November 12, 2009 11:41 PM

BOOK REVIEW: Tease by Immodesty Blaize

Being intrigued by all things burlesque, I was delighted to be sent this novel, penned by the gorgeous UK burlesque star herself, Immodesty Blaize. With burlesque shows, with their beautiful productions, curves and corsetry now becoming more mainstream, it was interesting to read something that gave an insight into this industry. Admittedly, the chick-lit genre isn't short of tales of stardom, but Tease was a refreshing change.

Tease tells of Tiger Starr, burlesque sensation. Tiger seemingly has it all - a glistening career, great friends, and an array of fans. She's at the top, with a life full of parties and glamour. But of course, when you're that big a star, there's always someone who's out to get you. And for Tiger, this is exactly the case. Because beneath Tiger's perfect image lie some dark secrets of her very own - and someone knows all about them.

What's Tiger to do, knowing that someone could expose her in an instant? That someone could ruin her? Even with her close friends to hand, she's well aware that nobody can be fully trusted. Someone is out to get her, but who? There are a variety of suspects, from members of Tiger's family to obsessed fans and the notorious rival Rosemary Baby.

As Tiger continues with her life and career - and even begins to fall for someone - she knows there's only a matter of time before the secrets are out. Can she find out who's threatening her, whilst remaining the sensation that she always was?

Tease is a brilliant read; extremely well written, sexy and full of glamour, providing a deep insight into the beautiful world of burlesque. Written by renowned showgirl Immodesty Blaize herself, it was obvious that a look into this industry wouldn't fail to please; Blaize obviously has some experience to share! Tease was a book I simply couldn't put down until I found out Tiger's secrets, and was disappointed when I finished it. Immodesty Blaize has a wonderful writing style and is able to convey wit, sexiness and  and mystery in one unputdownable read.

Tease will be released in paperback in early January.

Rating: 5/5

Posted by Elle Symonds on November 12, 2009 in Rating: 1/5 | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 30, 2009 1:03 PM

BOOK REVIEW: Coming Up Next by Penny Smith

Posted by Elle Symonds on January 30, 2009 in Debut Novels, Rating: 1/5, Rubbish Books | Permalink | Comments (5)

June 12, 2008 9:23 AM

BOOK REVIEW: Tan Lines by JJ Salem

I like a good bonkbuster as much as the next woman so I was looking forward to reading Tan Lines, a book marketed as " a sense of glamour reminiscent of Jackie Collins..." Jo Rees said in a recent Trashionista guest blog that a modern bonkbuster has to have a "big juicy plot", "a cast of interesting characters" with heroines that are "ballsy and multi talented...who start off fulfilled and in charge of their lives." Unfortunately Tan Lines has none of these.

Tan Lines is about three women. Billie Shelton is a rock star into drugs and men. Her career takes third place. After her last album was shelved by the record company she faces a dilemma, go more pop or lose the backing of the investors. Kellyanne Downey is a wannabe actress who works in a club. She is also a mistress of a very rich man, abides his every sexual whim in return for a car, an apartment and a share in a summer rental in the Hamptons. Liza Pike is a feminist. She appears on talk shows battling against conservative republicans. She is independent, rich and intelligent.

I found this book quite upsetting, so much so that I don't know where to start, and it'll be difficult to explain why without giving away the ending.

The women in this book, particularly Billie, but including all the extra characters, the girls on the reality TV show, March - the republican's fiancee, all hate each other. There is no camaraderie, no sisterly love. Billie, Kellyanne and Liza are supposedly friends but Billie calls all women bitches and much, much worse. She hates anyone who has the man she wants. Billie has a voracious sexual appetite, fueled by drugs and alcohol, she is obviously in need of help, but she is given as many disgusting sexual acts as possible whilst practically unconscious. Am I meant to find this sexy?

Liza is appalled by a recent film release called "Watch Her Bleed" where the women, as Liza explains, are "assertive, opinionated, high-achievers who one by one are stalked, terrorized, humiliated and brutally murdered."

So what was I was expecting from a bonkbuster? Well strong women for a start, not women that are the fantasy of certain men and not women that hate each other because they are all rivals over some man.

No-one likes writing a bad review, and it does bother me when someone has put in a lot of hard work, but at Trashionista we promise to give it to you straight. All this book did was to make me feel extremely uncomfortable.

The book does have a page turning factor, because I wanted to know who the blood stains belonged to in the Hampton's summer house that were mentioned at the beginning of the book. When I found out, I was as appalled as Liza was by the film. Without giving it away, all I can say is the ending of this book makes it no better than "Watch her Bleed".

Rating: 1/5

Like this? Try Octavia by Jilly Cooper (it's just as bad)

Posted by Helen Redfern on June 12, 2008 in Bonkbusters, Rating: 1/5 | Permalink | Comments (7)

March 19, 2008 1:58 PM

BOOK REVIEW: When to Walk by Rebecca Gowers

Reviewed by Sarah Hague

Do you know the feeling of meeting someone and immediately all your hackles rise?  For some reason, you dislike on impact the person before you.

There are books like that too. It may have nothing to do with the quality of the book but everything to do with a clash between the mindset of the author and yourself. When to Walk is one of those books for me.

One lunch time, Ramble's husband declares, in an offensive speech, that he is leaving her mainly due to her own shortcomings which have come to grate to a degree he can no longer stand. He gets up and goes out and leaves her to contemplate... well, everything.

Which is why the story grates on me. It is oppressively contemplative. I felt sucked in to the inner workings of a brain I didn't wish to know. Brains are notoriously unconnected when distressed and hers left me with an impression of irritation rather than compassion. Basically I didn't care what became of her.

Despite my antipathy to the story, it is very well written, and if you like that sort of thing, you'll probably find it funny in places and a beautiful portrait of a bewildered woman.

Me, I just wanted to smack her.

Rating: 1/4

Like this? Try The Ivy Chronicles by Karen Quinn

Posted by Keris on March 19, 2008 in British Authors, Rating: 1/5, Recent Release | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 10, 2008 2:02 PM

MORE ON MONDAY: The Strawberry Picker by Monica Feth

Reviewed by Colin Mulhern

A killer seeking the perfect partner. All he wants is beauty and innocence. But when he gets close he notices imperfections, the image is shattered and the papers report another murder.

Caro is his latest victim, and at her funeral, Jemma - Caro's flatmate - swears revenge and decides to track down the killer, but in making her very public oath, she attracts the attention of a hansom, mysterious strawberry picker.

It all sounds pretty good - certainly the makings of a good thriller, but the point of thrillers is, by definition, to thrill - to involve the reader by invoking emotions, to convince them that the characters are so real that they believe and care. You can only really do that if you allow the reader to see what is happening as it is happening. The Strawberry Picker is way too passive in its delivery, telling the reader what people have said or done or doing rather than showing these things in real time. The only thing the characters do actively is make espresso - in so many scenes that you wonder if this is something the author has only just discovered.

The result of this passive, wishy-washy hold-my-hand style is that by the half way mark the characters are as lifeless as they were on page one, the scenes are painfully dull and any aspect of a mystery has withered and died before we even reach the moment where Jenna swears revenge. This, incidentally, is well past the halfway point, and to be honest, by the time I'd got there, I really couldn't care whether she fell in love with the killer, helped her mother edit another successful crime thriller (writers writing about writing - yawn) or make another bloody espresso.

There are too many other things you can spend £5.99 on. Don't buy this.

Rating: 1/5

Like this? Try Be Mine by Laura Kasischke (an adult book)

Posted by Keris on March 10, 2008 in American Authors, Crime / Mystery, More On Monday, Rating: 1/5, Recent Release, Young Adult | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 5, 2008 11:42 AM

BOOK REVIEW: Octavia by Jilly Cooper

During my teens and early twenties I devoured Jilly Cooper books. Riders, Rivals, Polo, The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, and then the "name" books, which included Emily, Imogen, Prudence and Octavia. In fact, I included the "name" books in a list of chick lit precursors.

I hadn't read any of Cooper's books for years, but when I heard that Octavia was being made into a TV series, I thought I'd give it a re-read. And am I ever sorry I did. We don't usually do spoilers on Trashionista, but I can't fully explain my feelings about this book without talking about the ending, so if you don't want to know how it turns out, don't click over the cut!

Octavia Brennan is a fairly typical Jilly Cooper heroine. A glamorous, beautiful, spoiled, bitch, who can basically have any man she wants and isn't afraid to take them away from other women. When Octavia bumps into a former schoolfriend, Gussie Forbes, she can't believe that Gussie who, according to Octavia, is boring and fat, has managed to get herself engaged to the beautiful Jeremy. So, inevitably, Octavia decides to  seduce him.

She's given the perfect opportunity when Gussie invites Octavia to join the happy couple on a canal barge for the weekend. But Gussie has also invited wealthy businessman Gareth Llewellyn (in case the name didn't give it away, he's Welsh). Gussie hopes that Octavia and Gareth might hit it off, but Octavia takes an instant dislike to Gareth, mainly because he doesn't seem interested in her, but also because he knows she's after Jeremy and plans to prevent them getting together.

By about halfway, I was getting a bit bored. While there was entertainment to be had from the supposedly sexy hero coming out with a line like "I know, I know. Christ I'm in such a muddle", the characters are all fairly cliched, Octavia is so unpleasant that I didn't care what happened to her and I knew that she was inevitably going to end up with Gareth anyway so I didn't even need to bother finishing. But then...

Gareth decides that Octavia's behavior has become so bad that someone has to teach her a lesson. And do you know? It's going to be him:

Before I realized it, Gareth had me across his knee. I've never known what the living daylights were before, but he was certainly beating them out of me now. I started to scream and kick.

So, for me, that was the end of Gareth as a romantic hero. I had no love for Octavia, but a man who beats a woman? There's no coming back from that.

But what was even worse that it transformed Octavia's opinion of him. Realising that a beating was just what she needed, she finds she wants to feel Gareth's arms around her, his hands "soothing me and petting me as though I were a child again". Within a couple of pages, she realises she's in love with him.

I was utterly outraged. I understand that this book was written in 1977 and things were different then. I find it hard to believe that things were *so* different that a woman (a woman!) could write such offensive drivel and it was supposed to be romantic and sexy, but what amazes me the most is that it's being turned into a TV series now, in 2008. I obviously can't comment on the series since I don't know what changes they've made, but they'd better have made some drastic ones!

Anyway, things go badly for Octavia. She loses her flat and allowance and has to, finally, work for a living. I'd like to say she learns from it and becomes a better person, but she doesn't. And then Gareth comes back to save her. He's realised he's in love with her too. No, really, he is. Listen:

"I'm going to put my mark on you, so no one else can get near you," he went on, his eyes suddenly serious. "But I warn you, baby, even if we have to fight like cats, I'm going to wear the trousers. You're going to do what I tell you, and if you start upstaging me, I'll put you down. The boys in the Valley are like that. We keep our women in the background and we beat them if they give us any trouble, but we know how to love them."

So that's all right then. And does Octavia say, "Sod off, you pompous misogynist"? No. She says, her knees giving way with lust: "Could we possibly do it again just very quickly before breakfast?"

I actually laughed as I typed that because it is so utterly and totally ridiculous. But it's not funny. It's incredibly offensive and, I believe, dangerous. I wish I could go back in time, knock Octavia out of my teenage self's hands and give her something better to read.

Rating: 1/5

Like this? Read The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer. Soon.

Posted by Keris on March 5, 2008 in British Authors, Rating: 1/5, Rubbish Books | Permalink | Comments (2)

November 19, 2007 4:28 PM

Book Review: Me and Mr Darcy by Alexandra Potter

Oh dear. I don't relish the task ahead of me. Frankly, looking at somebody's creative effort and saying; 'I can see what you've tried to do here, but you've failed' feels desperately distasteful. But, dear reader, I cannot lie to you, and that's exactly what I have to say.

Actually, to save us both the unpleasantness of a book-assassination, feel free to stop reading this review now. Just don't, whatever you do, go and read Me and Mr Darcy.

Emily Albright has given up on modern men. Instead of going man-hunting in Mexico with her best friend, she books a guided tour of Jane Austen country, determined to immerse herself in the world of her favourite novelist.

Fine. While there, she meets - and starts to date - Mr Darcy. Yep. The Mr Darcy.

Okay, I'll admit, I wasn't in love with this concept to begin with, but I could see that it had potential.

It is, however, the kind of idea that needs to be handled with originality and grace, not flimsy characters and painful over-writing. Every nuance, emotion,  and thought is spelled-out in great detail, the effect of which is like being mugged - very slowly - by an elf wielding a dictionary filled with adverbs.

The passages from Pride and Prejudice were shoe-horned into the narrative with all the subtlety of an ice-cold speculum, despite which, the heroine remained blissfully unaware of the parallels between events in her life and the book she supposedly adores. The only possible conclusion being that she is an imbecile.

In fact, the heroine's 'voice' made me want to scratch my own eyes out, which is particularly tiresome in a first-person narrative. Emily Albright is supposed to be American. However, despite continually making reference to this fact, she uses so many British words and phrases, that it was impossible to believe that she had spent more than a handful of nights in the US.

And, while we are on the subject of disbelief, a book billed as a 'feel-good fairy tale' is unlikely to be chock-a-block with gritty realism, but I do expect it to be believable within the confines of the story.

Unfortunately, I didn't believe in Potter's version of Mr Darcy (who sounded nothing like Austen's creation), I didn't believe in the painfully-pedestrian sub-plots, and I didn't believe in the heroine.

Rating: 1/5

Like this only non-fiction and non-rubbish? Try: Flirting with Pride and Prejudice

Posted by Sarah Painter on November 19, 2007 in Rating: 1/5, Rubbish Books | Permalink | Comments (11)

July 10, 2007 12:03 PM

BOOK REVIEW: Home to Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani

We've reviewed two Adriana Trigiani books at Trashionista. Lucia, Lucia, I absolutely loved. Queen of the Big Time, Diane didn't enjoy at all. I adored Trigiani's Big Stone Gap trilogy so could hardly wait to read Home to Big Stone Gap, but, sadly, I was terribly disappointed.

Ave Maria and Jack's daughter Etta has married young and settled in Italy. Jack's health is poor and Ave Maria thinks she's seen their son, who died aged 4, walking in the woods behind their house. Plus Ave Maria learns a secret about her best friend Iva Lou that causes a rift between them.

As I started reading Home to Big Stone Gap, I found it quite comforting to return to these much-loved characters, but as I read on... well, I was bored. I recently read and loved Michael Tolliver Lives - a sort of continuation of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series after a break of 20 years - so why didn't I enjoy Home to Big Stone Gap? Perhaps there hasn't been enough of a gap (ha!) since the end of the trilogy for me to be happy just to spend time with the characters. I wanted a story and I didn't really get one.

There were a number of plot lines, but none of them were fleshed out (and they were slight to begin with). We don't really get to the bottom of Ave Maria's disapproval of Etta's marriage. When Ave Maria thinks Jack is dying she finds a list he's written of things he still  has to deal with - there is what appears to be a bombshell on this list and obviously I can't say what it is without spoiling things, but I found it a total cop-out. And manipulative, to boot.

The thing that really surprised me was the bad writing. Not all the way through, but there were a few sentences that involved one of my writing pet hates: exposition as dialogue:

"He wasn't four years old, like when he died, but older. Like twenty." I'd assume Ave's husband knows how old their son was when he died.

"... I'm named for my grandmother, who was a seamstress  - and Grandma Mac was also a good one ..." says Etta to her mother, who, I'd guess, already knows who she was named for!

"... I was trained by the master. Shorty Johnson spent the better part of her life in the kitchen. What with her sons, Roy and Shep, hungry around the clock, she mastered the great Southern dishes, that's for sure." Who talks like that?!

But that's not all. The last few chapters are deathly dull and riddled with factual errors (I could go into more detail, but, again, I don't want to give anything away - although, if you're desperate to know, one of the reviews on Amazon'll help). And there's another massive error in the middle of the book that I can't believe got past the amount of people who've read this book before it got to print!

Honestly, I can't tell you how disappointed I was with this book. When Diane gave Queen of the Big Time 1/5 I was shocked. Diane said, "I think the reason I felt so strongly is I know she can do so much better...I flirted with a 2, but she made me mad!" Home to Big Stone Gap made me mad too. Since I couldn't even finish another of Trigiani's books, Rococo, I'm wondering if she no longer cares enough to do better.

Rating: 1/5

Like this? Well if you like this, you might like Queen of the Big Time! But read Lucia, Lucia, it's so much better.

Posted by Keris on July 10, 2007 in American Authors, Rating: 1/5, Recent Release, Rubbish Books, Series | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 29, 2007 1:54 PM

BOOK REVIEW: Bitch Lit edited by Maya Chowdhry & Mary Sharratt

Maya Chowdhry and Mary Sharratt have edited this collection of short stories all having the general theme of women anti-heroes. Bitch Lit is apparently an antidote for all the Dick Lit we’ve had to endure in the past.
 
The blurb claims that all these stories are tales of women and power, the opposite of cautionary tales. Bitch Lit is a celebration of women who take the law into their own hands, who defy society’s expectations, put their own needs first and don’t feel guilty.

Unfortunately when they say ‘take the law into their own hands’ what they actually mean is break it. The characters in these stories serially murder, steal, commit adultery and fraud or, if you’re lucky, are just extremely selfish or mean spirited. They’ve attempted to describe this book as feminist, but that’s like saying Hitler was male so if the world was a fair and righteous place we should have a female dictator who commits genocide and tries to take over the world. It’s just wrong!

As with any book of short stories there will be a mixed bunch. Some are better than others, but all of these left a sour taste in my mouth and stole some of the faith I had that human nature was basically good and kind. Ironically the authors who wrote the shortest stories were the most successful in fitting in a complete tale. Some of the longest ended leaving me confused and wondering what happened. It seemed they’d reached their maximum word count and just stopped. They might as well have stopped mid sentence for all the sense some of the endings made.

One thing this book does achieve is in provoking a reaction. I can imagine people who enjoy looking at a rubbish bag or an unmade bed as a new form of modern art would find this book extremely interesting.
 
If you’re like me and prefer to recycle your rubbish, do yourself a favour don’t buy this book and save a tree. [Angela Richardson]
 
Rating: 1 out of 5

Like this? Try This Is Chick Lit edited by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Posted by Keris on January 29, 2007 in American Authors, British Authors, Modern Fiction, Rating: 1/5, Recent Release, Rubbish Books, Short Story Collections | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 27, 2006 5:43 PM

BOOK REVIEW: Queen of the Big Time by Adriana Trigiani

I first discovered Adriana Trigiani when Richard and Judy chose Lucia, Lucia as one of their first book club choices. After loving that book, I went on to devour her Big Stone Gap series. So I was excited when Queen of the Big Time was released last year. The story of Nella Castelluca and her hard-working farm family, the novel covers several decades of Nella's life. Trigiani weaves together a story of love, loss, heartbreak, disappointment and hope.

And yet she doesn't do it very well.

I want to state up front that this is no criticism of her writing talent- Adriana Trigiani can create an evocative atmosphere like no-one on earth, especially in her mouth-watering descriptions of food! But this is a book that covers a long time period, and where a lot happens- and yet there's absolutely no plot so I felt very unsatisfied and disappointed after reading it.  For a novel like this to work, I think it's better to centre it around one particular aspect or time of a person's life. You can't just describe the ups and downs of a person's life and call it a story. Clearly Trigiani worked hard at creating an interesting cast of characters, but then she didn't do anything with them. And her research is woeful- she has characters whose ancestry is Welsh, whom she refers to as English. (Let's just look at that map of the British Isles again, shall we? Write out 100 times, "England and Britain are not the same thing"...)

I'm also getting more than a little fed up with the Trigiani formula: young woman has to make sacrifices for her family; big family trip to Italy; lost love turns up and woman is/isn't reunited... come on, isn't it time for a change? When it works well, it doesn't matter so much that it's a formula, but when it doesn't, as in this book, it's an added irritation. I'll still give Adriana Trigiani's work a try in future, but maybe I'll wait until she's deviated from this well-worn and disappointing subject matter.

You can read an extract here (Amazon readers don't seem to agree with my assessment!)

Rating: 1 out of 5

Like this? Try The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (it's heaps better!)

Posted by DIANE SHIPLEY on October 27, 2006 in American Authors, Book related, Girly Stuff, Modern Fiction, Rating: 1/5, Recent Release, Richard and Judy, Romance, Rubbish Books | Permalink | Comments (2)

October 4, 2006 9:55 AM

BOOK REVIEW: Journey Out Of Darkness by Jean Darby

Jean Darby is a retired teacher and has based this book on her own experience of fostering a young girl who was raised by a satanic witch.
 
Journey Out of Darkness traces a girl’s struggle to overcome her abusive past. Rita is one of twins. She clings to her sister Maureen throughout her childhood until their lives take different paths. The mother, who calls herself Cassandra communes with demons, making them do her evil bidding in return for her faithful worship.

Jean Darby has written a large number of children’s books and unfortunately it shows. This book seems to be written in a style aimed for a lot younger reader, with the exception of the rather grim sex scenes. Obviously Darby has had experience of this situation herself, as the book comes across as very believable.
 
Journey Out of Darkness reminds me of afternoons watching Channel 5 movies - the ones labelled ‘American family drama’. The plot, script and acting are all a bit dodgy, but you feel compelled to keep watching. The situation is so terrible and depressing you just have to find out what happens in the end.
 
I felt this book said a lot more about Darby’s opinions and prejudices than the topic of child abuse. She is so obsessed with preaching ‘God good/Satan bad’ that she avoids the real issues. She fails to tackle the complete failure of the government systems to deal with abuse. She is so busy with the fact that the mother is evil due to the fact that she worships Satan, that she fails to notice that the character she’s created is obviously clinically insane. This seems to be yet another failure of their systems that she has remained undiagnosed.
 
Considering the subject matter this book was never going to be an easy read. However, I found it very frustrating that no one questioned the way their schools, social services and medical systems worked. If you want an exciting read that’s full of demons and the occult, give this one a miss.

Rating: 1 out of 5

[Angela Richardson]
 
Like this? Try A Child Called “It”: One Child’s Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer.

Posted by Keris on October 4, 2006 in American Authors, Memoirs, Non Fiction, Rating: 1/5, Rubbish Books, Supernatural | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 19, 2006 6:07 PM

Southern Comfort

I was drawn to the bright pink book in the romance section of my local library. The blurb on the back sounded pretty good and so I decided to give it a try. Well all I can say having now ploughed to the end of it (all in the Trashionista name) that it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I do fear for the hearts of any little old ladies who decide to give it a go!

The storyline itself is pretty well thought out, one of the modern setpieces. Fallon Hargis is an undercover agent for the DEA. When the drug baron she is collecting intelligence about rumbles her cover he orders her killing. As she flees for her life, Fallon comes across Wade Tanner who instantly falls for this mysterious woman and decides to become her chief protector. Wade used to serve as a detetctive in the city, but decided enough was enough. He now presides as Sheriff of a sleepy little town, and has grown to love the quiet life.

The quiet life is the last thing on Wade's mind only seconds after meeting Fallon. He takes her back to Two Creeks - there's no way she can be found there. He quickly realises though that taking care of someone who doesn't want to be taken care of can be a thankless and dangerous task.

So the storyline has definite promise. What is somewhat unfortunate then is that for the first two-thirds of the book Fallon and Wade are either having explicit sex, or thinking about having explicit sex. And the last third of the book is generally made up of violence, which at times borders on the gratuitous. Now I'm for a little gratuity, but to me this book felt overdone. The author seemed to be relying on her ability to write soft-core porn instead of devoting the time to the plot and characters - both of which where actually pretty good, as far as they went.

So unfortunately this book gets the thumbs down from me. I'm sure some people will love it, but for me there was just not enough book.

Like this? Try 'The Movie' by Louise Bagshawe

Posted by Aigua Media on April 19, 2006 in American Authors, Bonkbusters, Crime / Mystery, Rating: 1/5, Rubbish Books | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 24, 2005 5:35 PM

The Jane Austen Book Club

I have to admit before I started writing this review I had a peek at the comments about it on Amazon. The reason - despite this book being part of the Richard and Judy bookclub list, and being tipped to be a summer blockbuster, I was left completely underwhelmed by it. Was it just me? Or did other people feel the same way...

The concept of the book is simple - 6 people form a book club and read the works of Jane Austen. The book is split into six sections, each concentrating on a different character hosting the meeting, and a different Austen classic. Throughout the timespan of the book we get to see both the meeting, and a hint of the characters' personal lives.

The book is not a straightforward disaster. It would probably be easier to review if I could just say that there was not a single redeemable feature. The truth is that the plot is a great idea, and the characters all seem to have worth. The major failing of the book is that it just doesn't do enough. The plot is undeveloped as are the characters, by the end of the book you still don't feel like you know much about anyone, and that the surface has only been scratched.

The book is also a little deceptve in its size. The last 30 pages or so don't actually contain the story, instead they contain brief synopses of the books, and discussions. Maybe for the Austen enthusiast this is a good thing, but to me it seems more in keeping with a study copy of a classic text.

This is one of those books that I'd recommend giving a go, but don't expect too much. There are much better books that focus on book clubs, and for Austen... well read Austen. [Jenni Nock]

...oh yeah, and the discerning readers on Amazon felt the same way too.

The Jane Austen Bookclub - Karen Joy Fowler Don't fancy it? Try The Reading Group instead.

Posted by Gemma on October 24, 2005 in American Authors, Girly Stuff, Rating: 1/5 | Permalink | Comments (2)

September 26, 2005 3:00 PM

Citizen Girl

Here at Trashionista we promise to give it to you straight. So here's the simplified review for those who can't be bothered to read on - Citizen Girl is rubbish. It's trash. Don't bother.

Having had success with ‘The Nanny Diaries‘, writing duo Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin chose to centre their second novel on a fast-talking city girl in a dead end job.  Sounds OK so far? Don't be fooled...

'When Girl' (as she is annoyingly referred to throughout the book) loses her job, she ends up taking a job at My Company, a women’s website out to make money in any way possible. The novel follows her struggles in her new job, looking at the corporate world in what I sincerely hope is intended to be a satirical way. Sadly, it doesn‘t work at all. This is not because of a problem with the writing style, more the plot and characters. The main protagonist is bland, and the supporting cast even worse. People like this may well exist in real life, but they don’t make for entertaining reading.

As for the plot, I spent the entire book trying to work out exactly what was going on. Girl never really knows what it is she’s meant to be doing at My Company, or why she got the job in the first place. Her bosses feed her an endless garble of jargon that confuses the reader as much as it does Girl. Still, she happily goes from day to day talking her way out of everything, making presentations for projects she doesn’t even understand, and sweet-talking people who quite obviously think she’s a waste of space. Few, if any of the characters are deserving of any kind of empathy and you’ll slowly find yourself getting more and more annoyed with the entire cast.

The plot twists in awkward ways that make it difficult to follow, especially with all that ‘job-speak‘. A constant stream of new characters, new jargon, and an annoying boyfriend who breaks dates and lets his friends treat Girl like dirt all add to the general ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude you’ll feel when you finally get to the conclusion.

We’re meant to feel for Girl, a smart woman who wants to do something meaningful with her college degree, but as she constantly lets people walk all over her for 300-odd pages, it becomes increasingly difficult to give a flying you-know-what. Too much is left unexplained, the final ’twist’ on what Girl has been doing for My Company is a terrible cliché, and as for Buster the boyfriend - the book would have been (marginally) better without him. Give it a miss, trust me!

Citizen Girl - Nicola Kraus & Emma McLaughlin

Posted by Gemma on September 26, 2005 in American Authors, Modern Fiction, Rating: 1/5, Rubbish Books | Permalink | Comments (9)