I really enjoy YA retellings of popular/classic stories. Personally I feel they help me understand the original better when I go to read that. while this wasn't one of my favorites, I think the author did a really good job of turning The Picture of Dorian Gray into a modern setting. The beginning was a good pace and the ending wrapped up quite nicely as well. My only complaint was that the middle was a bit slow and repetitive. I think there was too much time spent on the parties that were thrown by the main character and I would've liked to see more description of the moral dilemmas that the character was experiencing because of her deal. Besides this, I enjoyed the retelling and it was unique because I have never heard of a Dorian Gray retelling before.

Macabre, with a dose of humor and charm enough to attract the youngest to the original novel. It was not as dark as I expected but it was a very well constructed tribute to Wilde's work.

Full review: https://tintanocturna.blogspot.com/2020/08/resena-review-pictures-of-doranna.html

I was excited to see a twist on The Picture of Dorian Gray and happy to dive into this read.

After watching her father land in prison, Dorianna's mother sends her to live with her aunt for awhile. Dorianna isn't certain things will go well but is ready for a fresh start where no one knows of her father's horrible past. Determined to make life better, she hits the new high school and tries to remake herself into what she thinks she should be. Of course, things don't run as planned, but she discovers help in a cute guy and his very eccentric, video-making-master friend. Agreeing to give up anything to become popular, the dark new friend transforms her into an internet star. But the more popular she becomes, the more she turns into something she definitely doesn't like.

This is definitely an original, exciting twist on one of my more favorite classics. The author uses modern day internet/social media platform craziness as the base and lets it lure in and transform. Dorianna's desire to become beautiful and popular are understandable, and especially teens will easily identify with this wish. Unfortunately, I found Dorianna hard to like most of the time, even before she 'transformed', which already broke off the needed sympathy for me. Her past was harsh, her hopes understandable, but her behavior was often selfish, especially when it came to her aunt. The other characters fit well into their cliches—hot popular guy, jerky popular girl and such. Bailey, a friend of Miss Not-nice-popular, was a treat and by far my favorite character. Also the evil, dark Wilson, who lures Dorianna in, was well done and interesting.

The plot runs along at a nice pace and does a pretty good job at keeping the tension high. Dorianna's changes demonstrate that popularity and the desire to be liked aren't always a wonderful thing, and can do more harm than good. It is a nice message woven into an original tale, which is sure to interest audiences of darker fiction with a few thrilling moments thrown in.

I received a complimentary copy through Netgalley and found the tale entertaining.

Pictures of Dorianna was almost like a Faustian Gossip Girl retelling of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Although I found Dorianna's complaining a bit repetitive at times, the novel illustrates how power can corrupt and fame isn't always what you wish for. I might add that I really liked the character Bailey for some reason.

I received an arc from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was just okay. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t amazing either. It was a really good view of how power corrupts and fame isn’t as great as it seems. The ending, 18 years later, was really good and I enjoyed that a lot. I also liked the different characters. Bailey and Cole were my favorites. One of the things I didn’t like about it was that it was kind of repetitive. It was her being mean and “the beast” encouraging her. I got a little bored through that part. I also didn’t like how she treated her aunt which I know is part of the story, but I feel like she treated her bad through the whole thing. This book was a pretty quick read.

Overall this book was fairly good. I’d recommend this to lovers of the original Dorian Gray and to those who like a sort of fantasy feel. It personally was not my favorite, but I think others will really like it.