DUCKLING UGLY

For the third entry in his Dark Fusion series, Shusterman gives another familiar tale both a contemporary setting (with some magic thrown in) and an ingenious, eerie twist. Cara De Fido, unfortunate in more than just name, is so hideously plain that her face literally shatters mirrors and camera lenses—her cruel, jeering peers in the town of Flock’s Rest dub her the “Flock’s Rest Monster.” Her simmering resentment comes to a boil after a mysterious note sends her out into the hills in a storm; she wakes up in a beautiful valley, amid beautiful people who are guarding the veritable Fountain of Youth. With one splash, Cara is transformed—and eager to go back to Flock’s Rest on a table-turning expedition. Her beauty comes at a steeper cost than she imagines, however. Shusterman takes some shortcuts, but only in service to the story, and in casting Cara with believable mixes of toughness and vulnerability, of spite and good sense, he sets her up as a (sort of) sympathetic figure. Nicely disquieting. (Fantasy. 12-15)