Title: Flawless
Author: Lara Chapman [website] [twitter]
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Parental Advisory: sexual innuendo
Teachable Moments: body image, self-esteem, peer pressure

“The hallways of this building are littered with superficial girls interested only in themselves.  And they’ll claw their way right over you to get what they want, regardless of who gets hurt in the process.  I don’t want to be that person to Kristen, the kind of person who would turn on her best friend, who’d throw away a lifelong friendship for selfish reasons.  Kristen and I have always stuck together.”

Summary (from the publisher):
Sarah Burke is just about perfect.  She’s got killer blue eyes, gorgeous blond hair, and impeccable grades.  There’s just one tiny — all right, enormous — flaw.  Her nose.  But even comparisons to a beak don’t bother her much.  Sarah’s got the best best friend and big plans to make a name for herself as a journalist.

Then, on the first day of senior year, Rock Conway walks into Sarah’s journalism class and, well, rocks her world.  Problem is, her best friend, Kristen, falls for him, too.  And together, Rock and Kristen look like Ken and Barbie come to life.  So when Kristen begs Sarah to help her nab Rock, Sarah does the only thing a best friend can do:  she agrees.

Opinion:
I admit, I like modernizations of classic or fairy tale works.  It opens the story up to whole new audiences.  As a person who always struggles with reading classics in their original prose I appreciate that I can enjoy it in a different form.  Flawless is just such a story.  A retelling of Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac Chapman shifts the gender focus by placing Sarah in the Cyrano role.

Sarah is graced with an unusually large nose.  To add insult to injury she’s got the most beautiful best friend in the world.  The kind of girl whose looks attract the attention of every boy and girl in the room when she walks through the door.  Then, to make matters worse, the new gorgeous boy in town Rock (who is perfect for her) falls for the BFF instead.  Not that this surprises her really.  What surprises her is the role she ultimately ends up playing in facilitating the match.  Putting aside her own feelings Sarah pretends to be Kristen (virtually speaking) so that Rock likes her friend for more than just her looks.

What was most interesting to me about Flawless was that Chapman chose to make Sarah a well grounded and stable individual.  Her quite strength and perseverance to remain true to herself despite outside pressures for physical beauty is a valuable lesson to share with teen readers.  Sarah valued friendship, wanted love and embraces the positive.  Though she wasn’t entirely comfortable in her skin she accepts who she is and what she had to work with.  Always doing her best to focus on what is important to her she keeps her attention firmly on her academics and trying to remain a good friend.

I do wish that the story had more depth.  All of the original points of reference in the story were there but it felt a bit rushed, peripheral and repetitive. I felt like there was more to explore in the relationship between Sarah and her mother.  While not the main point of the story the progression of their interactions with each other were more interesting to me than the romance.  To that end, I didn’t quite latch on to Rock as the romantic lead.  He was clearly studly enough and he had redeeming qualities but he felt a bit blah in the chemistry department both with Kristen and Sarah.  This didn’t help make the romance all that believable.

In the end, Flawless is a good way to educate teens about body image and self-respect.  With a little bit of family drama, a somewhat dynamic friendship and a taste of romance it will undoubtedly provide teens with a good foundation from which to build their knowledge of the story of Cyrano.