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pattydsf's review
3.0
First of all, thanks to the publisher and Good Reads for providing review copies to general readers. This is a great program and this book by Schappell was the first book I received through the Good Reads giveaways. I am not sure I would have picked this up on my own and that would have been my loss. I am off to a wonderful start with Blueprints and I can't wait for the next book I get.
This was a fun read. I am not sure what started the trend (which for me began with Melissa Banks)of linked, interwoven stories, but Schappell has done a good job with this genre. Each story does stand alone. Someone could read any of them and find them to be written well and interesting. But the added layer is great too. I found myself going back and forth among the stories, trying to make all the connections. I liked that aspect of this book a lot.
I do think the audience for the book might be women in their 20's and 30's, but I could relate to many of the characters. I would recommend this to readers of contemporary fiction; those people who like short stories and even fiction readers who don't always read stories. The interdependence of these tales might get short stories a new audience.
This was a fun read. I am not sure what started the trend (which for me began with Melissa Banks)of linked, interwoven stories, but Schappell has done a good job with this genre. Each story does stand alone. Someone could read any of them and find them to be written well and interesting. But the added layer is great too. I found myself going back and forth among the stories, trying to make all the connections. I liked that aspect of this book a lot.
I do think the audience for the book might be women in their 20's and 30's, but I could relate to many of the characters. I would recommend this to readers of contemporary fiction; those people who like short stories and even fiction readers who don't always read stories. The interdependence of these tales might get short stories a new audience.
tspangler1970's review
2.0
I took a break from the novels I'm reading for some short stories. This was a quick read, which is what I wanted, but I really didn't enjoy it much. The girls and women who were the protagonists of the stories were just so unlikable. Disliking characters doesn't always ruin a book for me, but here it really did. I just found them annoying and extreme and sometimes despicable. I just read Lorrie Moore's new collection, and some of those characters are not so likable either, but she is able to pull it off. This collection just depressed and irked me.
themaddiest's review
3.0
Schappell’s collection of short stories presents the lives of females: girls and women who are aching to tell their experiences. These uniquely funny, observant, sometimes heartbreaking stories are the ones that are largely secret. Girls being shaped into women can be found here, and it’s a unique experience.
The eight stories collected in Schappell’s book are remarkable not only because Schappell is a good writer who gets in close to her characters but also because she writes tough, smart characters who connect with the reader during moments of revelation. There is not only a great sense of care taken with each of the characters, but a great deal of detail given to the characters and the stories they are telling. These stories are intelligent, unflinchingly honest, and contain an uncanny ability to observe the dichotomy of toughness and vulnerability present in women’s lives.
The stories in this collection interconnect with one another. In the first story, “Monsters of the Deep,” a young girl struggles with being labeled the town tramp. Readers revisit her in the last story, “I’m Only Going to Tell You This Once,” as she talks to her teenage son and tries to reconcile her own past. In “The Joy of Cooking,” Emily, a recovering anorexic, has a prolonged phone conversation with her mother that explores the complexity of their relationship (this one hit me particularly hard). The women in Schappell’s stories go in and out of each other’s lives and provide a richness to her stories that is memorable and satisfying.
These stories contain characters that will leave lasting impressions on readers. The examination of female identity pervades these stories but never feels overpowering or too didactic. Fans of smart short stories should look no farther: this collection embodies that completely.
The collection is out now.
Blueprints for Building Better Girls by Elissa Schappell. Simon & Shuster: 2011. Electronic galley provided for review by publisher via Netgalley.
The eight stories collected in Schappell’s book are remarkable not only because Schappell is a good writer who gets in close to her characters but also because she writes tough, smart characters who connect with the reader during moments of revelation. There is not only a great sense of care taken with each of the characters, but a great deal of detail given to the characters and the stories they are telling. These stories are intelligent, unflinchingly honest, and contain an uncanny ability to observe the dichotomy of toughness and vulnerability present in women’s lives.
The stories in this collection interconnect with one another. In the first story, “Monsters of the Deep,” a young girl struggles with being labeled the town tramp. Readers revisit her in the last story, “I’m Only Going to Tell You This Once,” as she talks to her teenage son and tries to reconcile her own past. In “The Joy of Cooking,” Emily, a recovering anorexic, has a prolonged phone conversation with her mother that explores the complexity of their relationship (this one hit me particularly hard). The women in Schappell’s stories go in and out of each other’s lives and provide a richness to her stories that is memorable and satisfying.
These stories contain characters that will leave lasting impressions on readers. The examination of female identity pervades these stories but never feels overpowering or too didactic. Fans of smart short stories should look no farther: this collection embodies that completely.
The collection is out now.
Blueprints for Building Better Girls by Elissa Schappell. Simon & Shuster: 2011. Electronic galley provided for review by publisher via Netgalley.
jodiwilldare's review
4.0
Every six months or so for the past decade, I’d randomly type ‘Elissa Schappell’ into Amazon’s search bar and cross my fingers. I kept hoping and hoping that she had released a book that some how slipped by me. I fell in love so hard with her collection of linked short stories Use Me that I longed for something else.
When I spied Blueprints for Building Better Girls on some Fall 2011 release list, I bounced in my chair, fist pumping like a member of the Jersey Shore. I was excited.
I marched right into this collection of interlinked stories with nary a worry. Not once did it cross my mind that this book would be disappointing. I didn’t entertain the idea that maybe this wouldn’t live up to my memories of Use Me. I knew, knew that Elissa Schappell would deliver the goods.
read more.
When I spied Blueprints for Building Better Girls on some Fall 2011 release list, I bounced in my chair, fist pumping like a member of the Jersey Shore. I was excited.
I marched right into this collection of interlinked stories with nary a worry. Not once did it cross my mind that this book would be disappointing. I didn’t entertain the idea that maybe this wouldn’t live up to my memories of Use Me. I knew, knew that Elissa Schappell would deliver the goods.
read more.
manicfemme's review
5.0
Elissa Schappell has very clearly mastered the art of the short story with this collection. It includes eight loosely interwoven stories (about thirty pages each, perfect for reading on a commute to work or before bed) that show vivid, fresh perspectives of the modern woman and girl. To me, Blueprints rides the line between YA and adult fiction, but I should think it would be enjoyable no matter your age. It is a bit chicklit-ish, but not in the obnoxious I-don't-want-to-admit-I-read-this way. Highly recommend.
kawai's review
2.0
The reviews for Schappell's BLUEPRINTS collection are mixed, with good reason. Like any short story collection, there will be some stories that will resonate more or less, depending on the reader. Unlike most short story collections, the vast majority of these stories weren't previously published (with the exception of a few, one of which--"The Joy of Cooking"--was this reviewer's favorite of the collection). It's difficult to say whether that's a good or bad thing, as some readers will be happy to find fresh stories they couldn't possibly have been exposed to elsewhere, while others might wonder if the lack of published material suggests certain stories might have been hurried.
That's all really irrelevant when it comes down to the writing itself. I came to this book on the strength of "The Joy of Cooking", hoping to find more of the same--stories that were touching and populated with complicated characters involved in moving, real relationships with each other and the world around them, while subtly commenting on myriad facets of women's lives in contemporary American society--and was sorely disappointed when that turned out not to be the case. The vast majority of the stories in the collection lacked life, movement, tension, and characters that felt deep and real. More often than not, the collection seemed to contain characters that were empty shells used as vehicles to discuss this or that aspect of women's lives...which might still work out, if some of the stories ever felt like they got off the ground.
To be fair, it's important to recognize the reader's role in making a book work. Perhaps I came to this book at the wrong time; perhaps something in my life pulled me away from it. Either way, I dropped out and didn't feel compelled to finish with only a story and a half left to go in the collection.
That's all really irrelevant when it comes down to the writing itself. I came to this book on the strength of "The Joy of Cooking", hoping to find more of the same--stories that were touching and populated with complicated characters involved in moving, real relationships with each other and the world around them, while subtly commenting on myriad facets of women's lives in contemporary American society--and was sorely disappointed when that turned out not to be the case. The vast majority of the stories in the collection lacked life, movement, tension, and characters that felt deep and real. More often than not, the collection seemed to contain characters that were empty shells used as vehicles to discuss this or that aspect of women's lives...which might still work out, if some of the stories ever felt like they got off the ground.
To be fair, it's important to recognize the reader's role in making a book work. Perhaps I came to this book at the wrong time; perhaps something in my life pulled me away from it. Either way, I dropped out and didn't feel compelled to finish with only a story and a half left to go in the collection.
sarahbethbrown's review
4.0
I liked this book! I had picked it up over and over again for the past year or so, and then would get distracted and put it down. Happens with this type of books to me a lot-- those about girls and young women, particularly short stories. These linked stories are really interesting-- lots of big issues: rape, eating disorders, love/infatuation, family issues, and handles them with subtlety. Many of the stories are framed as memories, with a character in the present telling her story to somone else, or having it unravel in the narrative as it is paralleled by some action going on in the character's present. I didn't love this, only bc I think it popped up in too many of the stories to be interesting. My favorite stories here are the ones that progress neatly in time-- I'm just not sure Schappell is a gifted enough writer to play with time the way she did in some of the stories. I thought, for the most part, this was a great read, and I didn't really put it down much once I got through the first story.
A couple of things that bothered me that are so nitpicky but just really stuck in my head:
1. These are linked stories, but many of the characters don't put together the connections, which drove me NUTS. The most egregious place where this happened is one woman makes a new best friend, and they tell each other EVERYTHING, except they never make the connection that woman A was in rehab with woman B's sister. Really? They tell each other EVERYTHING except a defining event in each of their lives? unlikely.
2. One story puts a lot of focus on a girl's pearl necklace. It breaks, and the pearls go everywhere. Except that a nice pearl necklace (which she assures us this is) is made so that the pearls don't go everywhere! they are knotted on individually for that very reason! if your pearl necklace breaks, you'll lose one pearl. I don't know why this bothered me SO MUCH, but it really did.
Otherwise, great book. read it!
A couple of things that bothered me that are so nitpicky but just really stuck in my head:
1. These are linked stories, but many of the characters don't put together the connections, which drove me NUTS. The most egregious place where this happened is one woman makes a new best friend, and they tell each other EVERYTHING, except they never make the connection that woman A was in rehab with woman B's sister. Really? They tell each other EVERYTHING except a defining event in each of their lives? unlikely.
2. One story puts a lot of focus on a girl's pearl necklace. It breaks, and the pearls go everywhere. Except that a nice pearl necklace (which she assures us this is) is made so that the pearls don't go everywhere! they are knotted on individually for that very reason! if your pearl necklace breaks, you'll lose one pearl. I don't know why this bothered me SO MUCH, but it really did.
Otherwise, great book. read it!
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