July 17, 2007

Pretty Ugly

“Before,” by Irini Spanidou

Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.

Remember that line (and how you hated her anyway)?

Sure, there’s plenty of upside to being a Betty (never dreading the Snapfish photo album or bikini shopping), but there are definitely some downers: getting picked last on trivia game nights and those nagging Derek Zoolander moments when you think all you’ve got to offer the world is a pretty face.

Irini Spanidou tackles the ugly side of pretty — and the underbelly of the early ’70s — in her darkly glam new novel, Before.

Beatrice, twentysomething and too hot for her own good, lives in a Soho loft with her husband, a talented but angry artist. She’s desired by practically everyone she meets, and those responses become a fix she can’t live without and the only gauge of self-worth she has.

But everyone knows you can’t keep a PYT down, and how Beatrice gets back up and on with her bad self is a beautiful thing to behold.

Kind of like Blue Steel.

Available online at amazon.com.