Publishers Weekly
11/27/2017
TV writer Tarkoff’s debut novel, a by-the-numbers dystopian near-future YA story (inexplicably being marketed to adults) set in a world in which “good” or “bad” actions result in divine punishments of beauty or disfigurement, boasts little that’s new or interesting. Grace Luther, as gorgeous as her name is ludicrous, is the daughter of a cleric—an earthbound representative of the Great Spirit who has taken over the entire planet, eliminating all traditional religions as actual divine punishment for good and bad behavior becomes manifest. Grace’s mother died when the Revelation hit, and her best friend, Jude, was taken by the clerics after he caused a car accident. Her life is turned upside-down when a man attempts to rape her and never suffers divine consequences, and again when she learns that Jude is alive, both incidents revealing that the world is more complicated than she’d thought. Tarkoff’s work vanishes in the large recent corpus of dystopian works mixing social commentary and teen angst, with nothing to recommend it over its peers. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
Tarkoff’s debut and the first in her Eye of the Beholder series challenges the reality of what it means to be beautiful.” — Booklist
“What [begins] as girl-meets-boy escalates to geopolitical intrigue, espionage, daring rescues, and Grace’s growing, bittersweet self-awareness of what it really means to be a good person. Clever worldbuilding elevates the story...and the plot is juicy enough to carry readers to the sequel.” — Kirkus Reviews
“What if people had to wear their true disposition on their face? That’s the question that Sarah Tarkoff asks in this page turning, sensationally original, piece of debut fiction. Throw God, spirituality and young love in there as well and you have a provocative and timely book.” — Amy S. Foster, author of the Rift Uprising Trilogy
“A thought-provoking page-turner. Sarah Tarkoff’s stellar writing hooks you from the opening pages.” — Alexandra Monir, author of The Final Six and Timeless
Booklist
Tarkoff’s debut and the first in her Eye of the Beholder series challenges the reality of what it means to be beautiful.
Amy S. Foster
What if people had to wear their true disposition on their face? That’s the question that Sarah Tarkoff asks in this page turning, sensationally original, piece of debut fiction. Throw God, spirituality and young love in there as well and you have a provocative and timely book.
Alexandra Monir
A thought-provoking page-turner. Sarah Tarkoff’s stellar writing hooks you from the opening pages.
Booklist
Tarkoff’s debut and the first in her Eye of the Beholder series challenges the reality of what it means to be beautiful.
Kirkus Reviews
2017-10-31
Tarkoff's debut novel follows a young woman's coming-of-age in a dystopic near future where moral character and physical beauty go hand in hand...or do they?The world has been transformed by the judgment of God, known as the Great Spirit in the global religion that dominates Earth by 2031. "Faith" is no longer the evidence of things not seen: instead, it's starkly visible, as committing a sin leads to instantaneous physical degradation, illness, and even death. A handsome man is by default a good person; a disfigured woman did something to deserve it. The world is at peace—the peace of a people obsessed with piety and desperate to avoid the Great Spirit's divine justice. But Grace Luther, teenage daughter of an influential pastor, learns that faith is never so simple when she meets a gorgeous young man whose good looks turn out to be deceiving. The riddle of how this is even possible leads Grace to face the ghosts of her own past—a dead best friend, her own mother—and to question whether divine justice is really just, or even divine at all. Grace's questions bring her to the attention of powerful factions and dangerous people; what began as girl-meets-boy escalates to geopolitical intrigue, espionage, daring rescues, and Grace's growing, bittersweet self-awareness of what it really means to be a good person. What will Grace do with her epiphanies, and what sort of person will she become? That's for the next book in the series to answer, of course.Clever worldbuilding elevates the story above its occasional moral ham-handedness, and the plot is juicy enough to carry readers to the sequel.
