A review by scythefranz
Duckling Ugly by Neal Shusterman

4.0

"They say when you cry for the dead, you're really crying for yourself, and maybe partly I was."

It's difficult for me to review a book from my all-time favorite author that was Neal Shusterman since I'm worried it will came out biased or something. Or the worse is, I won't give enough justice to convince someone that this is a good book.

Anyway, it is my review so Imma do what I want. Hahaha.

Duckling Ugly is the last book in the Dark Fusion series of Shusterman. It's a no-brainer where this book has been based. It is a retelling of Ugly Duckling. Surprise! Ha! To be honest, I didn't remember now what's the story of Ugly Duckling so I can't assessed if this is a good retelling. All I know is I enjoyed reading Duckling Ugly not because it was written by Shusterman but because it was totally enjoyable and engaging, thanks to Shusterman. Lol.

Did you just say predictable? Oh yes, it was predictable. You and I know that when a character is ugly at first, you and I do assume he/she will be beautiful in the end. And that is correct in this book. 10 points for Gryffindor. Lol. But the journey to predictable-ness of this book is worth taking. Duckling Ugly is an enchanting coming-of-age tale of an ugly teenage girl and her life struggles as an ugly person.

A tale with a mystery of its own, magical and surreal events, intriguing characters and life realizations bound together with the great writing style of the author. It had a taste of revenge because that was a default in this kind of story and of course, the consequences after the revenge has been fulfilled. The important thing, however, is I learned. Along the way. And after reading the book. I savored what is there to savor and thought about things that needed to be thought about.

If the orange is the new black; in Duckling Ugly, beautiful is the new ugly.