Sara's Face - Hardcover

Melvin Burgess has produced a body of work that is both
challenging and thrilling, including the seminal teen drug and love
novels Smack and Doing It. His books have been adapted
for film, stage, and television.

Grade 9 Up—Seventeen-year-old Sara wants to be spectacular. Not just pretty, not just popular, but spectacularly famous. She is a borderline anorexic, purposely hurts herself, often adopts different personalities, emits her own special perfume smell, and sees ghosts, among other things. When pop idol Jonathon Heat takes her under his wing, she crosses into a world of lunacy and cosmetic surgery to reach her goals. An eerie Michael Jackson-esque figure, Heat lives on a wacky estate with a private plastic surgery theater and has undergone so many facial reconstructions that he's forced to cover his pieced-together face with a mask. After Sara moves into his compound, readers are led to believe that she will meet the same fate, or worse. Known for edgy, raw teen novels that pull no punches, Burgess certainly delivers his trademark sexual frankness, folding in the issues of body image, self-mutilation, and personality disorder. Unfortunately, he chooses to use a narrator, an investigative reporter of sorts, who attempts to piece together Sara's story through a series of interviews and video diaries. A unique concept in itself, the result is a clunky story, rife with clichés and indistinct character voices. Readers will undoubtedly find themselves wishing for a twist or a turn rather than a string of obvious allusions. This modern horror story touches on many contemporary issues and could spark discussion, but the unknowable protagonist and scattered storytelling ultimately serve to distance readers rather than engage them.—Jill Heritage Maza, Greenwich High School, CT
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