Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - City of Girls

In many ways, this felt like a disappointing knockoff of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. In many other ways, it’s quite different. As a New Yorker and musical theatre performer myself, I really enjoyed the book’s setting and atmosphere. However, I found Vivian’s reason to write a 470 page novel to answer Angela’s question to be a bit flimsy and self-indulgent. Vivian was pretty one dimensional and unlikable until the last ~100 pages of the book. I understand that that was sort of the point—that she had to outgrow this shallow existence—but I also found characters who the author consistently claimed were complex to be rather flat, so I think it was a writing flaw.

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marissa_roo's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow! What starts as a monologue and tends to wax poetic quickly pulled me in with the vivid picture of life that it was painting. There is sex - but real, honest, gritty, sometimes messy, sometimes fantastic, just like real life. The world is rich, and while the page count may be high it flies by. I had 'one more page' moments as well as some dread of events yet to come. It was beautiful.

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greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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rachc5's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.5

I loved everything about this book, except that it was a letter written to an almost irrelevant character.

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maddisonjane's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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poolofbees's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

The best way I can describe this book is as a disappointment.

It’s premise is a strong one, about a girl finding herself amidst the drama scene of New York City, but it unfortunately falls flat, especially towards the later half of the book when it genuinely feels like the author gave up. The pacing of it is confusing as well. The first half, which essentially takes place within the course of less than a year, is slower, describing specific moments and days with detail. The second half skips ahead years at a time and describes those periods broadly, almost disinterested. For a book that is supposed to read like a memoir, we sure do miss a lot of Vivian’s life.

My second gripe with the book is the sex scenes. They’re so painfully bad. I mean, you read fanfiction better than this. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I nearly passed out reading the first one. It nearly put me off the book entirely. Without spoiling, I’ll say that I understand the first one was meant to be uncomfortable, but the later ones, the ones that are meant to be positive experiences for the protagonist, don’t read much better.

Lastly, I think the author focuses too much on all the wrong relationships. The entire book is meant to lead up to explaining Vivian’s relationship to this mysterious man, but their time together is ultimately shoved into the latter half of the book. Their relationship feels flat and not nearly as fulfilling as the others in the book. I kept asking myself, “why do I care about this guy again?” Allow me to insert my little lesbian opinion, but I personally think more time should have been spent on Celia, who we spend precious time slowly getting to know before she disappears at the midway point. I’ll also add that

the threesome scene with Celia and Vivian felt almost fetishizing, like a girl who is merely toying with the idea of queerness for a man’s entertainment or for the rush of the taboo rather than a real exploration of her sexuality and identity. It’s a scene that deserved more tact and effort than the author gave it, especially when she mentions multiple times throughout how attractive Vivian thinks Celia is, only to then have Vivian never discuss these feelings again.

In short, although City of Girls has some high points, these are ultimately overshadowed by poor storytelling. And in a book that’s about storytelling, this feels unacceptable.

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haleymaple's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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val_theburrowofstories's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

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