Barbie World

by Heidi Acosta

[inlibrisveritas]

Barbie World picks up soon after Barbie Girl leaves off, with Barbie living with Dylan’s family and her trust shattered. As someone who has been forced to fend for herself Barbie is having a difficult time adjusting to her new living arrangements, and being so close to Dylan is making things far worse.

Barbie Girl was one of my most recommended books last year. I thought it was a rather unique contemporary that dealt with some hard hitting issues, showed that appearances are deceiving, and showed off some really great friendships. Barbie World is a great continuation of all of that and more. One of my favorite things about these books is that it tackles the whole “judging a book by its cover” issue. In the first book we are shown that Barbie isn’t truly anything like all of the rumors say and we get to see just how different her life is compared to what everyone assumes. In Barbie World we see just how much those rumors affect her and we see a side of characters that we didn’t know they had. The characters grow even more and friendships are bent, broken, reforged, and made stronger. Barbie also finds out that she has family and it becomes a priority to seek them out and get to know them. I wanted so much for Barbie and Everett and while somethings fall through I am glad to see how their story turns out.

Dylan and Barbie put me through the wringer with this one. The tension between these two is thick, there is so much hurt and attraction that neither of them really know how to handle the situation. It doesn’t help that Dylan’s mom has already flat out stated that Barbie and Dylan are off limits as a possible couple, and they are both bound to that. Dylan remains a complete sweetheart even though he’s lost his way a bit trying to please his mom and Katie. He truly cares for Barbie even when she’s being extremely distant, and he develops a protective streak when it comes to her. Which would normally bother me, but given the amount of stress the whole situation I let it pass. It hurt my heart to see their friendship so torn, but at the same time the back and forth frustrated me. Third and Roxie are back as well and they are going through their own trials, though Third takes it in his typical Third-like fashion, with jokes and an attempt to win people over with his lighthearted attitude. We also meet Kai, a bad boy with a small local rock-band, whom Barbie finds herself keeping company. I can’t say I liked Kai all that much, he’s okay and I did like that he showed his true colors after some time…but initially he just didn’t work for me.

I think one of the best things about this book is how everything ends. It’s not a happily ever after, things are realistic and the ups and downs should be present. I think as a duology these two books are really amazing and I’m completely happy with how everything turned out.