Review: A New Kind Of Beautiful


One can be transported in many ways: A familiar scent, a tune well-loved, a donkey. Stories, artfully composed, are stupendously capable of transporting us in ways often difficult to fathom. The stories that flow from Suzy Zail's pen are such transports. Art, a deeply nuanced way of portraying story, is another. A New Kind of Beautiful is Zail's latest YA offering that embodies both; the art of storytelling within the story of one girl's relationship with art, told with casual yet carefully considered care and creativity. 

Paige is a high school student with clear plans for her future. She exalts in art and is determined to clinch the Year 10 Art Prize; an accolade she believes is her conduit into an elite art school in New York. She is an accomplished artist creating real-life paintings with intense polestar focus. She also has Stargardt disease; a rare, chronic, degenerative eye condition causing severely reduced central vision. In what feels like less than a blink of an eye, Paige's world is literally beginning to blur.

A New Kind of Beautiful is the story of Paige's transformation from happy-go-lucky, only-child teen to a human who learns through sheer adversity how to see and feel her world better. Paige is likeable, glib to a fault and heavily invested in her friendship with bestie, Jazz. She is aware of her inherited condition but in a state of forestalling denial, is determined to keep it from everyone, except Jazz. Like many young teens, Paige is keen to forego reality in favour of 'fitting in'. 

As Paige's sight worsens and her forbearance falters, she becomes increasingly recalcitrant both in the classroom and at home. This, ironically, endears her to the 'popular' crowd resulting in both hers and Jazz's unexpected meteoric social acceptance. It's everything any high school gal could want, but not quite. The story gains momentum as Paige attempts to offset her deteriorating sight against her art fails and constant need to be 'seen' socially. Everything begins to fall apart including her friendship with Jazz and relationship with her 'extra' mother and over-compensating father.

Paige directs her contempt for her worsening plight at everyone and everything even those enlisted to help. Even those who quietly admire her abilities far more fiercely than her disabilities like, Zac. Zac is the shy withdrawn observer who Paige openly shuns because of his loose and lazy artistic style. After a near calamitous emotional outburst, it is this seemingly introvert soul who ultimately rescues her.

Zail's execution of emotion is convincing and at times telling. Paige, in her fits of refusal, could be hard to like however we are shown just enough of her loss and the associated grief of losing her eyesight, her best friend, her social standing and her dreams, to retain a delicate empathy for her because grief from loss is a shared phenomenon even if low vision is not. 

This story illustrates that a diminishing of one sense or ability can sometimes be the stimulus, the heightening of another and I don't just mean sight. As Paige's ability to see the sunsets around her and recreate them on canvas fades, her capacity to truly capture their essence amplifies as does her appreciation and love for herself, until her true beauty is revealed. 

Zail's commitment to character and their stories is again evident in Paige's tale thanks to clever pacing and a climatic ending that rivals a courtroom trial in terms of tension. It's ultimately a feel-good coming of age tale with enough interpersonal and internal turmoil to keep teens page turning.

I serendipitously seem to be reading a few art-infused stories of late. Adult readers should experience My Friends by the incomparable Fredrik Backman. Keep a look out for my forthcoming reviews of the picture books: Sketch and The Mystery of Colour and How We Solved It - all magnificent forays in the field of art and introspection. Meantime for an astutely crafted portrayal of what it looks and feels like to literally lose sight of your dreams, slip into A New Kind of Beautiful. You might just find yourself transported to a place you had never foreseen. 

Title: A New Kind Of Beautiful
Author: Suzy Zail
Publisher: Walker Books Australia, $24.99
Publication Date: 1 August 2026
Format:  Paperback
ISBN:  9781760653743
For ages: 13 - 17
Type: Young Adult Fiction

Buy the Book: Walker Books Australia 



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