Review of The Fashion Committee by Susan Juby and a Fashion Quiz!

WELCOME to my stop on the Fashion Committee Blog Tour. My stop will include a review and a fashion quiz!

The Fashion Committee by Susan Juby

Published by Viking on May 23, 2017

Plot Summary for The Fashion Committee by Susan Juby

Charlie Dean is a style-obsessed girl who eats, sleeps, and breathes fashion. John Thomas-Smith is a boy who forges metal sculptures in his garage and couldn't care less about clothes. Both are gunning for a scholarship to the private art high school that could make all their dreams come true. Whoever wins the fashion competition will win the scholarship--and only one can win. Told in the alternating voices of Charlie's and John's journals, this hilarious and poignant YA novel perfectly captures what it's like to have an artistic drive so fierce that nothing--not your dad's girlfriend's drug-addicted ex-boyfriend, a soul-crushing job at Salad Stop, or being charged with a teensy bit of kidnapping--can stand in your way. With black and white art custom-created by fashion and beauty illustrator Soleil Ignacio, the book is a collector's item, perfect for anyone with a passion for fashion.

Review of the The Fashion Committee by Susan Juby

The Fashion Committee is told in a journal format, narrated by two characters who are competing for a scholarship to a fashion school.

The female narrator, Charlie, struck me at first as a bit of an oddball. She writes her entries in Franglish (English sprinkled with somewhat questionable French) and her prose has a bit of a stilted, trying-too-hard quality. 

At first I thought her narration might drive me nuts, but its soon became clear that she's a kid who's had a hard life, and I realized that all her put-ons - the overly formal way of speaking, the Google-translated French, the over the top clothes she sews for herself - were her armor against the unpredictabilty of her world. This endeared her to me quite a bit.

The male narrator is John. He's not really a fashion designer, more of a metalwork artist, but is entering the contest because he really needs the scholarship. He's in a sort of friend/romance triangle with another girl and a guy. She's in love with John and Guy #2 is in love with her. And let's just say John makes some not-so-great choices.

The fashion competition was fun and Project Runway-inspired, which I loved. And I thought the characters and plot were quirky in a good way, meaning that what would typically happen in a YA book ... didn't. This wasn't a romance-y book, more of a book about self-discovery.

If you love Project Runway and stories on the quirkier side, you should definitely give this one a try!

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