The Regulars by Georgia Clark has a chick-lit premise but offers depth and plenty of food for thought. Here’s the blurb:
Best friends Evie, Krista and Willow are just trying to make it through their mid-twenties in New York. They’re regular girls with typical quarter life crises: making it up the corporate ladder, making sense of online dating, and making rent. Until they come across Pretty, a magic tincture that makes them, well … gorgeous. Like, supermodel gorgeous. With a single drop, each young woman gets the gift of jaw-dropping beauty for one week, presenting them with unimaginable opportunities to make their biggest fantasies come true..
Magical realism meets body image attitudes in this New York-set story about three Regular young women whose lives are changed by becoming Pretty. Georgia Clark examines attitudes to beauty and their impact on self-esteem, careers and relationships through the escapades of the women, as they first become Pretty, and then have to decide whether they like the results that brings. There are moments of laughter, of shock, of poignancy and of revelation, all of which lead to authentic character development. Each character brought their own strengths and weaknesses into the mix: feminist Evie, who wants to make a statement about beauty standards, but gets caught up in expectations; flighty Krista, who runs more than she stays; and Willow, who is the most unstable of them all.
An interesting and entertaining read, The Regulars stops short of preaching but delivers a pretty thought-provoking message all the same. I enjoyed it, and it made me wonder what I would do if I were faced with the same dilemma. I know what I like to think I’d do … but would I?
Available from good bookstores (RRP $29.99AUD). My copy was courtesy of Simon & Schuster.
Monique Mulligan
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David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television