Thank you to Dial Press for sending me an electronic copy of this book.
TITLE: Surprise Me
AUTHOR: Sophie Kinsella
GENRE: Chick Lit
RATING: 2 Stars
What to say about this book?
Despite giving it 2 stars, I can say that there were a few things I did like. I do enjoy the way Kinsella writes as she avoids that trap of giving way too many details, making the story overly boring and long for no reason. She also has a way with dialogue and always infuses some humor in her books.
My problems with this book are twofold - 1) the premise is absolutely ridiculous - so ridiculous that I can't even suspend my disbelief. 68 years together OMG???? because you will live to be super old - yup, pretty silly. 2) I hated the Sylvie and the mother characters so much that I wanted to scream. They both had the mental capacity of 15 year olds and neither had one redeeming feature. Also, Sylvie was soooo whiny and it was constant!
Also, while I realize that characters who cannot speak up for themselves are a great way to propel a story forward, they are also a great way to piss off your readers. Between Dan, Sylvie and her mother - absolutely NONE of them EVER opened their mouths to speak up for themselves nor did they open their mouths to ask basic questions or to share how they felt about anything. The result? a bunch of silly plot lines with weak characters who just let everything go, even if it meant confusion, misunderstandings and pain. I hated that part so much.
Please Sophie Kinsella, can you write a book with humor AND smart characters AND smart plotlines? It seems as though you cannot do all 3 at the same time and that is such a shame.
No comments:
Post a Comment