強(qiáng)烈推薦！強(qiáng)烈推薦！強(qiáng)烈推薦！（重要的事情要說(shuō)三遍）
第一次讀Amy Harmon，就對(duì)她描繪角色內(nèi)心的筆力迷住了。可惜沒(méi)有中文版，大家不怕劇透的話可以搜搜網(wǎng)評(píng)。“Making Faces”帶有多重意思，但故事本身并沒(méi)有特指是哪個(gè)角色的臉，因?yàn)槿珪晒Ρ磉_(dá)的數(shù)個(gè)主題已經(jīng)超越書名意義了。紙書封面是女生，有聲書封面是男生。因?yàn)槟邪娣饷姹臣【€條太美，為了不誤導(dǎo)大家最后不得已選擇了女版封面。
評(píng)分參考
Amazon rating: 5 stars from 2,277 reviews
Goodreads rating: 4.4 stars from 37,216 reviews
網(wǎng)評(píng)大批讀者（包括我）給出五顆星以上。
故事大概
所謂劇透之人不得好死，但是亞馬遜上“現(xiàn)代版《美女與野獸》”的形容又似乎過(guò)于簡(jiǎn)單粗暴而且膚淺，雖然角色設(shè)計(jì)的確會(huì)讓人有這個(gè)聯(lián)想（故事的情節(jié)其實(shí)和童話完全相反）。大家不妨設(shè)想一下，假如童話里的野獸最終沒(méi)有能變回王子，美女又會(huì)不會(huì)肯和他廝守到老？不過(guò)既然官方給出這個(gè)描述，咱們就看看介紹怎么寫：
Ambrose Young was beautiful. The kind of beautiful that graced the covers of romance novels, and Fern Taylor would know. She'd been reading them since she was thirteen. But maybe because he was so beautiful he was never someone Fern thought she could have...until he wasn't beautiful anymore. Making Faces is the story of a small town where five young men go off to war, and only one comes back. It is the story of loss. Collective loss, individual loss, loss of beauty, loss of life, loss of identity. It is the tale of one girl's love for a broken boy, and a wounded warrior's love for an unremarkable girl. This is a story of friendship that overcomes heartache, heroism that defies the common definitions, and a modern tale of Beauty and the Beast, where we discover that there is a little beauty and a little beast in all of us.
千萬(wàn)不要被這個(gè)繞迷宮似的介紹誤導(dǎo)，故事情節(jié)其實(shí)一點(diǎn)都不復(fù)雜，好看的地方在于人物的魅力。這絕對(duì)不是一個(gè)單純的愛(ài)情故事，其中穿插的戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)、宗教、羅馬神話只是催化劑，而不是整個(gè)化學(xué)反應(yīng)的主要元素。主線男主Ambrose和女主Fern那段艱難成就的愛(ài)情固然讓人催淚，難得的是Harmon把各個(gè)角色面對(duì)人生逆境的態(tài)度和永生銘記的友情也表達(dá)得同樣感人。女主Fern患有肌肉萎縮癥的表兄弟Bailey（書中叫cousin沒(méi)看得出來(lái)他比Fern年紀(jì)大還是小）在超越醫(yī)生給出的壽命極限后，他結(jié)束自己生命的決定讓他從逆境強(qiáng)者升級(jí)成不容置疑的英雄，是不遜于男女主角的存在。在她設(shè)計(jì)的幾個(gè)先天和后賜的逆境中，作者通過(guò)描寫書中人物如何填補(bǔ)上天在人心中打出的洞塑造出不同的性格和命運(yùn)，最終撮合一對(duì)療傷互補(bǔ)的情人。
幾點(diǎn)感想
雖然沒(méi)有像一些讀者那么夸張從頭哭到尾，淚點(diǎn)超高的我也失了守。到了尾段部份一個(gè)轉(zhuǎn)折處，我還一度擔(dān)心Harmon會(huì)寫出一個(gè)俗套的虐心劇情。如果是讀書，用“Page Turner”形容再準(zhǔn)確不過(guò)了。像我用聽(tīng)的，就是要半夜躲在被窩里追著聽(tīng)完。只有看過(guò)，你才會(huì)知道相比此書，煽情催淚的文字有多l(xiāng)ow，簡(jiǎn)單的平淡文字也能擁有如此打動(dòng)人心的力量。
書中男主Ambrose和女主Fern用莎士比亞的名句傳情，不過(guò)當(dāng)中作者也有很多值得引用的金句。女主Fern是一個(gè)懷有作家夢(mèng)的平凡少女，她所作的一首詩(shī)就相當(dāng)點(diǎn)題：
If God made all our faces, did he laugh when he made me?
Does he make the legs that cannot walk and eyes that cannot see?
Does he curl the hair upon my head 'til it rebels in wild defiance?
Does he close the ears of a deaf man to make him more reliant?
Is the way I look a coincidence or just a twist of fate?
If he made me this way, is it okay, to blame him for the things I hate?
For the flaws that seem to worsen every time I see a mirror, for the ugliness I see in me, for the loathing and the fear.
Does he sculpt us for his pleasure, for a reason I can't see?
If God makes all our faces, did he laugh when he made me?
男主在天生外表優(yōu)勢(shì)被毀后，不經(jīng)意讀到這首女主高中畢業(yè)前對(duì)于自己平庸外表有感而發(fā)所寫的詩(shī)，可以想象這對(duì)他會(huì)有多大的震撼。由此延伸開(kāi)去，天生帶有絕癥被醫(yī)生判定活不過(guò)21歲的Bailey就算再樂(lè)觀，又何嘗不會(huì)出于相同的原因問(wèn)過(guò)自己，問(wèn)過(guò)別人類似的問(wèn)題？回顧書中另外一段情節(jié)里，Bailey跟男主Ambrose在高中四個(gè)死黨Pauly、Grant、Jessie和Beans的墓前輕松地討論他自己死了以后葬在哪里，那段對(duì)話是這樣的：
...and Ambrose could hold his tongue no longer. "How do you stand it, Bailey, looking death in the face for so long?" ?Bailey shrugged and glanced at him curiously. "You act like death is the worst thing." ?"Isn't it?" ?Ambrose could think of nothing worse than losing his friends. ?"I don't think so. Death is easy. Living is the hard part."..."Why me, Bailey?" ?Ambrose shot back, his voice too loud for the sober setting. "Why not you, Ambrose?" Bailey bit back immediately, waking Ambrose start as if he had convicted him of a crime. ?"Why me? Why am I in a flipping wheel chair?" "And why Pauly, and Grant? Why Jessie and Beans? Why do terrible things happen to such good people?" Ambrose asked. ?"Because terrible things to everyone, Brosie. We are all just so caught up in our crap that we don't see the shit everyone is wading through." ?Ambrose had no answer to that.
很多讀者都表示看書時(shí)非常有代入感，不但是因?yàn)榻巧?jīng)歷的挫折人人都可能碰到，故事本身也給了讀者自身需要的救贖，男主的極度愧疚感和女主失去好友的心痛同樣能讓人容易想象。部份讀者覺(jué)得其中有暗中插播宗教廣告的嫌疑，我倒覺(jué)得這個(gè)元素植入得很自然并不像軟文。至于說(shuō)男女主感情線過(guò)于勉強(qiáng)的，讀第二遍就能發(fā)現(xiàn)男主其實(shí)從最初與女主的互動(dòng)開(kāi)始就對(duì)她有感覺(jué)了，只是在快到成人的那個(gè)迷茫和青澀的年紀(jì)自己都無(wú)法看清而已。
最后給大家一顆安心丸，這個(gè)故事有個(gè)不錯(cuò)的團(tuán)圓結(jié)局，當(dāng)中感人但沒(méi)有很虐，放心欣賞吧！
不想被九流翻譯戳到眼睛的話，外語(yǔ)小說(shuō)一定要看原版的。讀了那么多英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)方法論，還不趕快去試試？我是不讀經(jīng)典的老奶奶，良心推薦好看的現(xiàn)代英文原版書，歡迎大家來(lái)看看書評(píng)哦。
Royal Wedding series by Rachael Hauck, 《Stuck-up Suit》and others by Vi Keeland
《The Selection》Series by Kiera Cass
《A Dog's Purpose》by W. Bruce Cameron
順便安利一下自己的礎(chǔ)作：
