Just Like Beauty
A Novel
"For fourteen-year-old Edie Stein, the road to Deansville's annual Feminine Woman of Conscience Pageant is strewn with pitfalls. True, she's an ace at Mystery Powders, and she's come a long way in Freestyle Walking and Better Person Skills. But she's increasingly troubled at the prospect of offing her genius bunny, Alice Jones, in the Sacrificial Rabbit event. And despite the strenuous coaching of her mother, training for the Electric Polyrubber Man erotic arts competition has been a disaster: Edie just can't stop thinking about the girl next door, sexy Lana Grimaldi." "No question, adolescence is a trying time - all the more so when the bizarreness around you exceeds the sci-fi within. A gang known as the Blow Torchers runs amok, maiming would-be contestants. (Boys will be boys, but disfigurement is grounds for disqualification.) A plague of mutant grasshoppers storms the neighborhood topiary. An underground suicide cult gains momentum, and begins to exert a disturbing pull on Edie's imagination." "Torn between her loyalties, her passions, and her ambitions, Edie careens her way toward Pageant on an emotional roller coaster by turns hilarious and touching, tragic and absurd. Can she find a way to seize the day and to discover what it means to become a genuine feminine woman of conscience?"--BOOK JACKET.
Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction, Science Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.
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What the reading experience may hold
A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.
Fiction · Science Fiction
Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.
Catalog signals suggest warfare and conflict, suicide or self-harm, sexual material. These notes may not be complete; consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.
These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.
Dark tone · Urgent pace
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
A good fit if…
Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.
This book's DNA
A visual estimate based on this edition's categories, description, and length. Select a star to explore the signals.
This signal is descriptive, not a rating. It helps compare the kind of reading experience this edition may offer.
Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc
A broad estimate of the book’s emotional rhythm, shown without story events or outcomes.
This visualization is an interpretive estimate based on catalog description, categories, tone, pace, and content signals. It does not describe specific scenes.
A quick reading snapshot
Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.
- ISBN-13
- 978-0-3124-2178-6
- Language
- English
- Edition record
- OL9311769M
A more thoughtful way into this book
This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
Begin with its place in Fiction, then notice where the book resists that label.
Read for connection, not completion.
Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.
Three questions to carry with you
- What does the central character want, and what do they misunderstand about that desire?
- Which detail or relationship changes how you interpret the story?
- What feeling or question does the book leave with you after the plot moves on?
Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.
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Why it fits: shares Science fiction and Fiction, a similar publication era.
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Why it fits: shares Fiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.
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Why it fits: shares Fiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.
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Why it fits: shares Fiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.
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Why it fits: shares Fiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.
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Why it fits: shares Fiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.