Review: Beautiful by Amy Reed

Book: Beautiful by Amy Reed
Pages: 232
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Source: Borrowed
Links: Goodreads | Amazon

When Cassie moves from the tiny town where she has always lived to a suburb of Seattle, she is determined to leave her boring, good-girl existence behind. This is Cassie’s chance to stop being invisible and become the kind of girl who’s worth noticing.

Stepping into her new identity turns out to be easier than Cassie could have ever imagined…one moment, one choice, changes everything.

Cassie’s new existence both thrills and terrifies her. Swept into a world of illicit parties and social landmines, she sheds her virginity, embraces the numbness she feels from the drugs, and floats through it all, knowing that she is now called beautiful. She ignores the dangers of her fast-paced life…but she can’t sidestep the secrets and the cruelty.

Cassie is trapped in a swift downward spiral tinged with violence and abuse, and no one—not even the one person she thought she could trust—can help her now.

I read Clean by Amy Reed and I loved it. For some reason, I couldn't get into this book unlike I had with Clean, but nonetheless, it was still great.


This book touches on all the bases in what teenagers face: drugs, abuse, sex, language, self-image, peer pressure, and more. It is really sad how drugs send you spiraling down until you hit rock bottom. This is pretty much the story of Cassie's life.


Cassie, once an "ugly" girl, has become "beautiful" with the help of Alex, drugs, and caking on make-up on her face. I liked Cassie's voice, but it became a little too monotonous at times. Despite that, the way Amy describes everything in Cassie's eyes was riveting. I could understand what Cassie was feeling sometimes (not the drugs part, goodness gracious) but how she was once "ugly" and how she now feels "beautiful" with all the make up on her face. I did the exact same thing because I often felt and was once told that I was ugly. (Thankfully, I don't do that anymore.)


Even despite the drugs and harshness of Cassie's life, she ends up developing a voice and actually uses it. The book was really sad, seeing the true bitter reality through Cassie's eyes, but it doesn't have to be that way for anyone. Thankfully, in the end, Cassie sheds off that shell and becomes a better person.

The plot was fantastically written, and Amy does an amazing job on going in to detail about how drugs can really change your life -- and not for the better. I also love the way that this book was written. I don't see a lot of first person, present tense POVs in books and this was definitely a nice change.


In all, this book opened my eyes once again to what drugs can do to anyone. The prose was blunt yet beautiful, and I really enjoyed this book. I'd recommend it to everyone above the age of fifteen due to the language and graphic content.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Cover: Simple, yet pretty. 3.5/5 Stars.