Hey guys, and happy Wednesday! Today I am excited to be sharing with you another book review - this time of the brilliant Piglettes by Clémentine Beauvais. I wanted to get the review in before summer was officially over (booooo!) as this is the perfect summer road trip novel.Piglettes follows teenagers Mireille, Astrid and Hakima, who have just been voted the three ugliest girls in their school in the annual Pig Pageant on social media. Mireille is unsurprised, having won gold in the contest two years in a row. But now another girl has won top spot: Astrid Blomvall. And Year 8 Hakima Idriss has won next place with silver. Mireille knows they have to do something, and she has a crazy idea that will get everyone's attention. But whether they can actually go through with it is a whole other matter...
I was kindly sent a copy of Piglettes by Pushkin Press in exchange for an honest review :)
Check out the blurb here...
Awarded the Gold, Silver and Bronze trotters after a vote by their classmates on Facebook, Mireille, Astrid and Hakima are officially the three ugliest girls in their school, but does that mean they're going to sit around crying about it?
Well... yes, a bit, but not for long! Climbing aboard their bikes, the trio set off on a summer roadtrip to Paris, their goal: a garden party with the French president. As news of their trip spreads they become stars of social media and television. With the eyes of the nation upon them the girls find fame, friendship and happiness, and still have time to consume an enormous amount of food along the way.
I adored this book! I really didn't know what to expect when I picked it up - I have never read anything by Clémentine Beauvais before, but I was very much pleasantly surprised. The writing style was one of my favourite things about the book - I loved Mireille's narration - she is so fierce and witty and utterly hilarious. The dialogue is also fantastic - especially between Mireille and her mother - the narration is very realistic as to how a teenager would speak. Piglettes is very much a homage to teenagers all over the world - the novel portrays them as brilliantly smart, courageous and having an unstoppable sense of humour.
The characters were all wonderfully unique and brilliantly crafted - I adored Mireille, Astrid and Hakima and loved the interactions between them. I have read a lot of reviews where readers have written that their whole trip is unrealistic, however I think to say that is to really miss the point of the whole book. (Since when did fiction have to be completely realistic anyway?!) But hear me out. When you strip down the humour, the quirky characters, the hilarious dialogue, this book is really about overcoming bullying and achieving the impossible, even when everyone you know is telling you that you can't do it.
Another thing I loved about this book is how brilliantly diverse it is. From disability, feminism, politics, periods - anything you can think of, Beauvais makes room for it in this novel. This is the perfect summer novel; it will lift your spirits, and make you want to hop on your bike and achieve the impossible!
Buy Piglettes here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Piglettes-Clémentine-Beauvais/dp/1782691200/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504094430&sr=8-1&keywords=piglettes
Check out Clémentine Beauvais here: http://www.clementinebeauvais.com/eng/
Until next time :)
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