3.5 Stars~Copy provided for honest review~Barbie Girl was such a tragically endearing, mature, YA read and I was so excited to get my hands on Barbie World. It picks up pretty quickly after the first book. Barbie and her little brother, Everett, have become wards of Barbie's ex-boyfriend Dylan's parents. They've moved in are trying to figure out how an autistic little boy and a teenage girl with a severely damaged reputation fit into a very PC family unit. Everett is making the transition fairly well but Barbie struggles every step of the way.How does a girl who feels like she's never been nor ever deserved to be love deal with a slew of people all of the sudden determined to care about her? How can she live in a house with Dylan, knowing she still loves him, and watch him prance around without a shirt and a new girlfriend dangling on his arm? How is she supposed to deal with the demons of her past, one of which could pop up at anytime and threaten the flimsy safety net she's wrapped around herself? Short answer...you just don't deal with it. You flounder. You drown in despair, misery and pain and hope for a short life line to grip on to just long enough to keep your head out of water but not long enough to really pull you to shore. Barbie has become an expert at just that.Barbie World is an entire novel of Barbie pushing everyone, especially Dylan, away and then pulling them back in just a little. Never letting anyone close enough to disintegrate her horribly fractured heart.I have to say that by the end I had lost a little hair, from pulling it out...Dylan and Barbie are both horribly stubborn and determined. Barbie more so than Dylan in the stubborn department. It was so infuriating, yet totally heart wrenching, to see her struggle with the fact that people care for her and are in her corner. No questions asked.It is the emotionally damaged side of Barbie that tickled my heart in Barbie Girl and even though it was a frustratingly slow ride with her in Barbie World...it is still what will stick with me most about this series. Acosta does a wonderful job painting a broken girl with a false but tough shell, who is just looking for her place in the world. Barbie's journey is a sad one with many speed bumps but I'm glad I was along for the ride because where it ended up was lovely, emotional, real and fitting.
