Comment

Aug 19, 2013
I enjoyed reading The List by Siobhan Vivian, I’m not going to call it a masterpiece or anything but it was a nice, entertaining and quick read for teens. The story follows eight different girls in high school that have been affected by the list. Every year at Mount Washington High School the list is printed everywhere in the school determining who’s the prettiest and ugliest from each grade. Everything that happens is a result of the list, which is why I think it’s the perfect title. It’s interesting because you see how the list affects eight very different people. From reading this concept one might think, “Oh so the book is about how the list positively affects the ones named prettiest and negatively affects the ones named ugliest” but that’s not necessarily true. The List addresses several teen issues throughout the story and each girl has their own personal problems above having to deal with being the center of attention. Although eight different perspectives makes it interesting, in the beginning it made it a bit hard to remember what girl was who, though thankfully there was a page of “the list” at the front of the book to go back to and check. Another thing about having eight different main characters is the fact their issues aren’t addressed to the fullest and what doesn’t help is there was no real resolution at the end. The author leaves too many questions unanswered. However overall I think this book is well written and entertaining with characters that are easy to connect too. It also leaves important main messages and morals to teens such as discovering what appearances mean and what they don’t. I would recommend it more for younger teens than older ones.