October 02, 2003
34. Why Girls are Weird, Pamela Ribon
Well, I wasn't sure about writing up my thoughts about this one, for fear of getting flamed. I used to read the author's journal, referenced extensively in her book, which can only be, which has to be, roman a clef. While I wasn't a rabid fan, I liked following her life and she made me laugh. What she implies in her book is that what she wrote on her website was all a lie, that like the protagonist of her novel, she made up stories just to keep people entertained. I had a hard time getting past that to get into the book.
The book isn't bad, exactly. It's basic chick-lit, brainless and cute. Sometimes the dialogue is so wooden or full of in jokes that it was hard to stomach, and the prose made me wince on occasion, but it does what it set out to do: give the reader a couple of hours of mindless brain candy. The best parts of the book, ironically, are "Anna K's" journal entries (most if not all of them taken with little revision from the author's website) and her online correspondence with various people. All of the 'story' in between seems to exist just to get us from one online excerpt to the other.
So, not horrible, but I'm glad I didn't buy it.
Posted by Lisa at October 2, 2003 10:51 AM | 2003