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Little Beauties: A Novel
Little Beauties: A Novel
Little Beauties: A Novel
Ebook295 pages3 hours

Little Beauties: A Novel

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

3/5

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About this ebook

Diana McBride, a thirty-four-year-old former child pageant contender, now works in a baby store in Long Beach. Between dealing with a catastrophic haircut, the failure of her marriage, and phone calls from her alcoholic mother, Diana has gone off her OCD medication and is trying to cope via washing and cleaning rituals. When pregnant teenager Jamie Ramirez enters the store, Diana's already chaotic world is sent spinning.
Jamie can't stand being pregnant. She can't wait to get on with her normal life and give the baby up for adoption. But her yet-to-be-born daughter, Stella, has a fierce will and a destiny to fulfill. And as the magical plot of Little Beauties unfolds, these three characters' lives become linked in ever more surprising ways.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 2, 2005
ISBN9780743274562
Little Beauties: A Novel
Author

Kim Addonizio

Kim Addonizio is the author of several acclaimed poetry collections, including What Is This Thing Called Love and Tell Me, which was a finalist for the 2000 National Book Award. Her poetry and fiction have appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies, including The Paris Review, Microfiction, Narrative, The Mississippi Review, and others. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and two NEA grants, Addonizio lives in Oakland, California.

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Reviews for Little Beauties

Rating: 3.038461615384615 out of 5 stars
3/5

26 ratings3 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Compelling, touching, very engaging. A quick read, told from the standpoint of three women--an OCD sufferer, a single mom-to-be, and her unborn fetus. Addonizo is one of my favorite contemporary poets, and this novel shares her unique perspective and use of vivid language.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Former beauty pageant contestant Diana washes obsessively and works in a baby store, Jamie is a pregnant teenager, and Stella is her soon-to-be-born baby. These characters alternate in narrating the story, which is sad, sad, sad. Other reviewers described the writing as lyrical and beautiful but I just found this sad.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Not my usual sort of novel reading, but enjoyable. It really brought to life the worries of a person with obsessive-compulsive disorder. The other main character was one of the ones you just want to shake some sense into, as she makes bad decision after bad decision. There was some good writing in trying to give voices to even a newborn baby, but the reincarnation bit just seemed silly.

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Little Beauties - Kim Addonizio

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