The Glue Holding Us Together, and Other Cheesiness

Here's a double-whammy for ya: This is my 100th post AND I'm writing about the Baby-sitters Club prequel. Life in blog-land can't get much better than that.

The Summer Before is Ann M. Martin's (and Scholastic's, and probably David Levithan's) gift to us, the old-school fans. It's written in a reflective style, as if the girls are much older and looking back on that summer before seventh grade, before forming the Baby-sitters Club—which, according to Kristy, was "something we would belong to, in one sense or another, for the rest of our lives."

In the spirit of a Super Special, the chapters alternate between Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, and Stacey's point of views, and each girl has her own sub-plot. Kristy misses her dad and is not so into her mom dating Watson. Mary Anne starts baby-sitting, but of course her super-strict father has a bunch of rules about that. Claudia has her first sort-of boyfriend and feels herself drifting away from Kristy and Mary Anne. And Stacey moves to Stoneybrook, away from NYC and all her bad memories of the last year (including "Her Royal Meanness" Laine).

The book is not exactly action-packed, so I don't want to give away too much of the plot. But if you haven't read it yet, you can look forward to a fun pool party scene, flashes of Mary Anne's bitchy side, and even a little bit of pre-stroke Mimi. I also enjoyed a lot of the character continuity; Mary Anne is into sewing outfits for dolls, Claudia tears her room apart putting together the perfect outfit, and sophisticated Stacey luvs pigs. (Plus, Kristy gets to say, "I love being in charge.") Questions left unanswered: Did Mary Anne invent the Pike smorgasbord? If Jenny Prezzioso was a new client in book #4, what's she doing in the prequel? And just how does the Kristy/Mary Anne flashlight code work, anyway?

Conclusion: Eight- and nine-year-old girls of today would probably be better introduced to the series with the graphic novels or the re-releases. Children of the '80s and early '90s may not feel that all of their hopes and dreams for a BSC prequel have been fulfilled by The Summer Before. I don't think our hopes and dreams for the BSC ever can be. But the book does serve as a nice bookend to the series, with Graduation Day on the other side. You should read it.

Reviewed from my personal copy, purchased at the elementary school book fair!

Pinnochio Complex

It’s the summer before senior year, and Jory has some goals: Find a boyfriend. Figure out what she’s passionate about. And save up for a nose job.Well, she figures the nose job will have to come before the boyfriend, but that doesn’t mean she can’t crush on a few guys (including picture-perfect Tyler Briggs) while she’s saving up cash as a delivery girl and dabbling in foreign cinema.

Not that this is a book with OMG-crazy plot twists, but I feel as if saying more about what happens in My Big Nose and Other Disasters would kind of ruin it. It’s a couple of months in a girl’s life, stuff happens, and you can bet she has new-found self-esteem and a little romance by the end of things.

As a girl whose nose is far from button-like, I was interested to see how the author (Sydney Salter) would approach the whole aspiring-to-rhinoplasty thing. Does Jory really have a remarkably big nose, or is it just insecurity? The only indication we have that it might actually be a legitimate honker is that Jory’s mom helps her apply some makeup to minimize its size. (I think I’d heard of this before, but I just had to Google “nose minimizing makeup”—here is an example of what I found.)

Though the idea of a teen scheming to get plastic surgery isn’t exactly hilarious, My Big Nose is full-on funny. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Jory’s story, even if I did kind of hate her name at the beginning. The best thing about it is the way the boy encounters are treated—very realistically, I thought. Lots of YA books with “boy crazy” characters are pretty G-rated, which is okay for a certain audience, but sometimes you want a little more. This one strikes a nice balance between those and the skank-fest Gossip Girls. My single, minor, beef with the book was all the "I'm going to die a virgin" talk from Jory. Girl, you're 17. Lots of people don't have sex until after high school ... just give it a year or two.

Take Another Little Piece of My Heart

Rosemary Goode weighs 190 pounds—make that 200 pounds, after a Christmas-cookie-humiliation-related holiday binge. She's sick of being bullied at school, sick of being scrutinized by the ladies at her mom's salon, and sick of feeling like crap most of the time. But she loves waffles and chocolate cake and Chunky Monkey ice cream, and the treadmill her mom bought her works best as a clothes rack.

Enter motivation in the form of a 6'4", 260-pound football player: Kyle Cox. He's handsome and sweet, and he calls her "Rosie."

Artichoke's Heart is the story of how Rosie takes control over her life, learns to love herself, and gets the guy. Yeah, it's corny, but it's also uplifting. Rosie's friendship with perfect blond cheerleader Kay-Kay Reese is surprisingly three-dimensional. The only thing that really bugged me about this book was Rosie and Kyle's coincidental mutual love for old-timey music. (Suzanne Supplee may dig Van Morrison, James Taylor, and Ray Charles, but I just can't imagine it being the makeout music of choice for real teenagers.)

Incidentally, did you know that teen lit is "alive with positive characters of size?"

Hello Amber

One of the best things about the best zines, I think, is learning about other people and where they're coming from. Last week I got to know Amber, through a "superpack" of five issues of her zine Culture Slut.

If Amber and I met in real life, we might not think we had that much in common just by looking at each other. She has tattoos and pink dreadlocks and likes to drink wine and have dance parties. I'm a close-to-teetotaling wallflower with boring old straight brown hair and no "ink" to speak of. Then again, we both have kind of rad glasses, and we're both feminists. In Culture Slut, Amber writes about stuff like wishing she had a tight girl gang and dealing with looking young for her age—which I can totally relate to. She also gets personal, relating how she found out about her half sister and telling the story of why she changed her name.

Culture Slut #17 is actually a split with Telegram Ma'am #17, made by Amber's twin sister Maranda. Culture Slut #18 is the latest edition, and it's the Polaroid Issue, printed in color! It's full of photos of Amber's friends and places she's seen in her journeys. You can order just that one, but I recommend the superpack for a better appreciation of the person behind the pictures.

Depeches-toi, Depeches-toi et Attends

When we first meet Johnny, he's 12, a budding Goth with a cool spider-girl babysitter. Then his dad dies, and his mom, crippled with grief, can't afford to pay Tessa to come over after school anymore. Johnny has to be the one to make sure the bills get paid and the fridge stays stocked. Drinking helps him deal.

Fast-forward four years, and someone slips him E at a club. That's how Johnny finally ends up in rehab, and that's where he first hears Debbie Harry, singing "Sunday Girl" in French.

Now Blondie is his drug of choice, and he can't get enough of Debbie. She's cool, tough, and beautiful—and more than he wants her, Johnny kinda sorta wants to be her.

In her debut novel, Meagan Brothers tenderly explores what all this means for Johnny. He doesn't want to be a girl, but he wants to be like a certain girl. Is he gay? Well, he has a new girlfriend who he's pretty crazy about. But when that girlfriend buys him a Debbie Harry dress at the thrift store, he's not completely opposed to trying it on.

Teen transvestite lit is definitely a new one for me. But the question of how we relate to our rock stars based on gender has long held a certain fascination. I've always been more drawn to female singers because of the idea that I could be them instead of just being the one that they're singing to.

In some ways Johnny's character reads like a girl, and I don't know if that's because the book was written by a woman or because he's such a sensitive, "artistic" guy. Either way, he's a sweetheart. I'd be his girlfriend.

Are You There God? I'm Italian

Those of you who don't know me in real life (probably) don't know that I am an Italian American. Three of my four grandparents were born in "the old country," and I grew up in a family where Sunday mass was usually followed by a pasta-and-meatballs dinner cooked by my mom or one of my grandmas.

Antonia Lucia Labella, heroine of The Possibilities of Sainthood, is an Italian Catholic to the max, and author Donna Freitas passes up no opportunity to remind the reader. Antonia's family runs an Italian market that sells her mom's homemade pasta and other delicacies. Antonia's cousins are named Francesca, Concetta and Veronica. And oh yes, Antonia wants to be a saint.

The first living saint in history, actually. She regularly writes letters to the Vatican nominating herself as the Patron Saint of Figs, the Patron Saint of Pasta-Makers, et cetera. Despite this ambition, Antonia does not want to end up like the saint she shares a name with—who just happened to die a virgin.

Antonia has her eye on Andy Rotellini, the hottest senior at Bishop Francis boys' school. (She's a sophomore at the Holy Angels girls' school.) But mini-playboy Michael McGinnis—nope, he's not Italian!—has his eye on Antonia. While innocent enough for younger readers, the ensuing story manages to be quite saucy. And even though she's kind of obsessed with saints, Antonia is totally believable as a non-fanatic, very relatable teenage girl. A sequel is in the works, and I definitely plan to read it.

Survivor Story

I've had my eye on this one for a while. Daphne Grab is one of the Longstockings, a group of YA writers whose blog I read faithfully in order to live vicariously through them. Alive and Well in Prague, New York has a title to die for and a pretty cover. That package is what drew me into the book, and I'm so glad it did.

Matisse Osgood is one of those kids who grows up in Manhattan and can't imagine life outside the city. But when her father's Parkinson's Disease gets to be too much, the family moves away from all that hustle and bustle (and the site of dad's now-stagnant art career) to the upstate town of Prague. It's the kind of place where people wear overalls and go on hayrides. Not so cool to Matisse.

In "What Girls Want" (incidentally cited by Librarilly Blonde as "the dumbest article ever written about YA literature"), Atlantic writer Caitlin Flanagan notes the significance of The Big Move in teen fiction:

The only thing as difficult for a girl as a divorce—if we are to judge from stories aimed at the teen market—is a move. Relocating is what led to the drug addiction, prostitution, and death that freaked out a generation of readers in Go Ask Alice, and to the teenybopper dipsomania of Sarah T.: Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic. In the most perfectly constructed young-adult novel of the past few decades, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Judy Blume heightened the anxiety in her tale of a girl awaiting her first period by beginning the story with Margaret’s move to the suburbs.

I would add Tiger Eyes to that list, too; I had the story of Davey Wexler—who moves from Atlantic City to New Mexico after her father's death—in the back of my mind all through Alive and Well. They're both about girls who need to figure things out in their own way, in their own time. Both have the help of a wise boy on their way through that journey. (Anyone else remember Wolf? He was only one of the hottest YA love interests ever.)

Alive and Well in Prague, New York conveys complicated feelings through simple words. It's a little book with a lot of heart, and I really like the way the "country" kids are portrayed as human beings, too.

Boo!

Charlotte has spent the entire summer working on a new image for herself: She wants to be a popular, made-up cheerleader instead of the girl who no one notices. Oh, and she wants to go to the Fall Ball with Damen, the jock on whom she's been obsessively crushing for God knows how long. Lucky girl, she winds up with Damen for a lab partner on the first day of school. But before she can even make it to her next class, she chokes on a gummy bear and dies. Oops.

Now she's in Dead Ed, where all the students are teens who died in various gruesome and ridiculous ways. (Piccolo Pam swallowed her piccolo; Call Me Kim got too much cell phone radiation.) But Charlotte would rather hang around Damen and plot how to get with him even though she's dead—and invisible to everyone except Scarlet, the local goth and sister of Damen's bitchy plastic girlfriend, Petula.

The best thing about Tonya Hurley's ghostgirl is its spectacular design. The images on the web don't do it justice. It's a really, really cool-looking book, from its unique size to the pretty endpapers. Unfortunately, the writing and characterization are not much more than cute. Charlotte has no personality and is therefore difficult to root for. All we know about her is that she wants to be popular, she wants Damen, and she's pretty good at physics. Scarlet is a bit more sympathetic, but she, too, is underdeveloped. I did like some other macabre little details, like the school marching band that plays "The Beautiful People" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart." But overall, this story seems better suited for a graphic novel or movie. They should have subtitled it "an unfortunate series of events."

For Reels 2009

Based on a five-heart rating system, the best movies I watched (for the first time) in 2009 were:

Bridge to Terabithia
Hard Candy
Long Life, Happiness, and Prosperity
The Orphanage
Precious*
Quinceanera*
Rachel Getting Married*
Slumdog Millionaire
Volver
Walk the Line
The Wrestler*

Absolute favorites of the year are starred.

WORST movie of the year? Shrooms.

And all movies watched, in alphabetical order:

2LDK (2003) ♥♥1/2
Roommates fight to the death after one uses the other's shampoo without asking. In a nutshell.

Baby Mama (2008) ♥♥♥
Pretty much what you'd expect, plus one cheesy ending.

Boiler Room (2000) ♥♥♥
What's the catchy phrase for a dudes' movie? Like, instead of "chick flick"?

Bride Wars (2009) ♥♥1/2
I think they cast a blond and a brunette because the characters were otherwise so unmemorable.

Bridge to Terabithia (2007) ♥♥♥♥
Lovely retelling of the book, in spite of Leslie's portrayal as the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

Dan in Real Life (2007) ♥♥♥1/2
Kind of odd pacing, but surprisingly thoughtful.

Dirty Deeds (2005) ♥♥
Extremely silly teen comedy, with Milo Ventimiglia and Lacey Chabert.

Fatal Attraction (1987) ♥♥♥1/2
Whoa. So much OMG.

The Hangover (2009) ♥♥♥
More entertaining than I would have expected.

Hard Candy (2005) ♥♥♥♥
Super provocative. Also, the dude behind the counter said, "it's hard to watch if you're a guy."

Hideous Kinky (1998) ♥♥♥
Wandering and melancholy. Kate Winslet's first movie after Titanic.

I Know Who Killed Me (2007) ♥♥
Really not good, yet somehow entertaining.

In the Land of Women (2007) ♥♥1/2
Just for Adam Brody and/or Meg Ryan fans. (Kinda doubt the overlap there...)

Les Poupees Russes / Russian Dolls (2005) ♥♥♥
Sequel to L'Auberge Espanole, aka The Spanish Apartment.

Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity (2002) ♥♥♥♥
The power of little girls and love potions. Excellent.



Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) ♥♥
Saw it with summer camp kids. Best part was realizing one of the voices belonged to Sacha Baron Cohen.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008) ♥♥♥1/2
Cute and funny. My favorite part, though, was Delysia's glam apartment.

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008) ♥♥♥1/2
I already knew I loved Mr. Cera—thumbs up for Ms. K Dennings, too!

Okie Noodling (2001) ♥♥♥
Documentary about fishermen who do it without a rod and reel. Dudes are crazy.

The Orphanage (2007) ♥♥♥♥
Imaginary friends have never been this creepy.

Paris, Je T'aime (2006) ♥♥♥1/2
Short films leave so much unsaid, but this has some goodies.

Penelope (2008) ♥♥♥1/2
Christina Ricci was adorable with that pig nose.

Precious (2009) ♥♥♥♥
Forced myself to the theater for this one. Heartbreaking/heartwarming.

The Princess Diaries (2001) ♥♥♥
Liked the book a whole lot better.

Quinceanera (2006) ♥♥♥♥
LOVED this one! Great cast & great script.



Rachel Getting Married (2008) ♥♥♥♥
Some tedious parts, but Anne Hathaway is amazing.


Ratatouille (2007) ♥♥♥
Who knew rodents could be likable? Cute, even.

The Road to Wellville (1994) ♥♥♥
Generally weird. Good cast, great costumes.

Rumble Fish (1983) ♥♥♥1/2
Rusty James + Motorcycle Boy = LUV.

Running With Scissors (2006) ♥♥♥
Depressing, with some funny moments mixed in.

St. Elmo's Fire (1985) ♥♥
Kind of a yawn, but I like Ally Sheedy.

Shrooms (2007) ♥1/2
A horror movie with unnecessary hallucinogens.

Single White Female (1992) ♥♥♥
Awesomely 90s, but overall, it could have been better.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008) ♥♥♥
Made me kind of teary-eyed, just like the first one.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008) ♥♥♥♥
Surprised me by living up to the hype!

So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993) ♥♥1/2
So I spent an hour and a half watching this silly movie.

Southland Tales (2006) ♥♥♥
To be filed under "so bad it's kind of good."

Super Size Me (2004) ♥♥♥
Spurlock annoys me, but man did this make me want a Big Mac.

Teeth (2007) ♥♥♥1/2
If you don't know what this is about, look it up.

Twilight (2008) ♥♥♥
Pretty much what I was expecting. Excited for the next one!

Valley Girl (1983) ♥♥1/2
Totally. Tublar.

Volver (2006) ♥♥♥♥
Penelope Cruz is A1 in this surprising story about mothers and daughters.

Walk the Line (2005) ♥♥♥♥
Please, Joaquin, don't quit acting. I like you.

Wilby Wonderful (2004) ♥♥♥1/2
Sandra Oh + Ellen Page + Canada + "Quirkiness" = liked it.

The Wrestler (2008) ♥♥♥♥
Gory and a bummer, but I loved it.

Ratings out of 5 hearts
♥ = did not like it
♥♥ = it was okay
♥♥♥ = liked it
♥♥♥♥ = really liked it
♥♥♥♥♥ = it was AWESOME

All Girls in Autumn

“Everyone wants something new / What’s familiar just won’t do.” So sings All Girl Summer Fun Band on their new album, Looking Into It. True enough; if a band doesn’t change over the course of 10 years, they’re one-trick My Little Ponies in many people’s eyes. But AGSFB has grown with every recording since their four song debut EP, and this one – five long years after the release of 2 – marks the biggest progression of all. It’s the first album without bassist Ari D., and despite the number of welcome hand claps and cute little “uh ohs,” introduces some surprisingly dark, sad songs to the band’s repertoire. Like ones with lyrics about breaking plastic toys and turning tears to snow. So where’s the summer fun in that? In Kim and Jen’s sweet girly voices. Best among the rough tracks I’ve heard: the pretty ballad “The Only Ones.” I’d like to imagine it’s a sequel to “Dear Mr. and Mrs. Troublemaker,” or maybe what happens after that girl “borrows” Becky’s boyfriend.

Some Girls are Bigger than Others

They say "fat is a feminist issue," and I believe it. Maybe especially for younger women—but I don't remember any teen novels about it from the old days, except Blubber (which is good but not told from the fat girl's POV) and apparently The Cat Ate My Gymsuit. Right now, however, there are at least two newish fat-girl YA books on the market, and I just read both of them. Big Fat Manifesto, by Susan Vaught, is the more serious of the two, while Nico Medina's Fat Hoochie Prom Queen takes a lighter, fluffier perspective of the issue (as perhaps indicated by its title).

Both stories are told from the perspective of overweight yet popular girls with gay BFF sidekicks. Hoochie's Margarita "Madge" Diaz is a proud Latina; Jamie Carcaterra of Manifesto is white (at least I think so ... maybe Italian?) with a black boyfriend. Margarita's sister sews her up some sweet big-girl outfits, but Jamie's stuck shopping in the Dress Barn Woman-type shops for old ladies who love dressing up as blueberries. Overall, it seems Madge is more okay with her weight, and it's more incidental to her character. Jamie, on the other hand, has fatness at the front of her mind: she writes a column for the school newspaper all about it, and her aforementioned boyfriend, a big guy himself, is considering bariatric surgery. For all her outward confidence, she harbors a secret shame and won't even eat lunch in front of her friends at school. Whoa.

Even though it doesn't offer any easy answers, I'd say Manifesto is a must-read for any teenage girl dealing with (over)weight issues. As kind of an aside, one of the best things I took away from it—from Jamie's column, actually—is the knowledge that Karl Lagerfeld is un grand morceau de merde. It seems he was not amused when H&M sold his designs in sizes larger than, like, 2 and 4. "What I designed is fashion for slim and slender people," he is quoted as saying. Too-tan jerk.

On the more fun side of things, you have Hoochie, a book about two girls' competition to be elected prom queen, in a Bring It On kind-of way. Two thumbs up! But put one down if you're not cool with gratuitous teen drinking, even if the aforementioned teens weigh enough to hold their liquor.

AKA Vanilla

Katy is the child of two previously drug-addicted punks living in Montreal with her reformed archaeologist mom. When Mom goes on a two-week excavation to Peru, Katy has no choice but to spend the time with her deadbeat drummer dad, The Rat, in LA.

A fish out of water, yes: Katy isn't a total square; punk is just not her scene. Of course, some people—like Lake, the Rat's bandmate's daughter—think that means she's totally boring, i.e. Beige.

I found Katy a really relate-able heroine, maybe because she is kind of plain. We can't all be rebels! It's all about discovering what gives you your color, just like in Pleasantville. My other favorite character was Garth Vader, who's a skater, funny, adorable and sweet.

Also, I thought it was neat that the book got a back-cover blurb from Melissa Auf der Maur, my favorite Montreal/LA music chick. Then I realized Cecil Castellucci name-checks her as one of Lake's lady rocker idols. Maybe they are friends? CC also pays tribute to Elliott Smith (and all the bands on Garth's punk rock primer mix via the chapter titles). Can't complain about that.

Eye of the Beholder

The first two pages of The Fold describe the popping of a zit in pretty gruesome detail. But even if you're squeamish, force yourself through them; what follows is a lovely story of family, friendship and beauty.

Joyce's rich aunt Gomo (who's called "Michael" by Joyce and her siblings because of her affinity for cosmetic surgery) wants to treat her to san-gah-pu-rhee surgery to make her Asian eyes look more Western. It might help her catch John Ford Kang, the half-Korean/half-German big man on campus. Then again, Joyce wonders if she should just be happy with what God gave her.

What would you do? An Na proves that the answer may not be so obvious. The story and language are tame compared with a lot of current YA, but Na does delicately touch on a certain "mature theme" in addition to plastic surgery for teens. She won the prestigious Printz Award for A Step from Heaven, and her writing definitely has a literary feel. Totally school-appropriate.

Smiling in the Bright Lights

Okay, I'm a geek. When I was in high school, I wrote short stories about girls making out with rock stars backstage and other girls whose own bands became super famous and wound up on the cover of Spin.

Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway is like my teenage fantasy, only way cooler. It's about a girl who becomes the hot tabloid honey when her ex-boyfriend's band gets famous with a song he wrote about her. Only Audrey didn't ask to be stalked in the halls of her school or chased down by the paparazzi while on a date with her new guy. Fame is a scary ride, but with a BFF like Queen Victoria and her beloved music to keep her sane, Audrey might be able to make it.

Each chapter is introduced with a snippet of lyrics apropos of the story's action, a nice touch (like the chapters in Beige, which I'll talk about sometime in the near future) that furthers the message of how important music can be, especially to high school girls. Audrey is a cool chick who goes to shows, but she still spends hours cutting out magazine pictures of her favorite bands and collaging her bedroom wall. That is real life right there.

Giddy Up

If you've read Susan Juby's Alice McLeod trilogy (which I realize makes it sound vaguely sci-fi, but it's so totally not), you know the lady writes hilarious books. Alice is one of my favorite YA characters in recent years, if not Of All Time. The wacky outfits and ridiculous situations: love them. So I was kind of scared to read Another Kind of Cowboy. The vaguely dark masculine cover, the very serious subject of a closeted gay teenager. Would there be any LOL moments to savor?

Alex, the aforementioned gay teen, and Cleo, a spoiled richie from LA, meet in the world of dressage. (It's a very disciplined yet artful school of horse training, pronounced so the second syllable sounds like corsage—although throughout the book my head kept hearing the "age" part like you would say it in footage.) Cleo's movie producer parents have banished her to a fancy riding school on Vancouver Island, and Alex is a poor local cowboy who really wants to dance with his horse. Though their stories (Alex's, especially) are touching, SJ manages to sprinkle her magical humor throughout, thus preventing the book's permanent residence in Sapfest, CANADA. The only thing missing is the near-perfect character development of the Alice books; we don't get to know Cleo all that well, and Alex's chapters are told in the third person, so the reader never gets totally inside his head. Still, two hooves up! It's like Brokeback Mountain for kids, but with a happy ending.

She's So Funny!

I heart this book and would love to see it turned into a movie! She's So Money has a good girl gone bad (but not too bad), a charming a-hole love interest, and just the right amount of snark. When Maya's parents leave her in charge of the family's Thai restaurant, shit hits the fan ... and she winds up with the task of secretly raising $10K in just one month. Will skeevy-yet-hot Camden King come to the rescue? Just maybe!

After loving the book so much, I was kind of disappointed to learn that Cherry Cheva writes for Family Guy, which—although it's had its funny moments—I find kind of icky and hateful toward women. Apparently she is the only female writer on the show. Which is interesting, because in the A-List book I'm reading right now (American Beauty) Cammie mentions that most TV shows just have one "token" woman on the writing team, and she is usually drop-dead gorgeous. Cherry does look pretty hot in her author photo. But after reading her novel I know she definitely has talent, so I'm not trying to say that she only got her job for her looks or because she's a chick.