Fairest of them all is a book that I thought that I would really like, because I read a lot of books about issues and illnesses. Unfortunately, it fell pretty short of what I was expecting.
I had a lot of issues with Oribella, I know that she is considered remarkably unspoiled when it comes to models, but her character transformation took too long into the book for me to ever really be invested in her and *like* her. I do pity her, being on the outside, and being on the receiving end of a horrible thing like losing your hair when looks are so important to your passion.
The redeeming thing that kept me reading this book was Phil. She is an amazing character, bringing out the good that is buried within Ori. She has such wisdom and character. ( )

Oribella Bettencourt has the world at her feet. She's won the Crowning Glory pageant title, due in part to her lustrous blonde mane of hair, and has just snagged a role in an upcoming movie opposite a hot young star. Sure, she doesn't really have any friends at school, but that's okay - she has her mother, a frustrated beauty queen herself, and she has her brilliant pageant and acting career. She doesn't need anything, or anyone, else. At least, that's what she tells herself. Then clumps of her beautiful blonde hair start falling out every time she brushes. Or showers. Or does just about anything. The horrifying word comes down: she has alopecia, a rare condition resulting in hair loss. She loses her movie role. The Crowning Glory title is taken away from her. And her mother can barely bear to look at her. Now, outcast and alone, all Oribella has is herself - and that simply isn't enough. When, to her surprise, she begins to develop an unlikely friendship with a tomboy classmate, she realizes that for the first time in her life she may just figure out who Oribella Bettencourt really is without her crown - and what truly matters in the end. From Amazon UK

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this book! It's not what I was expecting at all, but it was fantastic! I am just so, so glad I got to read this book! It has some really important things to say!

Oribella is blonde and beautiful. She's a model, an actress, a dancer, and a has won several beauty pagents. So this means she's a stuck up, nasty queen bee who rules the school, right? Wrong! Ori is socially awkward, she has no friends, and has barely a minute to herself; when she's not at school she's going to modelling gigs, or dance classes, or preparing for the beauty bagent or her audition for an upcoming movie role for a modern day princess. This girl doesn't stop! It's something I would have thought was suffocating and a lot of pressure, but Ori thrives on it! And, being inside her head, you can see she's a nice girl - yet she's bullied.

So there are our first stereotypes out the window. This beautiful girl is good and nice, isn't scared of hard work, but isn't good at making friends, and bullied for what people perceive about her - like we just did. The only person she has is her mother.

'At Highland High I'm a disease nobody wants to catch. The girls hate me, the guys avoid me, and the teachers think I have a single digit IQ. It's hard to concentrate on my studies in the face of so much blind adoration.' (p15)

People look at her, make these assumptions about her, or smother her in compliments - yet it's wonderful to see that this beautiful girl isn't completely shallow either:

'Most people act like beuty is something I've accomplished. But's no different from congratulating me for having eyebrows or a nose. I'd rather be praised for mastering a tricky dance step or earning a C - if that's possible - in math.' (p13)

But then Ori's world gets turned upside down when she starts suffering from alopecia - a condition which causes your hair to fall out. The part she got in the movie is taken away from her, her agent dumps her which means no more modelling or acting parts, she can't face going to her dance classes with the hair the way it is, and her mother stops talking to her. She loses everything. And the bullying gets worse.

'"Just don't expect anyone to feel sorry for you - because they won't. The queen fell off her pedestal, and the peasants are cheering."' (p154)

But she gains the world. I won't spoil the story, but in a way, Ori getting alopecia is the best thing that could happen to her. When she finally snaps, and rants at Phil (short for Philomena), a jock on the girls volley ball team and daughter of Ori's ex-agent, she finds someone who will listen, and who starts to understand. Through this one friend, so many other things open up to her. She experiences more, she does more, she realises more. And it's wonderful to witness this transformation.

Is there a happy ending? It really depends on what you would consider to be a happy ending for someone like Ori, but I believe there is. Fairest of Them All is such an uplifting and positve book, and I couldn't recommend it enough! It's absolutely brilliant, and so great to see that the "negative" causes the "positive" this time round. Such a fantastic novel, everyone should give it a read!

From Once Upon a Bookcase - YA book blog ( )

Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

Oribella Bettencourt has it all. At least looking outside in, everyone assumes she's got it all.

Ever since she was a toddler, she's been groomed to be a star. She has taken dance and modeling classes. She's gorgeous, and her crowning glory (literally her Crowning Glory, as she won the title in a pageant) is her long golden tresses. Her lovely hair has even landed her a supporting actress role in a Razzi's Tale. Her hair was so important in landing her the role that there is a clause in her contract prohibiting her to do anything to her hair. She's going to be a star - and all of her mother's sacrifices will have been worth it.

When Oribella notices a few small clumps of hair have fallen out, at first she panics. But she reads up on hair loss and chalks it up to stress and poor nutrition. She pampers her hair even more, putting as little pressure on it as possible, and renews her efforts to reduce stress and eat better. After all, models have to stay thin and are known to constantly be dieting.

But when Gypsy, a rival at her dance class, makes a comment about a bald spot on Oribella's scalp, her nightmare just begins. When Oribella finally confesses to her mother, months after the initial hair loss, they embark on rounds of treatments to reverse her alopecia (hair loss.)

Just as her hair is unraveling from her head, Oribella's dreams are coming apart at the seams. Her bright future was within her grasp, only to be ripped apart at the finish line.

With her future changed, Oribella and her mother begin to dance around each other. Neither knows where they fit into each other's world, with the life of pageants and acting now gone. But for Oribella, the loss of her dreams isn't the total end. She realizes she is lonely and longs for a real teenage life. She is thrust into a world she's unfamiliar with...high school. Previously, she attended school simply to keep the authorities happy. But she was unconcerned with fitting in or achieving good grades. After all, if she was going to be a star, why would she need it?

Ms. Blazanin writes an amazing book looking at the true meaning of beauty. Oribella struggles to rewire her thought processes to get beyond the outer beauty of everything. She was brought up to look for imperfections. But when she becomes friends with the most unlikely group of girls, Oribella has to learn the hard way what it means to a friend and be a team player.

Ms. Blazanin takes a horrific event in Oribella's life and educates the reader on a little known condition, alopecia areata. It takes a lot of guts for Oribella to embrace her new situation and become an entirely different person. The reader gets to watch Oribella grow and blossom into a true beauty by the end of the story. ( )

ORIGINALLY posted at-> www.yabookrealm.blogspot.com

(Summary from Amazon)

If life were a fairy tale, Oribella Bettencourt would have a happily ever after kind of future ahead of her. A Hollywood producer has come to Des Moines in search of a perfectly modern Princess Rapunzel, and Ori -- a model, dancer, and star of the beauty pageant circuit -- lands the part. And why shouldn't she? With her hardworking, self-sacrificing mother guiding her career, Ori is stunning, dedicated, poised...and then there's her hair. Breathtakingly lustrous blond hair that sets her apart from all the other girls at school. So what if she doesn't have any friends her age, or anyone to talk to other than her mother? She's on the verge of having everything she's ever dreamed of. But in this fairy tale, the beautiful princess wakes up to her worst nightmare -- when almost overnight, Ori begins to lose her hair....

REVIEW:

This book is a lot different from what I usually read. It had no romance, but yet I was compelled to finish reading it. Why? Partly, because the author’s writing was really good and partly, because I wanted to see how drastically her life changed because of her unfortunate disease and okay, I’ll admit it I was hoping for maybe just a little romance but that didn’t happen. Still was good but the main character Ori, was really a odd. She was so naive at times, assuming stupid things just based on people’s appearance. Kinda got on my nerves. But then, you couldn’t help feel sorry for her, especially because during a good amount of the book her mother resents her just because she loses her chance of being in a movie.

The novel overall was not the greatest, it was just okay. However, with that being said I think Jan Blazanin did an amazing job at showing and educating readers, how something as losing one’s hair can drastically change a person’s life and finding true friends all in the same time. ( )

Oribella Bettencourt is going to be famous. She just knows that her modeling and dancing careers are going to land her the role in an upcoming movie and her acting career will just take off after that.

All her life she has prepared for this. Her mom has spent so much time and money on all her pageants and recitals. Now it's finally Oribella's turn to pay her back for all her support.

But what happens when Oribella starts to lose her hair? There is no need for bald actresses or models. And how is she supposed to hide it until it starts to grow back?

When Oribella finally confesses to her mom that her hair is falling out, everything seems like it will just get better from there. That is, until the doctor tells them that Ori has Alopecia Areata, a condition that will cause her hair to stop growing and continue to fall out.

When Ori finally realizes that there is nothing she can do she decides to change her attitude. She begins to make friends and focus on her schoolwork. But no matter what she does her mom won't even speak to her.

Will Ori find a way to reconnect with her mom? Will she finally find a place she belongs with a new group of friends?

Fairest Of Them All was a great story about finding yourself and what really matters in life. I admit that I really didn't like Oribella's character at the beginning of the book and almost gave up. DO NOT GIVE UP. It does get better. I was so glad that I decided to stick it out because it had a great ending. ( )