North of Beautiful: Book summary and reviews of North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley

North of Beautiful Summary

Born with a port-wine stain birthmark covering her entire right cheek, Terra Rose Cooper is ready to leave her stifling, small Washington town where everyone knows her for her face. With her critical, reproachful father and an obese mother who turns to food to deflect her father's verbal attacks, home life for Terra isn't so great either.

Fueled by her artistic desires, she plans to escape to an East Coast college, thinking this is her true path. When her father intercepts her acceptance letter, Terra is pushed off-course, and she is forced to confront her deepest insecurities. After an ironically fortuitous car accident, Terra meets Jacob, a handsome but odd goth Chinese boy who was adopted from China as a toddler. Jacob immediately understands Terra's battle with feeling different. When Terra's older brother invites her and her mother to visit him in Shanghai, Jacob and his mother also join them on their journey, where they all not only confront the truth about themselves, but also realize their own true beauty.

North of Beautiful Reviews

"Starred Review. Laced with metaphors about maps and treasure, Headley's finely crafted novel traces a teen's uncharted quest to find beauty." - Publishers Weekly.

"An intelligent and multi-layered book, teens will find this a very satisfying read." - Children's Literature.

"Starred Review. Look out, Sarah Dessen. You may have met your match in Headley." - Kirkus Reviews.

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North of Beautiful Reader Reviews

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Rated of 5 by Allie
Compassion
Very well written. It taught me about the discrimination with appearances, and showed me how to be more compassionate to those less fortunate than me.

Rated of 5 by Briana
i loved this book
It was amazing. Everything about it was really good. It kept me reading and on the edge of my seat. The only bad thing was that I finished it. I never wanted it to end!!!

Rated of 5 by moonmystery
good!!!!!
It's a really good and heartwarming book! The end seriously made me cry!

Rated of 5 by Izzy
LOVED IT!!!
I picked this book up off Amazon and I loved it from the first page! I loved how Terra was torn between 2 characters!!

Rated of 5 by Terra
North of Beautiful
This book was outstanding! One of the best I've ever read! At first, I picked it up in a bookstore, thinking it would be fun to read about a girl with the same name as me, but within the first few chapters, I was hooked!!! Amazing book, everyone should read!

Rated of 5 by ...
North of Beautiful
This book was probably the best book I've ever read...between love and tragedy. Terra finds her True Beauty.

...7 more reader reviews

Justina Chen Headley grew up near Buffalo, NY and San Francisco. After attending Stanford University she spent time in New York and Sydney, Australia before settling near Seattle, Washington with her husband and two children. Her first book, Nothing But the Truth (and a few white lies), was a Book Sense pick; this was followed by Girl Overboard.