Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg

Revenge of the Girl With the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg
Published by Point on March 1, 2013
Pages: 272
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased by Reviewer
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Don't mess with a girl with a great personality!

Everybody loves Lexi. She's popular, smart, funny...but she's never been one of those girls, the pretty ones who get all the attention from guys. And on top of that, her seven-year-old sister, Mackenzie, is a terror in a tiara, and part of a pageant scene where she gets praised for her beauty (with the help of fake hair and tons of makeup).

Lexi's sick of it. She's sick of being the girl who hears about kisses instead of getting them. She's sick of being ignored by her longtime crush, Logan. She's sick of being taken for granted by her pageant-obsessed mom. And she's sick of having all her family's money wasted on a phony pursuit of perfection.

The time has come for Lexi to step out from the sidelines. Girls without great personalities aren't going to know what hit them. Because Lexi's going to play the beauty game - and she's in it to win it.

This book made me feel embarrassed to be a Texan. It reminded me of every time I cringe when I see a national commercial showing guys and gals wearing cowboy hats and Wranglers, driving out to their Texas ranches in their Chevy trucks at five a.m. It’s why my cousins in New York can’t believe I drive a Honda and don’t raise cattle for a living. I feel like Texas was demonized in this novel, but I get it. My state has a high-concentration of big moms with big dreams that were never fulfilled, and by God they will be fulfilled through their children by dressing them up like 40-year-old call girls. If you loved the movie Little Miss Sunshine or still can’t flip past an episode of Honey Boo Boo on television, than this book might be for you.

Average high-school girl, Lexi, with divorced parents lives with her total biotch of a mother and seven-year-old sister, Mackenzie, who gets all the attention because mom is living out her pageant fantasies vicariously through said seven year-old.

I can appreciate what the author was going for in this book, although she doesn’t quite hit the mark in my opinion. The humor is there but any satisfaction from revenge isn’t, which sucks because that’s what I was mostly looking forward to.

High-school romance is more of an after-thought in this story. I went into Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality thinking some kind of epically satisfying ”dork-girl-gets-a-makeover-and-wins-popular-guy’s-affections-who-secretly-has-a-heart-of-gold” was going to play out like in one of my fave films from the 90’s, She’s All That, and there’s a little bit of that in this book, but just not enough to give you butterflies.

The exploration of familial relationships and self-image are definitely the strong points in this book and I appreciate how the author shows the difficulties of divorce on a family. The author does a great (and comedic) job of characterizing the protagonist’s mother and little sister who are pulled straight from the pages of Toddlers and Tiaras or Dance Moms.

Overall, I was kind of entertained by the book. I was mostly bored in between comical scenes and the sporadically clever dialogue. My rating doesn’t reflect how I felt about the content of the book, just how I felt about the way in which it was delivered. I feel like it just plain should have been better. I’m guessing most people will either love or hate this book. It was mediocre for me and I can’t say that I felt strongly about it on either side of the the love/hate spectrum. I do love me a nice lipstick-y cover, though.

Here’s one of my favorite parts in the book that made me LOL because I have seen the Honey Boo Boo episode the author pulled her inspiration from:

Mackenzie starts getting antsy, which is completely understandable since she’s been sitting in that chair for over an hour. That’s difficult at any age. And it probably doesn’t help that she had a Cherry Coke and a chocolate donut for breakfast.

“You want your special juice?” Mom asks Mac.

I literally bite my tongue as Mom gives Mac an energy drink. I once decided to taste it and it was disgusting. There’s no way something that people drink at raves is good for a seven-year-old. But they practically sell the stuff in bulk on days like today. I guess I should be grateful Mom hasn’t busted out the sugar sticks. It’s only a little after eight in the morning, after all. Straight sugar is usually given right before the talent competition.