I added Beautiful to my TBR list because it was one of three finalists in the Young Adult fiction category for the 2010 Christy Awards. I just finished the book, and clicked over to the awards site to make sure I had that information right. Lo, and behold, the winners of the Christy Awards for Christian fiction are to be announced tomorrow evening at a ceremony at in St. Louis, Missouri.

I can’t say Beautiful is the best of the three finalists nominated for the award since I haven’t read the other two, but I did find this novel about self-image and suffering to be both absorbing and unusual for the genre of Christian fiction. The story is about two sisters, Megan and Ellie, Irish twins, who are so different from each other that most people don’t even know they’re related. Megan is “the emo, the goth, the bad sister.” Ellie is the good girl, popular, pretty, perfectionist, over-achieving. The story is really about the senior year in high school for both girls and about how one night, through sudden tragedy, everything in their family and in their world changes.

The theme of sibling rivalry isn’t a new one. But this book kept surprising me. Just when I thought the book was about Ellie, (even though it’s told in third person, we read about Ellie’s thoughts from the beginning), the point of view would switch to Megan and her rather sarcastic views about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Then, as soon as I adjusted to Megan’s voice, the focus would move back to Ellie. And the theme wasn’t just one note, either. The book was about sibling rivalry, yes, but also about coming of age and suffering and where-is-God-when-it hurts. And it’s a tale of beauty and the beast: who are you when your face, your physical self, is broken and altered and your beauty and competence and direction are taken away?

This book would be good as a discussion starter in a young ladies’ or mother/daughter book club. In fact, my copy from the library had discussion questions in the back. I also thought about the possibility of pairing this book with the nonfiction classic, Joni by Joni Eareckson Tada. Joni, who became a quadraplegic after a diving accident as a teenager, writes with an openness about her struggles with seeing and knowing God in the midst of suffering and disappointment that would serve to illuminate the fictional struggles of Ellie who also deals with both pain and disfigurement in an honest and believable way.

There’s some “God talk” in the book Beautiful, but it’s really minimal. Although Megan and Ellie have obviously grown and changed by the end of the story, neither of them “has it all figured out.” Each girl is on a journey, and the journey doesn’t end with the book’s ending.

I don’t know if Beautiful will win a Christy Award tomorrow night, but I do recommend it a good, thoughtful read.