The Jerk Magnet - Melody Carlson Review

When Chelsea Martin's future stepmother helps her transform from gawky and geeky into the hottest girl at her new school, Chelsea is pretty sure it's the best thing that ever happened to her. But her hot new look has a downside. She's attracting lots of guys who all have one thing in common: they're jerks. And stealing the attention of all the guys in school doesn't endear her to the girls either.Chelsea finally finds a true friend in Janelle Parker, and a non-jerk, Nicholas, catches her eye. Janelle keeps telling her to be herself, but Nicholas is the only guy around who doesn't give her a second look. Can Chelsea and Janelle come up with a plan to get his attention? Or will Chelsea's new image ruin everything? (From Amazon.com)

Now hold on. I’m sure you have your eyebrows in your hairline by now, so give them a break and relax. That's better!:-P I was a little apprehensive about this book too, I even questioned myself about doing a review on it. When I saw this book on my library’s website I had my face all screwed up into a big ‘ole question mark. I know this author’s work, and I like her books very much, but what’s with this title and description? So I decided to go for it. The book sat around by bedroom for a few days while I tried to decide if I really was interested in reading it. But my curiosity got the better of me.

The phrase, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ certainly rang true in more ways than one.

Just so you know, the author, Melody Carlson writes more for girls. She’s written over 200 books! Someone’s got some time on her hands! So this book is for girls bit this review is for more than just girls.

Now when I finally started reading this book I was a little disconnected from the whole story. I could relate to the main character, Chelsea, somewhat in the beginning but later I found it harder. But as I read I saw the point of it all coming at me like a freight train. The more I read the clearer it became.

Have you ever judged a book by its cover? How ‘bout a person by their appearance? That’s what this book was about. Ironically enough, that’s what I did. Chelsea changes a few things about her appearance and suddenly she goes from invisible and relatively friendless to being flocked by primarily people of the male variety. Just because of the way she looked. Her personality didn’t really change, just her appearance.

How many times have I avoided a person just because of the way they looked? A lot more times than I’d care to admit. And that really makes me angry. They are human too, so why do I treat them like they’re less than humanly? For me it’s not just people that aren’t easy on the eyes, it’s the people that are. And in some ways it’s like being racial. If someone has natural good looks there isn’t much they can do about it, is there? It’s the same thing as having a different skin color.

You see what I mean? We can get so caught up in this little comparison game that we forget that our selected few are not the only human beings that have feelings to be bashed around. Girls are pretty guilty of this, but guys can be equally guilty as well. I’ve been on both sides of this and I’m sure you have also.

I want to make an extra effort to not be so judgmental and condemning, because I know I do it, and it does affect people more than I realize or would like to admit. I am certainly not racial in the normal sense, but I am very guilty of being racial in this other sense. I can’t speak for you, but I know I don’t want to be like that anymore. After all Jesus wasn’t like that in the least! And if I want to be anything like Jesus some thing is going to have to change.

Title: The Jerk Magnet

Author: Melody Carlson

Pages: 217

Type of Book: Fiction

Website: http://melodycarlson.com/