Pretty Girls = Mean Girls?

Faye:  "Girls who are pretty have a way of looking down their perfect noses at anyone they feel isn't worthy of sharing the air with them. They have a way of making regular girls like me feel inferior for not winning the gene pool lottery. Tormenting them is my way of getting even.

"Everyone knows that pretty equals mean, and Evelyn Ryder used to be a beautiful movie star--never mind that it was practically a lifetime ago. There's no time limit on mean. So if you think I feel guilty about mugging her, think again."

In 1984, 14-year-old Faye lives with her volatile and overworked mother (an immigrant from the Caribbean island of Dominica) near Prospect Park in Brooklyn, N.Y., where nice and not-so-nice neighborhoods rub shoulders. 

Faye and two of her friends occasionally mug "pretty, stuck-up girls with loads of extra cash in their pockets," seeing it as a way to put them in their place.

But when they rob Evelyn, an 80-year-old former film star, and injure her, Faye decides that she's gone too far.

Faye and Evelyn, both lonely in their own ways, develop an unexpected friendship, connecting over Evelyn's secrets and regrets, and the drama Faye endures with friends and at home. 

Call # YA BLYTHE, CAROLITA