Age: YA
This is the other YA book that I checked out on my last library trip. I went there specifically to get Ophelia, and I just happened to pick this up too. I'm glad I did. I haven't read the original Faust, so unfortunately I can't compare it to that. But it's the same basic selling-your-soul-to-the-devil story, only set at a modern Upper East Side high school. It's Gossip Girl meets the Cullen family from Twilight with some Screwtape Letters stirred into the mix. The Faust children are five teenagers who live with their strange and beautiful governess, Madame Vileroy. They are boldly ambitious, seeking wealth, fame, power, and beauty, and Madame Vileroy gives them special gifts to help them achieve their goals. They're what Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass would be like if they had superpowers.
Christian, the athlete, can steal...by touching another person, he can take some of their energy...their strength, their coordination. He makes himself stronger by simultaneously weakening his opponent. Valentin, the writer, can lie...he can rewind time and start a scene over if it doesn't play out to his liking. He can experiment with dozens of possible futures and choose the one that works to his advantage. Victoria, the perfect student, can cheat...she can read people's minds. She manipulates conversations in order to make the other person think about what they don't want to say out loud...and then she hears it anyway. Belle is beautiful. Everyone who sees her is drawn to her. But when they get too close, they are repelled by her scent...she smells like cheap perfume covering up something rotten. Bice' is Belle's twin sister. She's different from the others. Bice' can hide. She can freeze time. And while everyone else is frozen, Bice' studies...and studies and studies. She seems to be trying to learn every language in the world.
The teenagers have sold their souls to the devil for these skills, and as the book progresses, Madame Vileroy gives them additional gifts, making them more powerful. But pesky little shreds of humanity keep poking up...hints of love and guilt. Have they all made their deals willingly, or were some of them tricked? And if they could do it all over, would they make the same choices?
I enjoyed this book. I think I read it in a day (it's been a long day, and I can't remember now if I started it this morning or last night). In my book-reading week, it's sort of the yin to Ophelia's yang. It's not as well written (in terms of diction and dialogue) but the story is more interesting. I suppose I shouldn't complain too much about the dialogue; it is intended for teens, after all, and I guess that's what they sound like. "Um, like, don't you think he's like hot?" "Um, like, no, that's like totally gross." But if you can get past that, the story will draw you in. And it's got a moral, which isn't something you generally find in the post-Twilight sexy darkness and evil genre. Occasionally the moralizing is a bit heavy-handed, but for the most part it's sufficiently subtle. It's a book that I think teens would benefit from reading...especially teens who go to the sort of fiercely competitive high schools where being the most beautiful or the most athletic or having the highest GPA are the only things that matter.
Recommended for readers who like: Twilight (for the fun powers, not the love story...this isn't really a romance); Gossip Girl; The Screwtape Letters; City of Bones; A Great and Terrible Beauty; Diana Wynne Jones; the Daughters of the Moon series
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