Review: My Life in Black & White by Natasha Friend

My Life in Black & White 
by Natasha Friend

Release Date: June 14, 2012
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Pages: 304
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
Source: ARC
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What if you lost the thing that made you who you are? Lexi has always been stunning. Her butter-colored hair and perfect features have helped her attract friends, a boyfriend, and the attention of a modeling scout. But everything changes the night Lexi's face goes through a windshield. Now she's not sure what's worse: the scars she'll have to live with forever, or what she saw going on between her best friend and her boyfriend right before the accident. With the help of her trombone-playing, defiantly uncool older sister and a guy at school recovering from his own recent trauma, Lexi learns she's much more than just a pretty face.   ADD TO GOODREADS

Lexi has always been known as beautiful, gorgeous, and hot. She is in love with her boyfriend Ryan, has a great best friend Taylor, and is about to start 10th grade which is high school where she lives. The summer before high school begins, she attends a party at her best friend Taylor's house. She can't find Taylor and she gets worried she might be too drunk and could need help so she searches the house and finds her friend Heidi guarding the door. At this point in the book my heart was already beating super fast and I was feeling nauseous. Nothing worse than the betrayal of a close friend. Lexi opens the door and finds her best friend of ten years with her boyfriend. Lexi gets Taylor's brother, Jarrod, to drive her home and they get into a car crash.

Lexi's face will never be the same. She also has no friends to support her. That was the most heartbreaking part of this story for me. Not just that Lexi has to go through surgeries and identity issues but that she has no one to help her through it. No one to stand beside her as she enters high school. I thought all her friends were awful even before the cheating and accident. She definitely shouldn't forgive them. But if I had made such a horrible mistake, I would have been at her house everyday with presents begging for forgiveness. I would have sent letters and did everything I could. I felt like Taylor didn't even make a good effort. She texted and left some voice messages. Big fricken whoop after what she did. Personally it is just something I would never forgive period but even her other friends should have been more supportive. Taylor's brother, Jarrod, never even apologized! And the crash was his fault basically.

Lexi goes through so many emotions and I felt them all right along with her. I was so angry myself I wanted to jump in the book and just get revenge on everyone. lol Lexi is angry, sad, depressed. She doesn't want to leave the house or let anyone see her. She has a lot of freak outs. Eventually she realizes that her evil ex best friend and ex boyfriend are at high school living their lives and that she should be out there. She should not be the one suffering while they are happy. I definitely understood and agreed. Everyone else did wrong but Lexi suffered the most. Lexi gathers up the strength to face high school all alone. She has to deal with all the fake smiles, gossip, and Ryan still trying to talk to her. Lexi ignores him and Taylor as she should and tries to redefine herself. Everything is changed so she might as well change.

Lexi used to enjoy school spirit, football games, and things like that. Now she just can't be the same person. She goes through wardrobe and attitude adjustments. Her older, more geeky, sister helps along the way. I was very sad watching Lexi struggle. The book is not romance heavy which I did like. Lexi works hard on her own to overcome her differences. I hate when a boy swopes in the just makes everything better. It doesn't happen like that. Lexi had to work through things on her own first. Then when she is doing better she meets a nice boy named Theo. He understands beauty is more than skin deep after losing a sister to an eating disorder. He is a good listener and introduces Lexi to boxing to get her anger out.

I don't think she should have ever forgave her friends. During all the flashbacks it seemed like Taylor was never a good friend. Taylor and Heidi were both so jealous, which is understandable, but the way they treated their friend was not okay. But Lexi is definitely a way better person than Taylor or me even. When Taylor goes through a traumatic crisis, instead of ditching her the way Taylor ditched her, she steps up and tries to help. I never would have. Lexi was a very strong character. Even though at times she had freak outs and had plans of revenge she always did the right thing. I teared up quite a bit during the book. I was easily able to connect and feel all of the anguish Lexi went through.

"While my mother cried, I had one nauseating, hysterical thought. I'll be a butt-face! Literally!"

"Sometimes a girl needs to squirt butter on people...or throw ice cream at the wall or a plate across the room...and it's not that she's proud of this behavior...it's just...well, she needs to flip out once in a while. To relieve the pressure."

"My point is...okay, there's this term in boxing, kissing the canvas. It's when someone get knocked down face-first. After Becks died, that was me. I could barely get out of bed. But you...kissed the canvas and got up."

Rating: 4/5 Stars!