On a side note, reading The List somehow gave me the impression that it was a partial blueprint for the series Burn for Burn. Even though they each had depth, they just couldn’t be developed enough for a novel. The characters too were unresolved somehow. It also made The List come across as more of an anthology of the immediate consequences of that list but nothing more. That gave rise to a lot of unresolved plot points.

The List is an interesting exploration of high school relationships, the driver of friendships, and the shallowness that perceptions of beauty supports, all while creating depth as she looks at the underlying issues as well, such as anorexia, low self-esteem and trust.Īs much as I liked what The List was trying to achieve, I felt that it was trying to accomplish too much for a book. She also considers bullying, the varying forms of it and the hurt that it causes. How being seen as beautiful isn’t necessarily a blessing either. What it means when others see them as ugly, and how it affects them. Siobhan Vivian set up a thought experiment of sorts, presenting how these ideas affect girls. With so many characters to keep track off, I think what comes to matter more are the attitudes that surface and the underlying principles with which people approach beauty and ugliness. Why would anyone be so cruel and place the ugliest senior on the list for the fourth year in a row? It does basically guarantee her the homecoming crown. Was it the prettiest senior? A lot of students seem to think so. They reactions are documented, and a semi-mystery unfolds as rumours spread about who constructed the list that year. These are the eight that make up the main characters in The List. The four prettiest and the four ugliest girls, a pair from each grade at Washington High are declared with the list at the beginning of every year. At 332 pages, each character averages 40 pages, unless their paths overlap, which doesn’t happen all that much because they all hail from different social circles. That gives it a semblance of consistency, even though it still felt like I was juggling eight points-of-view as I read the book. At least the narrative is in third person. There are a whole lot of main characters to keep track of in The List! Eight of them, to be exact.

This is the story of eight girls, freshman to senior, “pretty” and “ugly.” And it's also the story of how we see ourselves, and how other people see us, and the tangled connection of the two. The damage is done the minute it goes up. A list is posted, and one girl from each grade is chosen as the prettiest, and another is chosen as the ugliest. classified as Contemporary, Young Adult Īn intense look at the rules of high school attraction-and the price that's paid for them.

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