Beautiful Americans by Lucy Silag
Release Date: Jan 8, 2009
Publisher: Razorbill
Age Group: Young Adult, ages 12 and up
Pages: 304
What happens in Paris…
Secrets—
PJ’s deep blue eyes and angelic long blond hair conceal a truth that’s anything but. Will her dark past stay where it belongs in the backwoods of Vermont, or haunt her in the city of light?
Passion—
Always the good girl, Olivia plans to twirl her way to the top of the Parisian ballet scene. But that’s not supposed to include dancing on a table all night…or stumbling into the arms of the wrong boy.
Lies—
With his emo-trendy bedhead, hilarious comebacks and Southern drawl, Zack could win over anyone. Too bad he’s after the only one who’s forbidden…
Scandal—
All Alex wants from Paris is to nab that berry-red Dior coat and seduce the perfect penny-loafer-wearing boy – and Alex always gets what she wants. But will her scheming pay off? Or is she risking more than she knows…?
Alex, Olivia, Zack and PJ are spending a year at the prestigious Lycée de Monceau in the sparkling city of Paris. This is their chance to sip cafe au lait in Le Marais, throw secret parties in their host families’ Versailles-size apartments, and have the time of their lives. But when the secrets they thought they left behind come out, everything could be ruined…
Honestly, when I started Beautiful Americans I was a little skeptical. I’d saw mixed reviews... the synopsis really didn’t completely catch my interest, but by the end of the novel I was ready for more!
I loved the set up of the novel. The chapters alternate between the four characters, so you get to see inside their head as well as how everyone else perceives them. That in itself really made the novel for me. The writing was also extraordinary, I loved Silag’s flow. It was easy to read and entertaining, with out being superfluous.
The characters are really what made this novel. It seems that all the reviews I’ve read had a problem with Alex, but I loved her. Yeah she was a bitch, but for some reason that attracted me to her character. The poor girl just wants someone to love her, sure she has a completely warped way of showing it, but that’s all she knows.
Zach, was by far my favorite. I just want to wrap him up in big hug and tell him everything is going to be okay and that he’s going to find the man of his dreams one day. Zach is by far the most honest character and has his moral compass set due north. I just wish the poor guy could have found a little love!
Olivia... I thought I had her story pegged from the introduction, but I didn’t! I thought for sure Vince was going to be a cheating whore while his girlfriend was a whole continent away, but no he was a good boy. I guess Vince was different from all the those losers I dated. I will admit that I did like the outcome of Olivia’s story a lot better then the one I had thought up for her.
And then there is Penelope or PJ. Now this is the character that I found annoying. Cry me a freaggin river. Let me get out the worlds smallest violin and play PJ her little sob story song. The girl drove me freaggin insane. Here is some advice for you PJ, DEAL WITH IT. Obviously the girl went to Paris to “runaway” from all the bad stuff at home, but then she just dwells on it, instead of trying to forget it. Honestly, I didn’t expect her to just up and forget everything that happened to her, I mean what person would, but the girl really needs to deal with some issues. By the time to story got around to something really disturbing happening to her, I was beyond the capacity to care at that point. I really hope she doesn’t annoy me so much in the next novel.
Overall, it was better than I expected. I’m really looking forward to reading the next novel!