Reviewed by Amber Gibson for TeensReadToo.com
BEAUTIFUL AMERICANS by Lucy Silag is the story of four very different American teenagers studying abroad for a year in Paris. For PJ, Olivia, Alex and Zack, Paris is a place to run away, reinvent oneself, find love, and discover what it really means to live. Like the Lost Generation of the 1920s, these Americans escape to the City of Lights with the hope that the joie de vivre of the city will rub off on them.
PJ is fleeing from an embarrassing family scandal and hoping that she can leave her past behind in Vermont. This year is her chance to bury her secrets and emerge as a whole new person.
Olivia comes to Paris to train at a prestigious ballet academy. Her meticulously planned out future hinges on a perfect year, but sometimes life doesn't go according to plan.
Alex is a well-coiffed fashionista - thanks to her Manhattan upbringing - looking to find the perfect guy in the most romantic city in the world. However, sometimes even Alex cannot have everything she wants.
Zack is from Memphis, where being gay was never socially acceptable. Now that he is free from his conservative background, he has the same goals as Alex - to find a boyfriend and maybe even fall in love.
The story is told from alternating perspectives among the four main characters, and Silag achieves a delicate balance between their four individual stories while maintaining a cohesive plot. Four extraordinary stories told in a surprisingly believable manner. Getting to know each character from the perceptions of the others adds a compelling layer of reality to the story, revealing the faults of each character that can only be seen through the eyes of others.
This first book in the series leaves readers dangling at Christmastime, halfway through the exchange year, with one member of the quartet running away. For the mysteries and secrets that are not yet revealed, pick up the second BEAUTIFUL AMERICANS book in Fall 2009.
BEAUTIFUL AMERICANS by Lucy Silag is the story of four very different American teenagers studying abroad for a year in Paris. For PJ, Olivia, Alex and Zack, Paris is a place to run away, reinvent oneself, find love, and discover what it really means to live. Like the Lost Generation of the 1920s, these Americans escape to the City of Lights with the hope that the joie de vivre of the city will rub off on them.
PJ is fleeing from an embarrassing family scandal and hoping that she can leave her past behind in Vermont. This year is her chance to bury her secrets and emerge as a whole new person.
Olivia comes to Paris to train at a prestigious ballet academy. Her meticulously planned out future hinges on a perfect year, but sometimes life doesn't go according to plan.
Alex is a well-coiffed fashionista - thanks to her Manhattan upbringing - looking to find the perfect guy in the most romantic city in the world. However, sometimes even Alex cannot have everything she wants.
Zack is from Memphis, where being gay was never socially acceptable. Now that he is free from his conservative background, he has the same goals as Alex - to find a boyfriend and maybe even fall in love.
The story is told from alternating perspectives among the four main characters, and Silag achieves a delicate balance between their four individual stories while maintaining a cohesive plot. Four extraordinary stories told in a surprisingly believable manner. Getting to know each character from the perceptions of the others adds a compelling layer of reality to the story, revealing the faults of each character that can only be seen through the eyes of others.
This first book in the series leaves readers dangling at Christmastime, halfway through the exchange year, with one member of the quartet running away. For the mysteries and secrets that are not yet revealed, pick up the second BEAUTIFUL AMERICANS book in Fall 2009.
