强烈推荐！强烈推荐！强烈推荐！（重要的事情要说三遍）
第一次读Amy Harmon，就对她描绘角色内心的笔力迷住了。可惜没有中文版，大家不怕剧透的话可以搜搜网评。“Making Faces”带有多重意思，但故事本身并没有特指是哪个角色的脸，因为全书成功表达的数个主题已经超越书名意义了。纸书封面是女生，有声书封面是男生。因为男版封面背肌线条太美，为了不误导大家最后不得已选择了女版封面。
评分参考
Amazon rating: 5 stars from 2,277 reviews
Goodreads rating: 4.4 stars from 37,216 reviews
网评大批读者（包括我）给出五颗星以上。
故事大概
所谓剧透之人不得好死，但是亚马逊上“现代版《美女与野兽》”的形容又似乎过于简单粗暴而且肤浅，虽然角色设计的确会让人有这个联想（故事的情节其实和童话完全相反）。大家不妨设想一下，假如童话里的野兽最终没有能变回王子，美女又会不会肯和他厮守到老？不过既然官方给出这个描述，咱们就看看介绍怎么写：
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.
千万不要被这个绕迷宫似的介绍误导，故事情节其实一点都不复杂，好看的地方在于人物的魅力。这绝对不是一个单纯的爱情故事，其中穿插的战争、宗教、罗马神话只是催化剂，而不是整个化学反应的主要元素。主线男主Ambrose和女主Fern那段艰难成就的爱情固然让人催泪，难得的是Harmon把各个角色面对人生逆境的态度和永生铭记的友情也表达得同样感人。女主Fern患有肌肉萎缩症的表兄弟Bailey（书中叫cousin没看得出来他比Fern年纪大还是小）在超越医生给出的寿命极限后，他结束自己生命的决定让他从逆境强者升级成不容置疑的英雄，是不逊于男女主角的存在。在她设计的几个先天和后赐的逆境中，作者通过描写书中人物如何填补上天在人心中打出的洞塑造出不同的性格和命运，最终撮合一对疗伤互补的情人。
几点感想
虽然没有像一些读者那么夸张从头哭到尾，泪点超高的我也失了守。到了尾段部份一个转折处，我还一度担心Harmon会写出一个俗套的虐心剧情。如果是读书，用“Page Turner”形容再准确不过了。像我用听的，就是要半夜躲在被窝里追着听完。只有看过，你才会知道相比此书，煽情催泪的文字有多low，简单的平淡文字也能拥有如此打动人心的力量。
书中男主Ambrose和女主Fern用莎士比亚的名句传情，不过当中作者也有很多值得引用的金句。女主Fern是一个怀有作家梦的平凡少女，她所作的一首诗就相当点题：
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?
男主在天生外表优势被毁后，不经意读到这首女主高中毕业前对于自己平庸外表有感而发所写的诗，可以想象这对他会有多大的震撼。由此延伸开去，天生带有绝症被医生判定活不过21岁的Bailey就算再乐观，又何尝不会出于相同的原因问过自己，问过别人类似的问题？回顾书中另外一段情节里，Bailey跟男主Ambrose在高中四个死党Pauly、Grant、Jessie和Beans的墓前轻松地讨论他自己死了以后葬在哪里，那段对话是这样的：
...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.
很多读者都表示看书时非常有代入感，不但是因为角色经历的挫折人人都可能碰到，故事本身也给了读者自身需要的救赎，男主的极度愧疚感和女主失去好友的心痛同样能让人容易想象。部份读者觉得其中有暗中插播宗教广告的嫌疑，我倒觉得这个元素植入得很自然并不像软文。至于说男女主感情线过于勉强的，读第二遍就能发现男主其实从最初与女主的互动开始就对她有感觉了，只是在快到成人的那个迷茫和青涩的年纪自己都无法看清而已。
最后给大家一颗安心丸，这个故事有个不错的团圆结局，当中感人但没有很虐，放心欣赏吧！
不想被九流翻译戳到眼睛的话，外语小说一定要看原版的。读了那么多英语学习方法论，还不赶快去试试？我是不读经典的老奶奶，良心推荐好看的现代英文原版书，欢迎大家来看看书评哦。
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
顺便安利一下自己的础作：
