Amanda F. (Cissa) reviewed on 6/13/2008 + 40 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 7

This is one of the worst books I have ever read in my life. (One of my character flaws is that I almost always finish a book once I've started it, no matter how painful this may be.)

I am a fan of both chick lit and "occult female" novels in general, although I like to think I have standards in both. That's why I read this one... but it was awful for both genres.

The heroine- for lack of a better word- is awful. And not in a fun way. She's nasty, but not clever enough to be snarky. She's not a shallow facade covering an actual heart; she has no heart, or soul, or anything else. She's a sociopath... and again, not a fun one. (If you're interested in reading stuff from the POV of a sociopath, I recommend Donald Westlake's "The Axe" or "The Hook", both of which were appallingly excellent.)

Also: the author does not have a consistent timeline. It varies according to the momentary needs of the "plot"- such as it is. Not to mention that the life story of the protagonist makes no sense; there is no way that an upstart would achieve partnership in a successful firm, and that secure enough to threaten the founding partners, in the amount of time given. Just for instance.

There is a wee bit of backstory explaining Our Heroine's sociopathy. Apparently she was molested once by her mother's husband. Now: it is common in such situations for this to go on for years, and if faced with it the mother defends the abuser. This is not what happened here. She was molested once. She apparently told her mother, who dumped the molester and sought therapy to help her cope. Honestly, this is admirable behavior from a mother in my point of view. Nonetheless, Our Heroine bears her mother such a grudge that she will not deal with her, plus Our Author uses this as an excuse to make Our Heroine sociopathic. News flash: as described in the novel, this is pretty damn good behavior on the part of the mother, compared to the norm. Plus: many women go through far worse without becoming murderous sociopaths. I really resent this trivializing of a serious issue.

And back to trivial stuff: I had been going to say that the only thing professional about this was the typography. Unfortunately, it's not. The text depends on a huge number of footnotes, and while they are usually numbered... in one chapter in the middle of the book they use "*"s for a while, then revert to the numbers. Unprofessional. There are also swathes of text that have been cut-and-pasted in several locations; this probably impacts the poorly-defined timeline.

I will not deal here with the incredibly disgusting use of "Depends" in this novel.

So- very much NOT recommended. If you want sociopathy, check out Westlake. If you want chick lit- this is tone-deaf. I can see no reason why it would be a good choice for anyone.

Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details