The Pretty App

February 1, 2015
The classic tale of how a beauty finds inner loveliness gets a modern take.Blake Dawkins is the queen bee of her high school, using her beauty and connections to rule. But of course, on the inside she's troubled by how empty her life is, with a politico father focused on the family's image and a broken relationship with her former best friend, Audrey (of The Boyfriend App, 2013). Then the Apple-esque Public Corp. unveils its newest product: the Pretty App, which allows users to upload their photos to be rated by other users, leading to a reality show in which one contestant will be voted the Prettiest Girl. To complicate Blake's inevitable participation, she falls for mysterious new student Leo, who encourages her just to be her real self, only for Blake to discover Leo has a connection to Public and the show. When Blake realizes her participation has been compromised, she resolves to prove she's not the mean girl she used to be by making sure the right girl wins-with some help from old and new friends. Unfortunately, the shallow Blake and her so-called struggles aren't likely to capture readers' interest, always a risk with this particular premise. Compounding this liability, the plot is both predictable and arbitrary, and the stilted dialogue doesn't pass muster. A cliched, unrealistic look at teen lives in the mobile age. (Fiction. 14-18)

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January 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-Blake Dawkins is a stereotypical queen bee: beautiful, privileged, with deep-seated insecurities that make her lash out at less popular students and have caused her to lose friends. Blake and other teens across the country are excited when the Pretty App is released, which combines a beauty pageant with a photo-sharing app. Blake is soon voted the prettiest at her school and is then chosen as one of a dozen girls to take part in The Pretty App Live, a three-day reality TV show. The plot moves along with lightning speed-much like the pace of online life and reality television. Blake's father is a major investor in the app and Blake suspects he may be rigging the voting in her favor. A mysterious transfer student shows up at Blake's high school, woos her, then disappears just as she wins the contest. A subplot about Blake's sister coming out seems to exist solely to give Blake anxiety. There are many references to the events of "last year," the plot of Sise's previous novel, The Boyfriend App (HarperCollins, 2013), but readers of that book will not have much on folks who are new to the series. This is a frothy title with a protagonist who is not always likable but who garners sympathy because of her first-person perspective. Teens who read and enjoyed the first book may enjoy seeing Harrison High School from a mean girl's perspective, and for teens who are hooked on apps like Snapchat, Whisper, and YikYak, this may feel familiar.-Geri Diorio, Ridgefield Library, CT

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