Book Review: Modelland

Modelland by Tyra Banks

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Tookie De La Crème is a Forgetta-Girl – no one notices her. With frizzy hair, a huge forehead and spindly body, she can literally lay in the middle of the hallway at school and everyone just walks on by. In spite of all that, Tookie finds herself selected on The Day of Discovery to be a student at the magical Modelland. Of the hundred or more girls chosen on The Day of Discovery, only seven extraordinary, fabulous girls graduate Modelland each year to become Intoxibellas – the most worshipped and influential women in all the world. Tookie can’t figure out why she was chosen to go to Modelland instead of her beautiful younger sister Myrracle.

Tyra Banks, former supermodel and host of America’s Next Top Model, wrote this book. It was exactly like Tyra herself – crazy, manic, and over the top. The book is set in a future, dystopian society where the standards of beauty are the law of the land. Everyone is a superficial consumer. Even though every girl dreams of going to Modelland, it has a sinister element. Rumors of girls not good enough to become Intoxibellas being tortured abound. Girls who aren’t selected make pilgrimages there, never to be heard from again. And once you’re a student at Modelland, trying to escape has dire consequences.

Knowing Tyra Banks wrote this book, I expected it to campy. She definitely went above and beyond my expectations in that department. I don’t think the word subtle is in Tyra’s vocabulary. I was expecting this book to be similar to the Uglies series – filled with metaphor and symbolic lessons about judging people by their appearance,etc. This book was more like a hammer, hitting you over the head with that message. And there were no metaphors. Everything was straight up as it appeared. For example, in the health clinic at Modelland, the head purse (nurse) is Purse Drestookill and her outfit is described as, “an elaborate sage-green cape made of multiple types of pistols, knives, nooses, and razors, with a hat shaped like a guillotine.”* Get it?? She’s literally “dressed to kill”! Get it?? And then there’s Guru Applaussez, who’s head is shaped like a third hand – all the better for him to clap with my dear.

It may sound like I didn’t like this book at all, but actually I was strangely drawn in. I should probably disclose that I’m a big fan of America’s Next Top Model – it gives me a chance to rest my brain and watch the madness that is Tyra and Company. And this book has little inside jokes for ANTM fans. For instance, the BellaDonna, head master at Modelland, hates actresses and says disparaging things about them. Tyra also holds actresses in low esteem, compared to models; and says disparaging things about them on ANTM. I felt much the same way while I was reading this book as I do watching ANTM, although I did feel like the pacing of the book was too frantic. A different science fiction effect was around every corner and almost none were repeats – it was overwhelming. This book is the first of a planned trilogy – I don’t know if I’m invested enough in what happens to Tookie to keep reading the series but I did have fun reading this first book.

*This quote is from an advance reader’s copy – the final version of the book may differ.

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(I received this book courtesy of the Amazon Vine program.)