Fisher Amelie, Vain - Review
If you’re looking for a story about a good, humble girl, who’s been hurt by someone she thought she could trust, only to find out she’s not as vulnerable as she thought she was and discovers an empowering side of herself that falls in love with the guy who helps her find that self, blah, blah, blah...then you’re gonna’ hate my story.
Because mine is not the story you read every time you bend back the cover of the latest trend novel. It’s not the “I can do anything, now that I’ve found you/I’m misunderstood but one day you’ll find me irresistible because of it” tale. Why? Because, if I was being honest with you, I’m a complete witch. There’s nothing redeeming about me. I’m a friend using, drug abusing, sex addict from Los Angeles. I’m every girlfriend’s worst nightmare and every boy’s fantasy.
I’m Sophie Price...And this is the story about how I went from the world’s most envied girl to the girl no one wanted around and why I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
WOW.
Just WOW.
This book and literally rendered me speechless it was that good, I never expected to find a book that would bring out the emotions I felt during this. It took me to so may different places and was just a beautiful story that was told in the most eloquent of ways. This is a book that I will be telling everyone to read for years to come, it is something that is going to stay with me and I love that.
This story is like nothing I have ever read before, it is not your typical love story because there is so much more too it, it reaches onto a whole new level and becomes something moving, loving and undeniably heart warming.
I found out about this book through a number of recommendations and other bloggers showering it with praises and I knew that I had to jump on the bandwagon and see what all the hype was about and let me just say I am so happy that I did, this book made an impact on me and it isn't often that get to say something like that.
From the moment that I read the first page I was hooked, I didn't want to put it down for anything and I have since learnt that cooking dinner while reading simultaneously may lead to you almost cutting your finger off and burning your food as you decide to finish your chapter before going to check on it.
The book starts off with a very conventional 'mean girl' as I like to call them; pretty, popular, and rich. Those three words can be used to sum up Sophia Price. She is the quintessential Beautifully Vain girl who uses her money and good looks to get anything she wants. Her actions rarely have repercussions, and her spending abilities seem to have no boundaries.
"I'm one of the beautiful people... I’m beautiful, and it’s not because I have a healthy dose of self esteem, though I have plenty of that. It’s obvious in the way I look in the mirror, yes, but even more obvious in the way everyone treats me. I rule this roost because I’m the most wanted by all the guys, and all the girls want to be my friend because of it."
Her parents are work obsessed and self-consumed, only caring that they appear to be the perfect family not that they actually are. Feeling a sense of abandonment Sophie uses a self destructive lifestyle to ease the sense of feeling alone; drugs, alcohol and partying in what she calls that weekends 'Hole' is what she has to live for.
"My goal in life was to rule my tiny, elite world, so I did. I manipulated, used, disrespected and took advantage of every person I called friend. I pulled and played with their puppet strings. I was the ultimate puppeteer. I was cruel and unrelenting."
One thing Sophie learns is one night can change everything, while partaking in her usual weekend activities her world comes crashing down around her as the cops bust in on her enjoying in a little recreational drug use. No matter how much she tried to flirt and seduce her way out she is still charged and told to await a court date. Her sentence? Six months in a Ugandan orphanage, with no luxuries and a hard dose of reality.
“Girl, you are the epitome of spoiled. I can smell it in your expensive perfume, in the quality of your ridiculous clothing, in the bracelet wrapped ’round that delicate wrist.” He closed the gap between us and all the air sucked from the room. “You won’t last out here. You’ll stay blind to the environment that surrounds you. You’ll live in your clean, perfect bubble and return to your posh life come six months. You are....you. I know your kind. I’ve seen it all before. You will never wake up. Not really.”
This book is a timeless story that I hope will live in and be read again and again by readers everywhere. Sophie is such an interesting character and I got so much enjoyment out of watching her grow as a person, it is an emotional journey and one that deeply affected me.
"How can someone bug the shit out of you so much yet simultaneously cause you to want to know them intimately with your tongue? He was driving me crazy."
You begin to realize that Sophie is purely embracing what she has been shown throughout her childhood; a lack of love an affection. You begin to realize that she isn't a bad person, she may of strongly relied on her looks in the past, it was her way of getting people to want her, but you come to understand that she is a genuine person.
“I stood in front of the mirror and took a good hard look. I was as bare as I could make myself, no make up with wet, stringy hair. I hated to look at myself in this state. I didn’t feel real. I felt too exposed and that made me exceedingly nervous, but I made myself look that morning. I memorized that girl. That girl was the real me. Frightened. Worthless. A terrible friend. Terrible daughter. Well educated but so limited in ideas worth having. Beautiful yet repulsive… And finally honest.”
Sophie's job wile in Uganda is to work for an orphanage, but not just any orphanage it is one that tends to the victims of an ongoing slaughter from an African warlord. The kids there have been badly assaulted and some are left missing limbs and with permanent facial lacerations. Reading about the children literally caused my heart to bleed; people like to think they are aware of what is going on with the world but this story shows just how little we are aware of.
"That’s when I saw them, noticed what Dingane was trying to prepare me for. Children, all ages, missing arms, eyes, parts of their faces, even legs. I held back my gasp and met Dingane’s eyes. They were warm and full of understanding but for the children only. He looked at me sternly and his eyes conveyed what he wanted me to do. I looked down on them, half-smiling, trying so very hard to look sincere when all I wanted to do was run and lock myself away from their terribly shocking faces. I had never in my life thought humans could endure such physical damage and survive."
Among all of the devastation, there is a love story and it is certainly a magical one that blossoms into something amazing. 'Dingane' or Ian is honest, blunt and undeniably gorgeous. You can feel the passion between them flowing off the pages (or screen).
“It was like my body knew instantly that he was mine and that I was his.”
Overall this book is something special, and something that deserves a lot of recognition. I read it and loved it and from a personal point of view I could not fault it, this book not only made me think but it also made me feel.
This is just 100% a must read, and I cannot wait to see what she has up her sleeve next.
6/5
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