The Look by Sophia Bennett (review)

British fifteen-year-old Ted has never thought of herself as pretty, so both she and her beautiful older sister Ava are surprised when a scout from a modeling agency gives Ted his card; apparently, what she and the creeps at school view as gangly and awkward the agency sees as appealingly coltish. When Ava is diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. she finds launching Ted’s modeling career an excellent distraction from the rounds of chemo and radiation ahead of her and pushes Ted to pursue the opportunity. Ted soon finds herself in the bewildering and often humiliating world of go-sees and castings, but it isn’t until she shaves her head in solidarity with her sister that things really begin to take off for her in the world of high-fashion modeling. Meanwhile, Ava appears to be bearing up well under her treatments, until she breaks up with her boyfriend and Ted realizes what’s really behind Ava’s insistence that Ted expand her horizons. Bennett manages voice perfectly here, effectively capturing Ted’s naïveté and her wide-eyed adoration of her sister, and punctuating her narration with a mild, defensive sarcasm borne of the abject fear of losing Ava. Ava’s cancer strengthens the bond between the sisters, a bond that had grown thin as Ava left Ted behind for the world of boyfriends and beach vacations, but Ava’s illness also leaves the whole family more vulnerable to the manipulations of a savvy agent. Ted remains remarkably grounded as she is compelled to test her limits, and even her missteps are guided by a desire to give her sister what she needs when she most needs it, lending this appealing tale of two sisters surprising depth and grace.