North of Beautiful by Justina Chen

Genre: Cartography

Hardcover: 373 Pages

Published: February 1, 2009

Series: None

Rating: ★★★

GoodReads:

As he continued to stare, I wanted to point to my cheek and remind him, But you were the one who wanted this, remember? You're the one who asked-and I repeat-Why not fix your face?

It's hard not to notice Terra Cooper.

She's tall, blond, and has an enviable body. But with one turn of her cheek, all people notice is her unmistakably "flawed" face. Terra secretly plans to leave her stifling small town in the Northwest and escape to an East Coast college, but gets pushed off-course by her controlling father. When an unexpected collision puts Terra directly in Jacob's path, the handsome but quirky Goth boy immediately challenges her assumptions about herself and her life, and she is forced in yet another direction. With her carefully laid plans disrupted, will Terra be able to find her true path?

Written in lively, artful prose, award-winning author Justina Chen Headley has woven together a powerful novel about a fractured family, falling in love, travel, and the meaning of true beauty

My Review:

            First off I have to say I didn't really like the writing style of this book. It started off boring with too many map/cartography references. I mean c'mon we get it already! This book is a map motif. I get it. It felt like I was being beaten with the gazillion cartography references and I felt it didn't add much to the story. Don't get me wrong I liked this book a lot, but there's only so much a reader can take. The plot was interesting, the character development was fairly good and what got my attention was the phrase, "Odd Goth Chinese boy." I gotta admit it threw me off at first, but I immediately fell in love with  his character. What I liked most about him was that he also had a birth defect like Terra and that gave the story line a little bit more meaning. It created a special physical bond of sorts.

            Another aspect I really liked was how the characters developed throughout the book. Not only did Terra figured out more about herself (with the help of Jacob), but her parents grew as well. It was like watching an onion being peeled. As the layers came off the characters started to show more promise and that added more meaning to the overall story line.