Question: You are the average wealthy and disaffected suburban teen girl, endowed with a shaky self-image and a casual atheism. The devil offers to make you gorgeous. What can you offer him in return, in lieu of your probably nonexistent soul?

A. Your tennis rackets

B. Your tv.

C. Your cell phone.

Such is the dilemma of Allison Avery, an “interesting looking” middle child who is making her unobtrusive way through ninth grade in the shadow of a particularly uptight best friend (think Charlotte York before the loosening influence of Carrie Bradshaw and company). Her infernal bargain throws her into the spotlight and wreaks havoc with her cellular social life*. A new friendship with a gregarious ex-city girl leads her to become an unlikely contestant in a teen modeling contest, which, along with her family’s newly precarious financial situation, further complicates matters. And naturally there is a boy. A cute one. Shocker!

The conversations between Allison and the devil are the brightest spot in a fairly sparkly novel. Selling one’s cell to the devil is a clever and funny concept, and Vail exploits it accordingly. I was disappointed that satiric tone of these passages was not maintained throughout the novel, which bogs down in a few too many sentimental self-esteem pep talks. As a character, Allison is believably irritating in her self-deprecation, with glimpses of her wittiness and originality occasionally peeking through. Her obsession with Gouverneur Morris is a running joke and a reminder of these qualities.

By the end, the reader will suspect that Allison may have been growing into her own innate gorgeousness all along, and we are left to wonder whether the whole devil thing was just a dream. Or maybe Satan was exploiting her skewed self-image for his own nefarious purposes? In any case, she has now gained enough confidence to look in a reflective surface and not “shrink away in disgust.” Is she beautiful? “Well, maybe,” she thinks. And then she asks out the boy.

By the way: I'm not wild about the cover. It's generically pink and sparkly, and obviously meant to attract the chicklitty crowd, but something clever involving an evil cell phone (mostly likely an evil, pink, sparkly cell phone) would be more satisfying. Someone should draw this and send it to Rachel Vail.

*The correct answer was C. The devil is a golfer, and he has a nicer tv.