You Could Be So Pretty by Holly Bourne

“The Doctrine exists to make us believe we are less than, so we don’t have the strength to overthrow everything. Masking, and Ceremonies, and Chosen Ones – how we’re all groomed to worry constantly about what we look like – it’s a deliberate pressure. It’s designed to keep us down. To limit us. Divide us. Masks…Beauty…it’s all about weakening and dividing us.”

Belle Gentle follows the rules of The Doctrine to the letter and is so close to Having It All. She’s the highest Pretty in school, A Chosen One in her spare time, and she’s about to win The Ceremony and fulfil her destiny. So why does she feel so suffocated by her perfect life?

Joni Miller is an Objectionable and hated by everyone for her repulsive looks. But Joni doesn’t care. She just needs to win the Scholarship to The Education, so she get the power to overthrow The Doctrine and wake everyone up. The only person standing in her way is the prettiest girl in school.

Set in a dystopian world, of normalised sexual violence, and where girls are expected to maintain impossible beauty standards of beauty, You Could Be So Pretty explores what happens when two enemies are thrown together.

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When I started this, it reminded me vividly of Louise O'Neill's Only Ever Yours.  As I read on, I thought what a clever dystopian it was, how closely it mirrors our world. And the more I read, the more I realised; it's not a dystopia, or at least not in the sense that's usually used. Holly hides it by using new terms for things, but it's our world. It's here and now.

Consider:

• Girls have to wear masks make up to look 'normal'.
• The more make up, the 'prettier' they are...unless they go too far the other way. Boys like a natural look, and the only consideration is what boys like.
• Men get more handsome as they age. Girls are best in their late teens and only go downhill from there.
  
• Girls are told that it's their choice to wear make up or not, but girls who don't are ostracized and miss out on opportunities the others get.  
• Clothes for girls are both revealing and restrictive.
• If a boy attacks a girl, it's because she's so pretty she drove him to it. It's a compliment, really, girls shouldn't be upset about it!
• Girls have to exercise to burn off sins fat if they want the boys to look at them.
• Life as a Chosen One model means a lot of manhandling and groping, and then the final product is airbrushed out of all recognition anyway because even the prettiest girls don't look good enough.
• Boys can be as lewd as they want, and they're encouraged to sleep around, but girls should be pure. But not too pure. But not too slutty. 
• You have to lose your virginity at Prom, or everyone will know you're frigid.

I could keep going, but I think I'm making my point here. Holly has always written about feminist and human issues, and by writing them as though in a dystopia, she's shining a very bright light on our real world. The line that keeps going around in my head (paraphrased as I don't have the book to hand) is: "My mother spent years telling 'oh, my darling, you could be so pretty'. She never once said 'oh, my darling, you could be so free' ."

Buy this. Buy it for your teenagers of any and all and no gender. Read it, before or after or with them, and talk about it. Teachers, school librarians, get it into classrooms. Librarians, get it into libraries. You won't be sorry.

You Could Be So Pretty publishes on the 28th of September, 2023. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.