Beautiful

by Katie Piper

[Leah]

I must admit, I’m not a big fan of books that people deem to be “misery memoirs” (I do not like that term). You know the kind: a parent abused their child/an outside person abused a child/drink addictions/drug addictions/etc. However, there are a few memoirs like that I’ve read. I absolutely loved “Ugly” by Constance Briscoe. It was so honest, so raw and despite being a tough read, I did like it. So when I was emailed about Katie Piper’s memoir I was intrigued. I’d read her story in one of the weekly magazines – Take A Break or Chat or That’s Life or Pick Me Up or something, I can’t remember. It vaguely rang a bell with me, however and I was interested to learn more about what had happened to Katie.

Beautiful is a hard book to read. Katie’s spirit immediately leaps out of the pages as the book starts with her recounting her love of everything as a child. How she liked dressing up but how she also liked helping her dad with DIY projects so when you go to the part where Katie meets the man who’s going to ruin her life it is hard to continue. It baffles me – in fact, I don’t think baffles is a strong enough word – that there are human beings on this planet who do such bad things like that. How somebody can be so sick as to tell someone else to throw acid in somebody’s face. It’s unfathomable. It’s heartbreaking to read how Katie was trying to make her mark in the TV presenting world and all of a sudden her face is ruined and she’s struggling with staying alive.

It’s the kind of book you have to read to really believe. I know there are monsters everywhere in the world – people who murder, who abuse, who harm, who throw acid – but to read such a harrowing account of it, from the victim’s point of view is just amazing but not in that kind of way. What really makes this book amazing, though, is Katie’s eventual determination to not let the men ruin her life. Anybody who had their face ruined the way Katie did – and not just her face, but her life, her trust in people, her trust in leaving her house or the hospital – would be within their rights to curl up in a ball and wait to die. To never leave the house again. But not Katie Piper. Sure, her situation gets her down and it takes her time to go out in the world again, but she eventually realised she couldn’t let it ruin her life forever and the way she’s turned her life around is something special. Her life may not be what it once was, but she’s just got on with it and made the best of what life she has now.

Katie Piper is an inspiration. I felt humbled reading the book because I complain about the smallest things and yet look at what she’s gone through. Look at what she’s fought against and come back from. I think I’m a pretty strong person, but I don’t know if I could come back from something like that. Beautiful is an inspiring read and Katie is a heck of a person. As I said, I only vaguely knew her story when I heard about her book but to read Beautiful is so much more than reading a small article. This is Katie’s story, how it all happened from start to finish (well, not finish, to how her life is now) and it’s a mightily impressive read. Katie Piper can hold her head up high, which might sound twee but it’s true. She won. Those people who tried to destroy her life failed because look at her. Sure, it’s not the life she imagined for herself, but it’s a damn sight better than it could have been and she hasn’t half made lemonade from the lemons she was given. A truly inspiring read.