Gorgeous 12+

About this book

When Becky Randle's mother dies, Becky is whisked from her trailer park home to New York. There she meets Tom Kelly, the world's top designer, who presents Becky with an impossible offer: He'll design three dresses to transform the very average Becky into the most beautiful woman who ever lived.

Soon Becky is remade as Rebecca - pure five-alarm hotness to the outside world and an awkward mess of cankles and split ends when she's alone. With Rebecca's remarkable beauty as her passport, soon Becky's life resembles a fairy tale. She stars in a movie, VOGUE calls, and she starts to date Prince Gregory, heir to the English throne. That's when everything crumbles. Because Rebecca aside, Becky loves him. But the idea of a prince looking past Rebecca's blinding beauty to see the real girl inside? There's not enough magic in the world.

Defiant, naughty, and impossibly fun, GORGEOUS answers a question that bewilders us all: Just who the hell IS that in the mirror?

Reviews

"When I wasn't laughing out loud (which was often), I was wiping away a tiny tear."
- Meg Cabot, bestselling author of The Princess Diaries series

"Paul Rudnick is a champion of truth and love and great wicked humor, whom we ignore at our peril." - David Sedaris, bestselling author of Me Talk Pretty One Day

"Rudnick's first Y.A. novel is full of magic, snark, style, heart, and hilarity." - The Atlantic Wire

Huffington Post's Five Things We're Into This Week

"[G]leefully wacky and irreverent . . . readers are treated to Rudnick's considerable talents as a satirist as he uproariously eviscerates our celebrity-mad, class-conscious, appearance-obsessed, reality-TV-vapid culture with puckish delight . . . a wicked good time, with moments both outlandish and touching. And as a summer beach read? Well, it's perfect." - Libba Bray, New York Times Book Review

"Paul Rudnick's generous, open heart, scathing wit, encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture and droll humor are all in force in his latest creation, GORGEOUS, which is aptly named. I absolutely adored this book and snort-laughed through the entire thing. You will too." - Melissa de la Cruz, bestselling author of the Blue Bloods series

"Paul Rudnick's young adult debut, "Gorgeous", is not a fairy tale. "Because in real life, fairy tales always end badly." What it is is a satire sharp as a stiletto heel that takes on celebrity culture, the fashion industry, consumerism, and princess stories. Oh, and it's wickedly hilarious." - Boston Globe

"With writing that's hilarious, profane, and profound (often within a single sentence), Rudnick casts a knowing eye on our obsession with fame, brand names, and royalty to create a feel-good story about getting what you want without letting beauty blind you to what's real." - Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Acute, wickedly funny observations on appearance and identity punctuate this sprawling, caustic fairy tale that cheerfully skewers the fashion and film worlds and their celebrity-culture spawn. . . . A Cinderella story with a difference, Becky's journey to reconcile her inner household drudge and outer princess starts where most fairy tales end.” - Kirkus Reviews

“Totally irreverent and wonderfully refreshing.” - RT Book Reviews