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A review by alyce6d980
Spot the Difference by Juno Dawson
3.0
"Anyone can be gorgeous. It just takes hard work and self-discipline."
Juno Dawson's short story for World Book Day tells the story of Avery, a year 10 girl who suffers horrendously with acne. The A-list in her school have cleverly branded her "Pizzaface", making her life a misery and causing her inescapable dread every time she has to go to school in the morning. So when she has the choice to take trial drug Sebavectum, she jumps at the chance.
This is the first part of the short story that annoyed me - I just really hate fake drugs. Apparently it's based on a real type of medication, but I think it would have been much better to not give it a name.
Anyway, Avery starts taking this medication, and her skin clears up. She's ecstatic - the bullying will stop! - and soon enough the popular crowd are trying to absorb her into the A-list and make her one of their best friends. Avery gets the guy she's always daydreamed about, and everyone is happy - apart from her best friend, Lois, who is shoved to the sidelines.
Then the campaign for Head Girl begins, and Avery decides to run against the school's Queen of Mean, Scarlett, to end her reign of terror.
As you can tell, there's a lot going on in this short story - perhaps too much, because I didn't feel connected to the characters and I didn't really care about what happened. It was all a little predictable: unpopular girl becomes popular and tries to dismantle the hierarchy from inside, while losing herself the whole time. I've read books like it before (off the top of my head, 'Stella' by Helen Eve is a close comparison) but without the factor of acne being involved - I actually really appreciated such a frank and straight-talking approach to the problem, because a heck of a lot of teenagers suffer with their spots but they aren't often mentioned in books because they aren't glamorous.
I think this could have worked better as a full novel rather than a short story because - with the character development, the burgeoning relationship between Avery and Seth, the rivalry between her and Scarlett and the knowledge that the Sebavectum trial had been cancelled - there was a lot more that could have been expanded upon, and a lot more potential. The ending is rather preachy, but if it had been set in the greater context of a novel it would have been more effective: the moral of the story could have been spread throughout, rather than forced in quickly at the end.
I didn't hate this short story, I just felt as though there was a lot more that could have been done with it, so I'm on the fence about it.
Juno Dawson's short story for World Book Day tells the story of Avery, a year 10 girl who suffers horrendously with acne. The A-list in her school have cleverly branded her "Pizzaface", making her life a misery and causing her inescapable dread every time she has to go to school in the morning. So when she has the choice to take trial drug Sebavectum, she jumps at the chance.
This is the first part of the short story that annoyed me - I just really hate fake drugs. Apparently it's based on a real type of medication, but I think it would have been much better to not give it a name.
Anyway, Avery starts taking this medication, and her skin clears up. She's ecstatic - the bullying will stop! - and soon enough the popular crowd are trying to absorb her into the A-list and make her one of their best friends. Avery gets the guy she's always daydreamed about, and everyone is happy - apart from her best friend, Lois, who is shoved to the sidelines.
Then the campaign for Head Girl begins, and Avery decides to run against the school's Queen of Mean, Scarlett, to end her reign of terror.
As you can tell, there's a lot going on in this short story - perhaps too much, because I didn't feel connected to the characters and I didn't really care about what happened. It was all a little predictable: unpopular girl becomes popular and tries to dismantle the hierarchy from inside, while losing herself the whole time. I've read books like it before (off the top of my head, 'Stella' by Helen Eve is a close comparison) but without the factor of acne being involved - I actually really appreciated such a frank and straight-talking approach to the problem, because a heck of a lot of teenagers suffer with their spots but they aren't often mentioned in books because they aren't glamorous.
I think this could have worked better as a full novel rather than a short story because - with the character development, the burgeoning relationship between Avery and Seth, the rivalry between her and Scarlett and the knowledge that the Sebavectum trial had been cancelled - there was a lot more that could have been expanded upon, and a lot more potential. The ending is rather preachy, but if it had been set in the greater context of a novel it would have been more effective: the moral of the story could have been spread throughout, rather than forced in quickly at the end.
I didn't hate this short story, I just felt as though there was a lot more that could have been done with it, so I'm on the fence about it.