Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.

While I can understand and applaud what Siobhan Vivian was trying to do in The List, it all fell completely flat. Each year, this high school posts a list of the prettiest and ugliest girls in school, a pair from each grade. Eight girls whose lives are changed in some way thanks to the list, and we follow all eight girls.

ALL EIGHT.

The split narrative is ultimately what killed the novel for me. Too many girls, too many problems, too many ideas to tackle with not nearly enough time. Half the girls don’t get any resolution at all when the book ends — and it does just that, it ends. The writing itself was decent, but not enough to make me wish The List was longer.