Beauty Mark: A Verse Novel of Marilyn Monroe

Written by Carole Boston Weatherford

Narrated by Laura Knight Keating

Before she was Marilyn Monroe—Hollywood icon, blond bombshell, and easily one of the most recognizable faces of the twentieth
century—she was Norma Jeane, a young woman whose early life was filled with traumatic experiences: foster
homes, loneliness, sexual abuse, and teen marriage. Despite all she overcame, her hard-won, meteoric rise to stardom was
besieged by exploitation, pill dependency, and depression, eventually culminating in her tragic death at the age of thirty-six.

In a story at once riveting, moving, and unflinching, Carole Boston Weatherford tells a tale of extraordinary pain and
moments of unexpected grace, of gumption and perseverance, and of the inexorable power of pursuing one’s dreams.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781705010952

Carole Boston Weatherford

Carole Boston Weatherford has written many award-winning books for children, including Kin, illustrated by her son Jeffery and a Coretta Scott King Author Honor recipient; Box, which won a Newbery Honor; Unspeakable, which won the Coretta Scott King Award, a Caldecott Honor, and was a finalist for the National Book Award; Respect: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, winner of the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award; ALA Notable Children’s Book You Can Fly; and Caldecott Honor winners Freedom in Congo Square; Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement; and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. Carole lives in North Carolina. Visit her at CBWeatherford.com. 

Reviews for Beauty Mark

[joe73-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Loved the style of this book. An interesting insight and personal point of view.

[miamismartgirl09 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I thought this collection of short poems was very well written and told the story of Marilyn in such a beautiful way.It was very close to what a journal or diary of hers might read like.

[mrmapcase · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not so much as a novel, but more like snapshots into the life of Marilyn Monroe. The reader traipses lyrically through her upbringing and her rise to stardom.

[chrisac_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I won this book as a member of the Early Reviewers group. I've always been fascinated by Marilyn Monroe and have read several books about her life.This one is so different. A series of snapshots of her life, "written" by Marilyn, it's a peak into how she may have realized and experienced her life. The passages on her early years are heartbreaking. She had an awful childhood and never really got the love she deserved. Marilyn Monroe was a big famous film star that everyone wanted to know. Norma Jeane was an insecure woman who was used and who wanted to be loved and never found the happiness she sought.For me, I felt this book gave Marilyn the voice she never had in her lifetime. Her legend lives on. I wish she had a happier life.

[bookofsecrets · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I've always been fascinated by Marilyn Monroe, a captivating icon who hid a lot of pain behind her dazzling smile. Author Carole Boston Weatherford has done a beautiful job giving Marilyn a voice to tell us her own amazing yet heartbreaking story in poems.The novel is written mainly in first person free verse format, beginning with Marilyn's childhood, then moving through her adult life as a star, and ending just a few weeks before her death. Though this is fictional retelling of Marilyn's life, the poems are very raw and personal, like lyrical journal entries.BEAUTY MARK gives us a poignant look at the complicated, intelligent, and troubled woman underneath the beauty. Gorgeous & heartrending.

[lisa8025 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really wanted this book and Im so glad I won it in the early review batch. As soon as I saw it i knew i wanted it. i have read many books about her and I really love her. Loved books about her. She had a rough life and try her best to survive her issues and fulfill her dreams. She wasn't taken seriously as an actress and was treated like she had no talent. She was a beautiful woman and she was very smart and talented. She only wanted to be a good actress and to have a family. To be loved because she wasn't loved when she was a child. Lived in too many orphanages and with different families, never had a steady home. She got married so she wouldn't go back to another orphanage because she was still young. It's really hard to see how she encountered so many issues growing up and lived a life that i could not imagine living as a young girl. She went through so much and still had the will to be wonderful. A sick mother that could not take care of her and a father that never wanted her or recognize her as his child. I admire her and also sympathized with her. Her life was nothing but easy. In this book I felt like she was telling her own story in her own words. I really love it. Another book about her for my collection.

[sheriawilkinson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beauty Mark: A Verse Novel of Marilyn Monroe by Carole Boston WeatherfordA fantastic retelling of the life of Marilyn Monroe. Told in verse form through "Marilyn's" voice. Starting from her childhood with (a) brief family history. The sad beginnings of her young (lonely) tumultuous life, leading into adulthood. Also delving into her short career, her failed (romantic) relationships, to her pill dependency and ultimate tragic death. One of the most fascinating (books) I have read of the life and death of Marilyn Monroe. I highly recommend Beauty Mark: A Verse Novel of Marilyn Monroe .

[tx1955 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beauty Mark: A Verse Novel of Marilyn Monroe by Carole Boston Weatherford is a delightful read. I have read nearly every book written about Marilyn Monroe and this one did not disappoint. It is a novel, but if you did not know that you would think it was an autobiography. You would believe that what she wrote was actually what Marilyn Monroe felt instead of what the author imaged that she felt. It is a very quick read but it is entertaining. I loved the style of this verse novel. The book also touched on nearly every aspect of Marilyn Monroe's life. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves to read about Marilyn Monroe.

[nbmars · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This work of fiction written in free verse as if it were from the hand of Marilyn Monroe begins with the epigraph, “No one knows how it feels inside my troubled mind. No one wants to.” And yet, that isn’t quite true.Marilyn Monroe was a legend in her own time and remains a major icon of pop culture and source of fascination long after her death, allegedly by suicide, in 1962. (The cause of death has remained controversial and is the subject of many conspiracy theories involving the Kennedy brothers, inter alia.)She did leave an archive of diaries, poems, and letters, excerpts of which were not published until 2010 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux as “Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters” by Marilyn Monroe (Bernard Comment, Editor). These texts shed some light on Marilyn’s psyche and private life, but much was not revealed. As Weatherford writes in one of her poems in this imagining, “Some secrets I will carry to my grave.”Nevertheless, Weatherford does try to imagine what Marilyn must have felt like throughout her life, through a first-person series of poems that take us through the many heartbreaking and much fewer exhilarating moments of Marilyn’s life. Weatherford’s choices of what moments to cover seem to reflect her own interests as well as Marilyn’s. For example, why is there a whole poem delineating the plot of the movie “Some Like It Hot”? One wonders as well why there is no analysis of the messages for women and relationships in this movie that seem so offensive now and may have seemed that way to Marilyn. In any event, those who are interested would do better by reading the plot on Wikipedia; it is much clearer in narrative form than in free verse.Evaluation: I would have to say this book in uneven in quality (some of the poetry sounds as flat as Trump reading from a teleprompter) and the topic coverage is quixotic. On the positive side, Weatherford continues her pattern of featuring women who were maligned in their time, but employed bravery and perseverance to confront the obstacles presented to them. But Marilyn’s own compilation of thoughts, referenced above, is a much more poignant, affecting work that touches the reader a great deal more.

[bjkelley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What an interesting concept. So many books on Marilyn that everything gets repeated through most of them. Using the verse form of telling the story is quite unique. Marilyn Fans: Check It out.

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This short book packed so much information in a sparse, yet rich, format. The writing is beautiful. Some of the poems seem more like prose, but that's okay....the play on styles, with using actual headlines or book titles at times, worked to convey the various facets of Ms. Monroe's life. She led a paradoxical life: a sex symbol, and an early female entrepreneur. And a sad life, staring in early childhood. There's much more to her story than I'd realized. This book has inspired me to find out even more about the life of Marilyn Monroe.

[oddandbookish · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received an ARC of this book for free from the publisher (Candlewick Press) in exchange for an honest review. I’m a fairly new Marilyn Monroe fan. I’ve only seen “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “How To Marry A Millionaire” and loved her in both of those. I was so excited to read this because I wanted to learn more about her. I knew she had a tragic life and this book dove right into it. This novel in verse goes through Marilyn’s entire life, starting from when she was a kid to a few weeks before her death. All aspects of her life are explored, painting a stunning portrait of this complicated woman.As for the poems themselves, some of them were amazing but some fell a little flat. A novel in verse is a little harder to write since it does tell a story, so that is forgivable. Some of my favorite poems were:-Stand Still (pg 2)-From Wonderland to Oz (pg 26)-Baby Siren (pg 56)-Dare I Wish? Dare I Dream? (Pg 75) -Blondes Prefer Gentle Men (pg 106)-No Pink Tights But a Gold Band (pg 114)-I Got Rhythm (pg 124)-Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover (pg 128)-Living Up to My Name (pg 136)-No One Malady (pg 137)-Miscarriage Blues (pg 150)-Dogs Are a Girl’s Best Friend (pg 162)-Secrets of Style (pg 164)-Rx: “Vitamins” (pg 169)-The Kennedys (pg 175)-Who Is Marilyn Monroe? (pg 178)-Epilogue (pg 181)I really liked that there was a poem about how she helped Ella Fitzgerald (I Got Rhythm). I am happy that was highlighted. I also loved the whole poem dedicated to Marilyn’s love of reading (Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover). I’ve always loved that she was a bookworm. Lastly, the last poem (Epilogue) was a clever way to end the book. That poem just consisted of a series of headlines relating to Marilyn after 1962, which gave you a glimpse of her lasting legacy and mystique. Overall, this was a fascinating take on the life of Marilyn. If you’re Marilyn fan, or just want to learn more about her, I recommend reading this book. It’s a quick read but it does leave a big impact!