North of Beautiful
by Justina Chen
Elizabeth Mosolovich
Sixteen year old Terra
Rose Cooper is a beautiful girl — except
for a huge, port wine stain on the right side of her face; this birthmark is
the reason she, her classmates, and her family (especially her verbally and
emotionally abusive father) consider her to be ugly. But armed with her skin
kit of sunblock, moisturizer, medical concealer, foundation, and powder, Terra
plans to finish high school in three years, go off to college, and be
successful enough that no one can tell her what to do or how to act, birthmark
or no birthmark.
Until then,
however, she's stuck with a demoralizing father, an obese and passively
demoralized mother, and two older brothers who, just as eager to leave home,
have abandoned her to live their own lives. She does have a boyfriend, though
he's rather muscle-headed and sex-driven, whom she stays with because who else
will have her? Between her home and school environment and everybody telling
her she should fix her face, Terra's view of True North and true beauty are
truly twisted.
Enter in Jacob, an
adopted Chinese boy her age with a cleft lip, whom she literally almost runs
into with a car. Jacob has fitting-in problems of his own, which he fights back
against aggressively with his own sense of style. As Terra and her mom get to
know Jacob and his mom, she begins questioning her life plan, and when her
brother invites her and their mom to visit him in Shanghai, Terra (and her
mother) finally begin realizing what beauty is, and that maybe they've had it
in them all along.
This book, overall,
was astounding. Terra's struggles are real and clearly felt through the pages,
and every important character is layered and given a voice in this story,
though told exclusively in Terra's point of view. This is a great, emotionally
charged book that I recommend for everyone, especially those wondering and
struggling with the idea of true beauty.
