Faces of Fear by John Saul

Whew... what a great book! This was a spooky one and not in the matter of ghostly or anything like that. This book definitely got me out of my funk as I started and finished this today. I truly chilling book that I give an A.

From Amazon:
Fifteen-year-old Alison Shaw may not be beautiful, but she doesn’t really care: She’d much rather read a good book than primp in front of a mirror anyway. But Alison’s gorgeous mother, Risa, knows that beauty can be a key to success and wishes only the best for her daughter, especially when Risa marries a widowed plastic surgeon and moves Alison from Santa Monica to Bel Air. Beauty may be only skin deep, but to the denizens of Bel Air it means the world. Everywhere mother and daughter look, they are surrounded by beautiful people, many of whom have benefited from the skills of Alison’s new stepfather, the charismatic Peter Dunn. Peter is certain he can turn Alison into a vision of loveliness, and Risa–drawn in by his cool confidence–is delighted. Reluctantly, Alison agrees to undergo the first procedure, and her transformation begins.But soon Alison discovers a picture of Peter’s first wife. To Alison’s horror, she notices a resemblance between the image in the photo and the work her stepfather is doing on her. Though Risa refuses to acknowledge the strange similarity, Alison becomes increasingly frightened. Digging further into her stepfather’s murky past, Alison uncovers dark secrets–and even darker motives–and realizes that her worst fears are fast becoming her reality.

I do find it funny that the product description has the step-father's name as Peter, because in the book his name is Conrad. While reading this, I had a pretty good idea of who the bad guy was, but I kept changing my mind. I thought Mr. Saul did an absolutely fantastic job getting into the mind of Allison and all of the pressures a 15 year old girl goes through, much less moving to Bel-Air. I could also identify with her and the pressures of not feeling like she matches up, as the first surgery she has is breast implants. I haven't been blessed in that department, and I have often thought about it... but I decided God made me like this and what you see is what you get. I do have to admit I was a little worried that Allison's mom was all of the surgery, but I think it just goes to show how the pressures of fitting in even affected the mother. All in all a very excellent read. I need to check my records and see if I have any other books by him because I think it will be my next read.

Well, I am off to bed. I have a job for tomorrow so I have to be up early. To tell you the truth, I was looking forward to having the day off, but I have been off for awhile. Plus in two weeks I am going on a mini vacation to New York City with my mom and my brother. We got flights for $18 round trip if you can believe it, and any extra money I can make for shopping will be excellent! I hope everyone had a great weekend and Happy Reading!