character growth. I’m willing to give Haydu’s books another try though, but I’ll have to lower my expectations a bit.
Check out this review and more at Books and Other Happy Ever Afters
July 31, 2015
This review can also be found on A Thousand Lives Lived, check it out for more!
Corey Ann Haydu is one of those authors whose books I really want to enjoy. They seem like the perfect kind of books that'll impress me: contemporary romances that have some darker concept within them. In this case, as well as her previous, Life by Committee, there was so much potential for me to enjoy them. Everything seemed perfect, at first. But as I look back onto these novels, they were dull and not as deep as I wish them to be. I have 2 more of her novels to read and they're both on my TBR list, though I'm now hesitant, as the second time surely wasn't the charm.
Making Pretty was a pretty book, but I feel more meh and bored with it than others have. I surely won't even dream of giving this a perfect star rating, but whatever. It deals with all of the cutesy stuff—sisterhood, first love, rebellion of being a teenager, all of those things that are supposed to matter or happen in life. You'll find that the characters have had a horrible life with endless amounts of 'stepmothers' and weird stuff going on with their family, and they're—Arizona and Montana—are those characters whose side you'd like to stay on.
That's kind of weird but cute at the same time. Anyways, let's just get to the summary because you don't even have a clue what this book is about if this is the first time you've seen it or heard of it. Making Pretty features Montana and Arizona, two sisters who were named after the states that their mother left them for. They now live with their plastic surgeon father who gets married and divorces women lots of times. Now Montana has enough of her boring, strange life and she falls in love with a guy named Bernardo, who respects her pink hair and wickedness.
I guess that the title does make sense for what the book was actually about. I liked Montana's attitude towards her father's job and everything and how she doesn't want to get sucked into the obsession of redoing yourself. She had self-confidence, even when she was depressed and felt like the relationship with her college-based older sister was dissipating. She was a little annoying here and there and I couldn't agree with every single decision she made, but she wasn't frustrating as some protagonists/characters are (cough, Arizona, cough). Haydu doesn't create the best bunch of characters in the end.
So if you actually read the official synopsis found on the jacket cover of the novel, you'll probably predict that a lot of the book is focused on secrets, lies and the sisters' fading relationship. It's not. I found that the romance was the biggest part as well as Montana finding out who she is. Yes, it's one of those cheesy stories. I wasn't too fond of it in the end, either.
The author's writing seems to drag a lot. It's overly exaggerated at some points and I just want to bang my head against a desk to keep me awake. While reading, I found myself fading in and out of the fictional world of New York City, and while I adored the setting, something was missing from the depth of the story.
Making Pretty will go horribly for some and fantastic for others. It all depends on what you really enjoy in a romantic relationship. You'll most definitely find Montana and Bernardo's to be cute and everything, but it's not as realistic as I hoped. I guess it all features a girl turning pretty in her own way—an 'eh' way.
Corey Ann Haydu is one of those authors whose books I really want to enjoy. They seem like the perfect kind of books that'll impress me: contemporary romances that have some darker concept within them. In this case, as well as her previous, Life by Committee, there was so much potential for me to enjoy them. Everything seemed perfect, at first. But as I look back onto these novels, they were dull and not as deep as I wish them to be. I have 2 more of her novels to read and they're both on my TBR list, though I'm now hesitant, as the second time surely wasn't the charm.
Making Pretty was a pretty book, but I feel more meh and bored with it than others have. I surely won't even dream of giving this a perfect star rating, but whatever. It deals with all of the cutesy stuff—sisterhood, first love, rebellion of being a teenager, all of those things that are supposed to matter or happen in life. You'll find that the characters have had a horrible life with endless amounts of 'stepmothers' and weird stuff going on with their family, and they're—Arizona and Montana—are those characters whose side you'd like to stay on.
"I noticed he was reading the same book as me. The Great Gatsby. I figured his school was probably doing a unit on it too. Then it was the Stephen King novel I was chilling out with. Then Catcher in the Rye. Then The Hunger Games. Then Valley of the Dolls. After Valley of the Dolls we started nodding at each other. Then waving."
That's kind of weird but cute at the same time. Anyways, let's just get to the summary because you don't even have a clue what this book is about if this is the first time you've seen it or heard of it. Making Pretty features Montana and Arizona, two sisters who were named after the states that their mother left them for. They now live with their plastic surgeon father who gets married and divorces women lots of times. Now Montana has enough of her boring, strange life and she falls in love with a guy named Bernardo, who respects her pink hair and wickedness.
I guess that the title does make sense for what the book was actually about. I liked Montana's attitude towards her father's job and everything and how she doesn't want to get sucked into the obsession of redoing yourself. She had self-confidence, even when she was depressed and felt like the relationship with her college-based older sister was dissipating. She was a little annoying here and there and I couldn't agree with every single decision she made, but she wasn't frustrating as some protagonists/characters are (cough, Arizona, cough). Haydu doesn't create the best bunch of characters in the end.
So if you actually read the official synopsis found on the jacket cover of the novel, you'll probably predict that a lot of the book is focused on secrets, lies and the sisters' fading relationship. It's not. I found that the romance was the biggest part as well as Montana finding out who she is. Yes, it's one of those cheesy stories. I wasn't too fond of it in the end, either.
The author's writing seems to drag a lot. It's overly exaggerated at some points and I just want to bang my head against a desk to keep me awake. While reading, I found myself fading in and out of the fictional world of New York City, and while I adored the setting, something was missing from the depth of the story.
"I take note in my head: Bernardo is a boy who doesn't depend on smiles. Bernardo is boy who swears and loves in Spanish."
Making Pretty will go horribly for some and fantastic for others. It all depends on what you really enjoy in a romantic relationship. You'll most definitely find Montana and Bernardo's to be cute and everything, but it's not as realistic as I hoped. I guess it all features a girl turning pretty in her own way—an 'eh' way.
October 22, 2015
Very few books make me feel speechless. This was a heartbreaking, almost suspenseful story and it really stands on its own in this book category. I literally can't think of one comparable book. I'll have a full review but some words I wrote down while reading: discarded, impulsive, and validation.
Another great piece of work from this author with so many crossover opportunities. 4.5 stars.
-- adapted full review originally posted on
...in reading a book like Corey Ann Haydu’s Making Pretty I am absolutely aghast about Montana’s father behavior when it came to the looks of his daughters. Part of me thinks he thinks he’s doing “the right thing” and helping his daughters “accept themselves” but as a plastic surgeon who is constantly taking on new female projects and totally transforming them… we know the truth. It’s not as it seems.
Basically we have Montana — about to embark on another summer in New York City. Her best friend (Roxanne) and her sister (Arizona) are back from college. She’s been honored with the friendship of the older, sophisticated Karissa. The boy (Bernardo) she’s been checking out at the park is looking at her back. But nothing is totally clicking except for the last thing. She can’t relate to Roxanne and Arizona the same way since she went to college. Karissa is not what she seemed — or even close. But Bernardo — he is someone she can have for herself. He is someone who is on her side. Alongside him, Montana goes on this journey to reinvent herself but also get down to the naked truth of what she means to people. Her dad has married again and again; all the while, Montana has basically been discarded by these women. I don’t think it was any fault of these ex-wives, I don’t, but I also can’t imagine how Montana feels watching each of these people walk out of her life without turning back and wondering about her.
As much as this book is about beauty — how it is perceived and thrust upon us — Haydu unshockingly (because she always asks the tough questions) explores the complexity of sister relationships, the all-consuming impulsiveness that comes along with first love, and the desire to take control but feeling powerless to actually obtain it. Like in Life By Committee, the author has spun another suspenseful contemporary — where will all of this messy behavior lead these characters? There was no way I could have predicted what would happen.
What exactly do you do when the authority figure in your life makes poor choice after poor choice? That your dad of all people — someone who is supposed to love you unconditionally — thinks he can make you look “better” and thinks he is helpful for offering to help in that area? What do you do when your older sister — one of your best friends — deviates from what she believed in? It’s no wonder that Montana is feeling out of sorts and doesn’t know what she belongs. There is very little that has been stable in her life, and it becomes her own (heavy) responsibility to come to terms with her father and his “well-meaning” abuse and dissect the various meanings of love she’s coming in contact with.
There’s a ton of discussion-worthy layers in Making Pretty and Haydu’s writes both succinctly and honestly, making Montana one of the freshest female voices I’ve read in awhile. She’s also put a reader like me in quite a pickle — how can I have a favorite book of hers when all of them are so wonderful and address so many relevant and pertinent issues we are so careful to hide? Her books may be categorized as young adult but I hope that’s taken as more of a suggestion than a universal rule by thirsty readers searching for unputdownable and thoughtful fiction because her work deserves a wider audience.
Another great piece of work from this author with so many crossover opportunities. 4.5 stars.
-- adapted full review originally posted on
...in reading a book like Corey Ann Haydu’s Making Pretty I am absolutely aghast about Montana’s father behavior when it came to the looks of his daughters. Part of me thinks he thinks he’s doing “the right thing” and helping his daughters “accept themselves” but as a plastic surgeon who is constantly taking on new female projects and totally transforming them… we know the truth. It’s not as it seems.
Basically we have Montana — about to embark on another summer in New York City. Her best friend (Roxanne) and her sister (Arizona) are back from college. She’s been honored with the friendship of the older, sophisticated Karissa. The boy (Bernardo) she’s been checking out at the park is looking at her back. But nothing is totally clicking except for the last thing. She can’t relate to Roxanne and Arizona the same way since she went to college. Karissa is not what she seemed — or even close. But Bernardo — he is someone she can have for herself. He is someone who is on her side. Alongside him, Montana goes on this journey to reinvent herself but also get down to the naked truth of what she means to people. Her dad has married again and again; all the while, Montana has basically been discarded by these women. I don’t think it was any fault of these ex-wives, I don’t, but I also can’t imagine how Montana feels watching each of these people walk out of her life without turning back and wondering about her.
As much as this book is about beauty — how it is perceived and thrust upon us — Haydu unshockingly (because she always asks the tough questions) explores the complexity of sister relationships, the all-consuming impulsiveness that comes along with first love, and the desire to take control but feeling powerless to actually obtain it. Like in Life By Committee, the author has spun another suspenseful contemporary — where will all of this messy behavior lead these characters? There was no way I could have predicted what would happen.
What exactly do you do when the authority figure in your life makes poor choice after poor choice? That your dad of all people — someone who is supposed to love you unconditionally — thinks he can make you look “better” and thinks he is helpful for offering to help in that area? What do you do when your older sister — one of your best friends — deviates from what she believed in? It’s no wonder that Montana is feeling out of sorts and doesn’t know what she belongs. There is very little that has been stable in her life, and it becomes her own (heavy) responsibility to come to terms with her father and his “well-meaning” abuse and dissect the various meanings of love she’s coming in contact with.
There’s a ton of discussion-worthy layers in Making Pretty and Haydu’s writes both succinctly and honestly, making Montana one of the freshest female voices I’ve read in awhile. She’s also put a reader like me in quite a pickle — how can I have a favorite book of hers when all of them are so wonderful and address so many relevant and pertinent issues we are so careful to hide? Her books may be categorized as young adult but I hope that’s taken as more of a suggestion than a universal rule by thirsty readers searching for unputdownable and thoughtful fiction because her work deserves a wider audience.
May 19, 2015
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I'm not really sure what I expected when I started on this book. I guess I was looking forward to a young adult novel that made me cry at the right places, smile and root for Montana, and truly care about the characters in this book.
That really wasn't what I got.
The book is about Montana and Arizona, two sisters who had their mother leave them when they were very young. While their mother still calls them and sends them the yearly birthday card, they live with their plastic surgeon father who remarries like he changes his underwear and has a different girlfriend every other week. Well, when their father announces that he is going to be marrying Karissa, Montana's 23 year old friend, Montana and Arizona feel completely lost and are angry, bitter, and upset by the decision.
Sure, I got the young adult novel. But the problem with this one was that it felt TOO young. I had to keep reminding myself that Montana (half the time I found myself having trouble even remembering this girl's name, that's how little I felt attached to this book and the characters) was not a twelve year old girl. She whines throughout this entire books, has some weird type of stalkerish/instalove romance with this guy she sees in the park (who stares at her so frequently he actually starts reading all the same books he sees her reading). Okay, maybe when you're...seventeen (I keep forgetting how old she is because she acts like she's twelve throughout the entire book), maybe that's a cute thing (although I probably would have been creeped out by it when I was that age), but I don't know. I thought their entire relationship was weird. They were telling each other that they loved each other after being together for like two weeks (even Montana's sister, Arizona, kept pointing out that they've "been together for five minutes").
Another huge issue I had with this book was the detachment with their father. I mean, Arizona came home drunk in the beginning of the novel, and her dad didn't even punish her for it. He acted like it was completely normal. This baffled me, and I should have realized that this book wasn't for me in the very beginning.
I don't know. Maybe the part of me who has two daughters kept kicking in during this book and wondering why the hell no one was paying attention to this girl in the way that she needed. It seemed like no one really seemed to care what was going on in her life, because everyone was wrapped up in their own. It did not make for a very memorable novel, unfortunately.
I'm not really sure what I expected when I started on this book. I guess I was looking forward to a young adult novel that made me cry at the right places, smile and root for Montana, and truly care about the characters in this book.
That really wasn't what I got.
The book is about Montana and Arizona, two sisters who had their mother leave them when they were very young. While their mother still calls them and sends them the yearly birthday card, they live with their plastic surgeon father who remarries like he changes his underwear and has a different girlfriend every other week. Well, when their father announces that he is going to be marrying Karissa, Montana's 23 year old friend, Montana and Arizona feel completely lost and are angry, bitter, and upset by the decision.
Sure, I got the young adult novel. But the problem with this one was that it felt TOO young. I had to keep reminding myself that Montana (half the time I found myself having trouble even remembering this girl's name, that's how little I felt attached to this book and the characters) was not a twelve year old girl. She whines throughout this entire books, has some weird type of stalkerish/instalove romance with this guy she sees in the park (who stares at her so frequently he actually starts reading all the same books he sees her reading). Okay, maybe when you're...seventeen (I keep forgetting how old she is because she acts like she's twelve throughout the entire book), maybe that's a cute thing (although I probably would have been creeped out by it when I was that age), but I don't know. I thought their entire relationship was weird. They were telling each other that they loved each other after being together for like two weeks (even Montana's sister, Arizona, kept pointing out that they've "been together for five minutes").
Another huge issue I had with this book was the detachment with their father. I mean, Arizona came home drunk in the beginning of the novel, and her dad didn't even punish her for it. He acted like it was completely normal. This baffled me, and I should have realized that this book wasn't for me in the very beginning.
I don't know. Maybe the part of me who has two daughters kept kicking in during this book and wondering why the hell no one was paying attention to this girl in the way that she needed. It seemed like no one really seemed to care what was going on in her life, because everyone was wrapped up in their own. It did not make for a very memorable novel, unfortunately.
March 24, 2015
I LOVED this book. Imperfect, true-to-life, challenging characters in the very best way possible. New York, the setting, was so vibrant and detailed it was practically a character in itself. The discussions that you could have about this book are numerous, and I can definitely it see it being read in book clubs and high school classrooms. There is so much to unpack here.
In reading this book, I felt like I was getting a glimpse into the life of an actual, real life family. The dialogue and writing were on point (as is always the case with Haydu's books), and I felt that all of the different threads of the story wove together so well.
I highly recommend this book.
In reading this book, I felt like I was getting a glimpse into the life of an actual, real life family. The dialogue and writing were on point (as is always the case with Haydu's books), and I felt that all of the different threads of the story wove together so well.
I highly recommend this book.
February 25, 2015
I was lucky enough to win an ARC of MAKING PRETTY.
I've read (and loved) both of Haydu's previous YAs, and this one didn't disappoint. I think my favorite thing about her books is that her characters make decisions that drive me INSANE. Most of the time because they're the sort of things *I* did as a teenager, and I just want to reach back in time and stop myself! This book was no different--it hit home, and I love it for doing so.
Must read.
I've read (and loved) both of Haydu's previous YAs, and this one didn't disappoint. I think my favorite thing about her books is that her characters make decisions that drive me INSANE. Most of the time because they're the sort of things *I* did as a teenager, and I just want to reach back in time and stop myself! This book was no different--it hit home, and I love it for doing so.
Must read.
July 6, 2015
4.5 stars-- I rounded up!
I'm speechless. Corey Ann Haydu's writing is on a level all its own-- seriously, the next time someone criticizes YA lit, I will hand them this book, as it will rival the writing in ANY adult novel. Its BRILLIANT. Amazing. It's gorgeous and heartbreaking and even painful to read at times. Also original- I can't think of another book that is even remotely similar. Review to come but READ THIS ONE, y'all.
May 27, 2016
FIRST THOUGHTS: Haydu knows her way around a character, particularly in portraying them as real and flawed. Being in Montana's head, living her story... It was intense. I got sucked in right away, and had to see it through as quickly as possible. While I do wish a few things had been addressed more, the way this book is written makes it feel like we're just capturing a tiny portion of a long, long life that Montana is living, so I can sort of understand how it ends that way.
September 4, 2017
Bravo to Haydu for proving a Manic Pixie Dream Girl character (not the lead in this case, but her friend/obsession) can still feel interesting and flawed and scary and fresh. Making Pretty captures exactly what it feels like to be a teenager falling in and out of love with yourself, your friends, your boyfriend, the world. The setting is addictive, the book a total head rush.
January 20, 2016
After finishing Making Pretty, I had to ask myself how have I seriously not read everything ever written by Corey Ann Haydu? Read the rest of my review here
May 25, 2016
Picking up a Corey Ann Haydu novel is always an exercise in masochism and self-improvement; it’s going to hurt, but you’re going to be a slightly better person once you make it through. Haydu gets to the heart of hard truths, dares to focus on heroines with a boatload of flaws, and flinches away from absolutely nothing. Making Pretty is approachable, engaging, hard-to-put down, and a tragically beautiful portrayal of girls trying to come of age and overcome their pasts.
Flawed protagonists aren’t anything new, but I think Haydu takes flaws to a level that truly matches reality. Often, the flaws of the main character can be enumerated on one hand; Haydu’s heroines have a bunch, small and large. Montana is desperate, impulsive, a liar, thoughtless, needy, and a lot more things. For all of that, Montana’s also a deeply sympathetic figure, the product of her environment. Her flaw to perfection ratio leans heavily to the side of flaw, but she is not a bad person. She’s a believable person, suffering from major esteem issues. My heart went out to her.
The first thing that struck me about Making Pretty was Montana’s desperation. More than anything, her goal is to be loved. Not just loved. She wants someone to love her so much they don’t need anyone else. She wants to be loved above everything else, and she doesn’t want to ever have to doubt that. Deep down, she doesn’t want to share friends, and she lives in fear of people leaving her. Her desperation manifests in a deep desire to be liked, to be thought cool. All of this really hit me, because my high school self felt a lot of these same emotions; I remember that wish to be somebody’s number one, feeling like just that would make everything else okay.
Montana and her sister Arizona have always been incredibly close, the stable island within the turbulent seas of their family. Their dad is a plastic surgeon, who has had an endless string of girlfriends and wives. He meets them, perfects them, and then moves on. He draws on any picture that comes near him, suggesting plastic surgery for the people in magazines and whoever sent them a Christmas card. The fact that the girls’ mother left them and that their dad looks at them as people who need to be perfected seriously impacted their self-worth; they’ve never been loved, except by one another, for precisely who they are. The constant parade of mother figures only increased their issues with the idea of love and romance. Because love has always been so tenuous in her life, Montana’s instinct is to cling to it with fierceness.
Something else that Haydu gets so right is that the family isn’t the most unhappy of all families. Montana and Arizona love their father, despite being very aware of his flaws, and they do have some good times together. In fact, they weren’t even aware of how strange their lives were until Arizona left for college. It’s the separation of the two sisters that really sets Making Pretty‘s events into motion. Without Arizona, Montana’s desperate for connection, so she clings to an unbalanced 23-year-old from her acting class. Left alone, the two no longer know who they are.
Karissa is a fascinating figure, and, actually, I think my only hesitation with this book is that I wish I knew more of her story. It makes sense that I don’t, since we’re looking at these people through Montana’s eyes, and she doesn’t know everything. Still, there’s such a story there, and I ache to know the truth of it. I actually saw the plot developments regarding Karissa coming: View Spoiler ». What I want to know is where things went after the events of the novel and what happened to her in the past. She remains a question mark very intentionally, but I would have liked to know a bit more.
Haydu takes on instalove in this incredibly brilliant way in Making Pretty. Montana and this boy Bernardo have been flirting from a distance in the park for a while. After she dyes her hair pink, in search of something, he approaches her and then lets the girls dye his hair pink. The two connect immediately. It’s intense and emotional and they’re sure they’re in love. Making Pretty is a perfect example of how characters can be in love, but the book conveys that there’s love and love. I spent a lot of the book going “oh, honey” when they would make decisions or declarations. The evolution of their relationship makes perfect sense for their emotional states. Also, I love where Haydu has the relationship at the end of the book. View Spoiler »
Corey Ann Haydu novels are must reads for readers who enjoy the gut punch that Courtney Summers’ novels deliver. Every Haydu novel is painful, real, raw, and intense, and Making Pretty may just be my favorite so far.
Flawed protagonists aren’t anything new, but I think Haydu takes flaws to a level that truly matches reality. Often, the flaws of the main character can be enumerated on one hand; Haydu’s heroines have a bunch, small and large. Montana is desperate, impulsive, a liar, thoughtless, needy, and a lot more things. For all of that, Montana’s also a deeply sympathetic figure, the product of her environment. Her flaw to perfection ratio leans heavily to the side of flaw, but she is not a bad person. She’s a believable person, suffering from major esteem issues. My heart went out to her.
The first thing that struck me about Making Pretty was Montana’s desperation. More than anything, her goal is to be loved. Not just loved. She wants someone to love her so much they don’t need anyone else. She wants to be loved above everything else, and she doesn’t want to ever have to doubt that. Deep down, she doesn’t want to share friends, and she lives in fear of people leaving her. Her desperation manifests in a deep desire to be liked, to be thought cool. All of this really hit me, because my high school self felt a lot of these same emotions; I remember that wish to be somebody’s number one, feeling like just that would make everything else okay.
“I want one thing not to change. I want there to be one part of our lives that stays the same, that we can depend on. I thought that was you.”
Montana and her sister Arizona have always been incredibly close, the stable island within the turbulent seas of their family. Their dad is a plastic surgeon, who has had an endless string of girlfriends and wives. He meets them, perfects them, and then moves on. He draws on any picture that comes near him, suggesting plastic surgery for the people in magazines and whoever sent them a Christmas card. The fact that the girls’ mother left them and that their dad looks at them as people who need to be perfected seriously impacted their self-worth; they’ve never been loved, except by one another, for precisely who they are. The constant parade of mother figures only increased their issues with the idea of love and romance. Because love has always been so tenuous in her life, Montana’s instinct is to cling to it with fierceness.
Something else that Haydu gets so right is that the family isn’t the most unhappy of all families. Montana and Arizona love their father, despite being very aware of his flaws, and they do have some good times together. In fact, they weren’t even aware of how strange their lives were until Arizona left for college. It’s the separation of the two sisters that really sets Making Pretty‘s events into motion. Without Arizona, Montana’s desperate for connection, so she clings to an unbalanced 23-year-old from her acting class. Left alone, the two no longer know who they are.
“We’re all just trying to survive the last terrible thing that happened to us, right?”
Karissa is a fascinating figure, and, actually, I think my only hesitation with this book is that I wish I knew more of her story. It makes sense that I don’t, since we’re looking at these people through Montana’s eyes, and she doesn’t know everything. Still, there’s such a story there, and I ache to know the truth of it. I actually saw the plot developments regarding Karissa coming: View Spoiler ». What I want to know is where things went after the events of the novel and what happened to her in the past. She remains a question mark very intentionally, but I would have liked to know a bit more.
Haydu takes on instalove in this incredibly brilliant way in Making Pretty. Montana and this boy Bernardo have been flirting from a distance in the park for a while. After she dyes her hair pink, in search of something, he approaches her and then lets the girls dye his hair pink. The two connect immediately. It’s intense and emotional and they’re sure they’re in love. Making Pretty is a perfect example of how characters can be in love, but the book conveys that there’s love and love. I spent a lot of the book going “oh, honey” when they would make decisions or declarations. The evolution of their relationship makes perfect sense for their emotional states. Also, I love where Haydu has the relationship at the end of the book. View Spoiler »
Corey Ann Haydu novels are must reads for readers who enjoy the gut punch that Courtney Summers’ novels deliver. Every Haydu novel is painful, real, raw, and intense, and Making Pretty may just be my favorite so far.
March 2, 2016
I could see Making Pretty making it as your standard rom-com fare. (You might have to age-up the characters, but not by much). Corey Ann Haydu creates a good setup here. At first the book promises to be about two sisters drifting apart as one goes off to college and the other finishes high school. Once united in an us-against-the-world kind of bond forged by their mother’s departure and their dad’s subsequent string of wives, the sisters in their time apart find that they are making choices the other won’t necessarily understand. This is a theme, with many parallels, explored by Rainbow Rowell in
Fangirl
. And the short version of this review, if you don’t feel like reading on, would be: go read Fangirl instead.
This book begins with promise, but its two-dimensional characters and shallow plotting undermine it. Montana and Arizona begin as complex creations. They carry a great deal of baggage about body image given to them by a plastic-surgeon father and the stepmothers whom he transformed with his craft—so much so that on their thirteenth birthdays, he and Stepmom #2 gave the sisters gift certificates for a free cosmetic procedure of their choice. Immediately one of the wedges driven between the sisters this summer is Arizona’s acquiescence, in the form of breast enlargement, much to Montana’s disapproval. Throughout the novel, Haydu emphasizes the way that their father’s objectification of women has influenced the sisters’ ideas of body image and self-esteem.
This fairly interesting theme is one of the reasons the book manages to hold together, and managed to hold my interest, despite the lacklustre characterization. Nowhere is this problem more evident than Karissa, Montana’s Manic Pixie Dream Girl and new bestie for the summer. Haydu initially positions Karissa as a kind of free spirit and radical influence on our teenage narrator. I was down with that. Then comes the twist where Karissa is lined up to be Stepmom #4 … and I thought that was brilliant as well. It neatly illustrates the dysfunctional father–daughter relationship.
Karissa is the consummate actor, and everything about her is constructed and fake even before Montana’s father gets his hands on her. We never get to glimpse the real Karissa. While that could have been fascinating, her behaviour around Montana is more annoying than anything else—we never get a genuine moment of introspection or humanity from her. Even when Montana expresses variations on discomfort, anger, and outrage, Karissa acts like a robot without any understanding of the nuances of human discontent. Her answer to everything is wine and hugs and kisses on the cheek.
If it were just Karissa, I could chalk it up to good characterization. But most of the characters are like this. Bernardo exists to pump up Montana and act as an outlet for her fantasies. He is always pushing her to newer, edgier heights of rebellion. Montana’s father treats his daughters like they are eight, and he never engages in an honest discussion with them. Also he proposes marriage after knowing someone for … a month? Two? Arizona and Montana, meanwhile, bicker like real sisters would … but they never have an actual, honest-to-goodness, fight. (The same goes for Montana and Bernardo. How can you call it a romantic relationship when you haven’t even had your first fight?)
My point, then, is that the characters just don’t seem to behave like real people. My favourite characters were the stepmothers—because they escaped the weird bubble of fakeness and are able to reach in and burst that bubble for Montana. Each time she seeks out one of the stepmoms, she is hoping for some intense revelation or reunion moment that will help her life make sense … only for the stepmom to essentially say, "You are a terrible person, hon, deal with it.” When she and Arizona set off for their trip to California to seek out their mother, I couldn’t help but think that this would end in similar disappointment.
I actually like the ending for all its ambiguity. It fits with the rest of the book. If Making Pretty doesn’t become a rom-com, perhaps it could work as a stage-play. There is a wistful, almost pleading tone to the story, as if it knows it is unsatisfying but hopes we’ll overlook that if it just throws more stuff at us. In the end, I wasn’t bored or disappointed—but I just couldn’t pick out anything in particular about this book that makes it good. When I read, I’m always looking for what a book adds to the conversation it is joining. While Making Pretty makes all the right noises, echoing the general sentiments it has overheard from others, it never quite says something new or original.
This book begins with promise, but its two-dimensional characters and shallow plotting undermine it. Montana and Arizona begin as complex creations. They carry a great deal of baggage about body image given to them by a plastic-surgeon father and the stepmothers whom he transformed with his craft—so much so that on their thirteenth birthdays, he and Stepmom #2 gave the sisters gift certificates for a free cosmetic procedure of their choice. Immediately one of the wedges driven between the sisters this summer is Arizona’s acquiescence, in the form of breast enlargement, much to Montana’s disapproval. Throughout the novel, Haydu emphasizes the way that their father’s objectification of women has influenced the sisters’ ideas of body image and self-esteem.
This fairly interesting theme is one of the reasons the book manages to hold together, and managed to hold my interest, despite the lacklustre characterization. Nowhere is this problem more evident than Karissa, Montana’s Manic Pixie Dream Girl and new bestie for the summer. Haydu initially positions Karissa as a kind of free spirit and radical influence on our teenage narrator. I was down with that. Then comes the twist where Karissa is lined up to be Stepmom #4 … and I thought that was brilliant as well. It neatly illustrates the dysfunctional father–daughter relationship.
Karissa is the consummate actor, and everything about her is constructed and fake even before Montana’s father gets his hands on her. We never get to glimpse the real Karissa. While that could have been fascinating, her behaviour around Montana is more annoying than anything else—we never get a genuine moment of introspection or humanity from her. Even when Montana expresses variations on discomfort, anger, and outrage, Karissa acts like a robot without any understanding of the nuances of human discontent. Her answer to everything is wine and hugs and kisses on the cheek.
If it were just Karissa, I could chalk it up to good characterization. But most of the characters are like this. Bernardo exists to pump up Montana and act as an outlet for her fantasies. He is always pushing her to newer, edgier heights of rebellion. Montana’s father treats his daughters like they are eight, and he never engages in an honest discussion with them. Also he proposes marriage after knowing someone for … a month? Two? Arizona and Montana, meanwhile, bicker like real sisters would … but they never have an actual, honest-to-goodness, fight. (The same goes for Montana and Bernardo. How can you call it a romantic relationship when you haven’t even had your first fight?)
My point, then, is that the characters just don’t seem to behave like real people. My favourite characters were the stepmothers—because they escaped the weird bubble of fakeness and are able to reach in and burst that bubble for Montana. Each time she seeks out one of the stepmoms, she is hoping for some intense revelation or reunion moment that will help her life make sense … only for the stepmom to essentially say, "You are a terrible person, hon, deal with it.” When she and Arizona set off for their trip to California to seek out their mother, I couldn’t help but think that this would end in similar disappointment.
I actually like the ending for all its ambiguity. It fits with the rest of the book. If Making Pretty doesn’t become a rom-com, perhaps it could work as a stage-play. There is a wistful, almost pleading tone to the story, as if it knows it is unsatisfying but hopes we’ll overlook that if it just throws more stuff at us. In the end, I wasn’t bored or disappointed—but I just couldn’t pick out anything in particular about this book that makes it good. When I read, I’m always looking for what a book adds to the conversation it is joining. While Making Pretty makes all the right noises, echoing the general sentiments it has overheard from others, it never quite says something new or original.
February 28, 2017
Review originally posted here.
At first I was totally gonna past this book, the tittle and the cover (yes, I judge books by their cover whatever who never) sounded like not my kind of contemporary, but them the early reviews started to pop up and it was so much positive buzz saying things about this that totally sounded like it could be a me book that I had to check it out. And this is probably one of my favorite things about reviewers or even people that just put a small opinion about the book - putting books on the radar that otherwise would have passed by without notice or making me give another shot about books that I had already discarded as not for me or not interested.
Right from the first chapter I knew I would finish this book and look out for other books of this author, because seriously the writing is so good - it's kind of a stream of thoughts but not really, I don't know how to explain but it was really raw and it was incredible easy to get into Montana's head and feel all her emotions without a filter. Montana's character was a curious thing for me, she reminded me a lot of me with 17, specially her impulsiveness when trying to escape her problems, so I think that if I had read this one earlier on my life it would have been a favorite, now that I'm older I could see the motives for her actions and understand her emotions but also I could look from a distance angle and analyze it better.
I really liked the way the relationships were written on this book, this was probably my favorite part of the story - Haydu has a way of picturing just how messy and complicated a close relationship can be (no matter if it's with family, friends or lovers), how it doesn't matter how much you love someone and try to make it work sometimes it's impossible not to hurt each other, I especially loved the relationship between Montana, Arizona and their father, it showed in such a honest way how people can mess up with each other but also that this doesn't mean that there is any less love between them. The romance was pictured really great, I think, it was realistic to a first love their intensity and need to be always together and how hard it was to picture a day when that love wasn't going to make sense.
One of the things that bothered me was Karissa's character, she clearly has serious mental issues and it was addressed (kind of, I don't know people took Montana serious?) but at the same time it was never really dealt with, I know the focus wasn't Karissa's story so it didn't bothered me all that much. What did bothered me was the ending, it was a huge open ending, like seriously it was so big that it could lead to another book without any problem and I didn't enjoyed it, I usually don't have problems with open endings but I did had with this one - the main reason is the fact that nothing really seemed resolved, Montana's life is pretty fucked up on this summer and her relationship with her dad, best friend, sister, Karissa, Natasha and Bernardo are all a mess, so I was expecting that at the end we would come to a resolution of this summer you know but yeah no. And I could have dealt with that, because life is messy and blablabla but Montana is basically running away from all her problems at the ending and is acting like everything will be okay with that and this bothered me a lot.
Overall I enjoyed this book a lot, it was a crazy ride definitely, it made me laugh and make me heart hurt at times too and made me wish to be in love again (but only the first months of being in love, without the messy parts of later). I recommended it to everyone that loves a good contemporary story about growing up and first loves and summer on New York.
Ps.: this one has a lot of underage drinking and smoking and stuff so if you don't like that on your books I would recommend passing this one.
At first I was totally gonna past this book, the tittle and the cover (yes, I judge books by their cover whatever who never) sounded like not my kind of contemporary, but them the early reviews started to pop up and it was so much positive buzz saying things about this that totally sounded like it could be a me book that I had to check it out. And this is probably one of my favorite things about reviewers or even people that just put a small opinion about the book - putting books on the radar that otherwise would have passed by without notice or making me give another shot about books that I had already discarded as not for me or not interested.
Right from the first chapter I knew I would finish this book and look out for other books of this author, because seriously the writing is so good - it's kind of a stream of thoughts but not really, I don't know how to explain but it was really raw and it was incredible easy to get into Montana's head and feel all her emotions without a filter. Montana's character was a curious thing for me, she reminded me a lot of me with 17, specially her impulsiveness when trying to escape her problems, so I think that if I had read this one earlier on my life it would have been a favorite, now that I'm older I could see the motives for her actions and understand her emotions but also I could look from a distance angle and analyze it better.
I really liked the way the relationships were written on this book, this was probably my favorite part of the story - Haydu has a way of picturing just how messy and complicated a close relationship can be (no matter if it's with family, friends or lovers), how it doesn't matter how much you love someone and try to make it work sometimes it's impossible not to hurt each other, I especially loved the relationship between Montana, Arizona and their father, it showed in such a honest way how people can mess up with each other but also that this doesn't mean that there is any less love between them. The romance was pictured really great, I think, it was realistic to a first love their intensity and need to be always together and how hard it was to picture a day when that love wasn't going to make sense.
One of the things that bothered me was Karissa's character, she clearly has serious mental issues and it was addressed (kind of, I don't know people took Montana serious?) but at the same time it was never really dealt with, I know the focus wasn't Karissa's story so it didn't bothered me all that much. What did bothered me was the ending, it was a huge open ending, like seriously it was so big that it could lead to another book without any problem and I didn't enjoyed it, I usually don't have problems with open endings but I did had with this one - the main reason is the fact that nothing really seemed resolved, Montana's life is pretty fucked up on this summer and her relationship with her dad, best friend, sister, Karissa, Natasha and Bernardo are all a mess, so I was expecting that at the end we would come to a resolution of this summer you know but yeah no. And I could have dealt with that, because life is messy and blablabla but Montana is basically running away from all her problems at the ending and is acting like everything will be okay with that and this bothered me a lot.
Overall I enjoyed this book a lot, it was a crazy ride definitely, it made me laugh and make me heart hurt at times too and made me wish to be in love again (but only the first months of being in love, without the messy parts of later). I recommended it to everyone that loves a good contemporary story about growing up and first loves and summer on New York.
Ps.: this one has a lot of underage drinking and smoking and stuff so if you don't like that on your books I would recommend passing this one.
May 18, 2015
This review and more can be found on my blog, The Library Canary.
***I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way changed my opinion of the book. The review below is my open and honest opinion.***
This book was a solid four star book right up until that ending. I hate open endings. I don’t want to imagine what happens to the characters. I want to be told. They’re not my characters. How should I know what happens to them? So when this book ended with, what was in my opinion, a non-ending it just really lowered my opinion. Now that I’m done whining about that, we can move onto what I really liked about the book.
I loved the main character, Montana. Montana is your typical teen girl. Unsure of where she belongs or who she is. She has a rough home life. Her mother left years and years ago and her father goes through woman like they’re loaves of bread. She’s had countless stepmothers over the past years and more and more keep sprouting up. Not to mention the fact that her father is a plastic surgeon and is extremely critical of women’s bodies. What a shitty environment for a teenage girl right? I felt so bad for Montana and I could really feel her pain. Her pain at being abandoned by not only her biological mother, but all the stepmoms that came after. Her pain at her father not being around, or just being a critical asshole when he was around. And the pain of feeling like your sister and your best friend left you behind when they went off to college. Montana was layered and real.
There were so many interesting aspects to this book. There were messages about body image and being happy with the way you look. There were messages about falling in love too fast and taking your time in life. There were messages about the importance of family and how messed up life can get without it. And there were messages about friendships and how sometimes, they can be toxic. Corey Ann Haydu does a great job of teaching all these lessons and talking about all these issues in a way that feels unique and genuine. I would definitely love to be able to get this book into the hands of teenage girls. I think they could learn a lot from it; I know I did.
***I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way changed my opinion of the book. The review below is my open and honest opinion.***
This book was a solid four star book right up until that ending. I hate open endings. I don’t want to imagine what happens to the characters. I want to be told. They’re not my characters. How should I know what happens to them? So when this book ended with, what was in my opinion, a non-ending it just really lowered my opinion. Now that I’m done whining about that, we can move onto what I really liked about the book.
I loved the main character, Montana. Montana is your typical teen girl. Unsure of where she belongs or who she is. She has a rough home life. Her mother left years and years ago and her father goes through woman like they’re loaves of bread. She’s had countless stepmothers over the past years and more and more keep sprouting up. Not to mention the fact that her father is a plastic surgeon and is extremely critical of women’s bodies. What a shitty environment for a teenage girl right? I felt so bad for Montana and I could really feel her pain. Her pain at being abandoned by not only her biological mother, but all the stepmoms that came after. Her pain at her father not being around, or just being a critical asshole when he was around. And the pain of feeling like your sister and your best friend left you behind when they went off to college. Montana was layered and real.
There were so many interesting aspects to this book. There were messages about body image and being happy with the way you look. There were messages about falling in love too fast and taking your time in life. There were messages about the importance of family and how messed up life can get without it. And there were messages about friendships and how sometimes, they can be toxic. Corey Ann Haydu does a great job of teaching all these lessons and talking about all these issues in a way that feels unique and genuine. I would definitely love to be able to get this book into the hands of teenage girls. I think they could learn a lot from it; I know I did.
May 2, 2015
Corey Ann Haydu is one of those authors that I feel is severely underrated. She's got two books out at the moment which both have only about a couple thousand ratings on Goodreads- despite them both being very honest, very realistic and just plain good. I'm going to say that Making Pretty is probably my least favourite of the three, although I should emphasise that that doesn't mean it was bad: it was really only that, while the characters were amazingly well developed, the plot was a touch too dramatic for my taste.
Haydu has this way of developing the characters that makes them incredibly realistic. They're not always likeable, and the fluctuations in when you empathise with them and when they annoy you and when you just want to give them a big hug correlate well with how you'd react to a person in real life. Montana is incredibly complex, and her relationships with Karissa and Arizona are even more so. When certain secrets are revealed throughout, the way in which Montana reacts to the dilemmas they give rise to are just the right balance of saddening and encouraging.
The romance was perhaps where this book was a bit weak- the development of the romance wasn't quite as fleshed out as I would have liked. I also didn't really like the love interest, but I think that was more so a personal issue- he just didn't have the type of personality I like in people in real life, much less in a book character. However, this wasn't a huge problem, since the romance was mostly a means of escape for Montana, rather than it being the main focus of the plot.
I feel like where it ended was very abrupt- I could feel an ending coming up as I was reading, but was completely taken aback by how much unlike an ending the last few lines were. I turned the page and saw "Acknowledgements" and couldn't believe that was how the book ended. I can definitely understand why Haydu chose to do this though: it made the book seem like a brief chapter in the ongoing story of the life of Montana, and rather than have that definitive close, it felt as if the characters are still "alive" somewhere out there, continuing with their interesting lives.
Ratings
Overall: 8/10
Plot: 4/5
Romance: 3.5/5
Writing: 5/5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 2/5
Haydu has this way of developing the characters that makes them incredibly realistic. They're not always likeable, and the fluctuations in when you empathise with them and when they annoy you and when you just want to give them a big hug correlate well with how you'd react to a person in real life. Montana is incredibly complex, and her relationships with Karissa and Arizona are even more so. When certain secrets are revealed throughout, the way in which Montana reacts to the dilemmas they give rise to are just the right balance of saddening and encouraging.
The romance was perhaps where this book was a bit weak- the development of the romance wasn't quite as fleshed out as I would have liked. I also didn't really like the love interest, but I think that was more so a personal issue- he just didn't have the type of personality I like in people in real life, much less in a book character. However, this wasn't a huge problem, since the romance was mostly a means of escape for Montana, rather than it being the main focus of the plot.
I feel like where it ended was very abrupt- I could feel an ending coming up as I was reading, but was completely taken aback by how much unlike an ending the last few lines were. I turned the page and saw "Acknowledgements" and couldn't believe that was how the book ended. I can definitely understand why Haydu chose to do this though: it made the book seem like a brief chapter in the ongoing story of the life of Montana, and rather than have that definitive close, it felt as if the characters are still "alive" somewhere out there, continuing with their interesting lives.
Ratings
Overall: 8/10
Plot: 4/5
Romance: 3.5/5
Writing: 5/5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 2/5
July 9, 2015
This is the story of a girl who is insecure. This is the story of Montana, who doesn’t know the true meaning of family. How could she? Her mother left when she was young, and her father marries someone new every few years. He appears to like a woman, change her appearance (because he’s a plastic surgeon), and then files for a divorce. The only person who has been consistent throughout her life was her sister, Arizona. When Montana and Arizona were little, they made a pact that they would never have any plastic surgery done to them, because they wanted to stay the same. They didn’t want to feel like they were imperfect. They wanted to be happy with who they were. But Arizona left Montana to go to college, and when she returned, she wasn’t the same physically or mentally. She had gotten surgery to enhance her body, which meant that she had broken the sisterly pact which they had vowed many years prior.
And then, if that wasn’t enough to make Montana go crazy, she found out that her dad had a new girlfriend, even though he said that he was going to stay away from dating for a little bit. The worst part? Montana knew his new girlfriend…you’ll have to read to find out who she was yourself.
With all of the crazy events happening in Montana’s life, she tried taking the easy path. She tried to please everyone, rather than pleasing herself. She was optimistic- maybe a little too optimistic. She wished that everything would just work out the way that she wanted it to be, but as the book continued, it was evident that the opposite was happening.
Let me warn you of this- Making Pretty is not a light and cutesy contemporary novel. It is a deep, gritty novel filled with topics that are enough to make your body fill with rage and horror. If you look at my GR updates, see HERE, you can see that there were some parts that made me just go…NOPE. NOPE. I was shocked and horrified for Montana. I couldn’t imagine ever living in her situation, and my heart broke for her.
Overall, this book played with my emotions and really allowed me to connect with the main character. I give it 4.5/5 stars.
And then, if that wasn’t enough to make Montana go crazy, she found out that her dad had a new girlfriend, even though he said that he was going to stay away from dating for a little bit. The worst part? Montana knew his new girlfriend…you’ll have to read to find out who she was yourself.
With all of the crazy events happening in Montana’s life, she tried taking the easy path. She tried to please everyone, rather than pleasing herself. She was optimistic- maybe a little too optimistic. She wished that everything would just work out the way that she wanted it to be, but as the book continued, it was evident that the opposite was happening.
Let me warn you of this- Making Pretty is not a light and cutesy contemporary novel. It is a deep, gritty novel filled with topics that are enough to make your body fill with rage and horror. If you look at my GR updates, see HERE, you can see that there were some parts that made me just go…NOPE. NOPE. I was shocked and horrified for Montana. I couldn’t imagine ever living in her situation, and my heart broke for her.
Overall, this book played with my emotions and really allowed me to connect with the main character. I give it 4.5/5 stars.
January 28, 2015
Definitely a strong contender in the realm of contemporary YA. Incorporating a strong narrator who is both strongly flawed and has a strong voice, MAKING PRETTY steps aside from the ideas that teenagers have to be nice, boring kids who sit inside all day or are awful human beings. Montana and Arizona are sisters who have the commonality of being raised by ex-hippies who should have never had children to begin with.
The mom is your standard freebird cliche, she needed to get out of there in order to feel her true calling or whatever or something. This always seems to go hand-in-hand with the hippie stereotype in YA. But to pair with that, there's the father who was never able to seal up the hole she left, and instead just went after women in a more dangerous way than your average serial monogamist.
Montana is lost and needs some sense of family -- and she finds it in her boyfriend, and believes she finds it in her new friend, Karissa. But those relationships come with a number of issues on their own, throwing Montana into the mix of some serious family drama that gets worse as the book goes on.
I'd like to say she comes out of it stronger, but she kind of leaves that open to be seen.
MAKING PRETTY deals with sister relationships -- especially between a sister who needs to keep the other too close, too similar, in order to feel connected to her, and the other, who wants to break free of the restraints she's been under her whole life. This is balanced really well with the other stories, but remains the most memorable part of all.
The mom is your standard freebird cliche, she needed to get out of there in order to feel her true calling or whatever or something. This always seems to go hand-in-hand with the hippie stereotype in YA. But to pair with that, there's the father who was never able to seal up the hole she left, and instead just went after women in a more dangerous way than your average serial monogamist.
Montana is lost and needs some sense of family -- and she finds it in her boyfriend, and believes she finds it in her new friend, Karissa. But those relationships come with a number of issues on their own, throwing Montana into the mix of some serious family drama that gets worse as the book goes on.
I'd like to say she comes out of it stronger, but she kind of leaves that open to be seen.
MAKING PRETTY deals with sister relationships -- especially between a sister who needs to keep the other too close, too similar, in order to feel connected to her, and the other, who wants to break free of the restraints she's been under her whole life. This is balanced really well with the other stories, but remains the most memorable part of all.
December 31, 2017
Honestly, I was unsatisfied with this entire story. Like heavens no. The ending just made it worse.
I gave it 2 stars because the author had a nice writing style which I enjoyed but that was where it ended for me. Montana's life is terrible. Like seriously. She had a horrible parental figure who thrives on bringing inconsistency into her life. He dates her new friend Karissa, who I find it weird that Montana still managed to like after all. The woman manipulated her for goodness sakes. Am I the only who noticied that the only reason she befriended Montana was because of her Dad?!
Arizona was the only person I remotely liked. I didn't like Benardo at all. I think Montana was hypocritical dating him and falling in love so instantly when she blamed her Father for doing the exact same thing.
Her Dad was a horrible person and parent. End of story. Even at the end, he still chose Karissa despite the whole dramatic she's my daughter speech he gave.
This girl never found any real answers, the worst possible ending to ever give anyone
I gave it 2 stars because the author had a nice writing style which I enjoyed but that was where it ended for me. Montana's life is terrible. Like seriously. She had a horrible parental figure who thrives on bringing inconsistency into her life. He dates her new friend Karissa, who I find it weird that Montana still managed to like after all. The woman manipulated her for goodness sakes. Am I the only who noticied that the only reason she befriended Montana was because of her Dad?!
Arizona was the only person I remotely liked. I didn't like Benardo at all. I think Montana was hypocritical dating him and falling in love so instantly when she blamed her Father for doing the exact same thing.
Her Dad was a horrible person and parent. End of story. Even at the end, he still chose Karissa despite the whole dramatic she's my daughter speech he gave.
This girl never found any real answers, the worst possible ending to ever give anyone
January 24, 2015
Not for me
dnf
July 10, 2015DNF
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