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bakersmom's review against another edition
3.0
This was pretty good. I felt sorry for Sarah because she never seems to grow up. She is stuck in a huge rut.
dizzybell06's review against another edition
2.0
I was excited for this book when I read the description, but was left feeling confused and disappointed. The author left a lot of loose ends along the way and seemed to abandon some plot lines. Characters were introduced and then never resurfaced again leaving much to wonder about. The chapters jumped from one story/boyfriend/time in Sarah's life to the next and it was hard to figure out what point in her life we were reading about unless it was stated. There was too much left unresolved with each chapter that it made the book not very enjoyable.
kayceslitlife's review against another edition
1.0
This book was for a reading challenge this year (a book with bad reviews). And very early on it is obvious why it got bad reviews. Just painful and not interesting at all. Next!
sarahcvo's review against another edition
Disappointing. I was drawn in by the connections I felt to the author (attended Brown University, lives in San Francisco) and by the Charleston setting (was about to vacation there), but I just couldn't get into this book. When it was due back at the library, I realized I had no desire to renew it, and returned it unfinished.
karleigh25's review against another edition
2.0
Absolutely no main character growth throughout the book. Very disappointing.
ckausch's review against another edition
2.0
Girls in Trucks follows Sarah as she grows up in the Southern debutante life. The South Carolina women in her family have all been part of the Camellia Society, and hold fast to the expectations and traditions involved with being a Camellia. Sarah and her girlfriends attend the classes they are supposed to, and dress as they are expected, but some of them can't help but be attracted to the things Camellias aren't supposed to do, like ride in trucks with boys who would never marry a Camellia. The novel follows Sarah as she grows up, attends college in the north, and lives in NYC. She must learn to navigate through her relationships with men, girlfriends, and the family still home in the south. Sarah must also accept the fact that no matter where you run, you still carry with you the way you were raised.
This is the first novel by Katie Crouch, and it's reminiscent of films like Hope Floats, and various books written about debutantes. The characters are interesting, and will not always do what the reader will expect of them, but you are often left hanging with their storylines, never to find out how situations were resolved. I had hoped to like it more, but it was an okay read. I found myself getting frustrated with the main character and sometimes being more interested in other characters because she got so tiresome.
If you want a fast read, this one might do, but there are a lot better books out there. If you like debutante books, I'd recommend Gloria by Keith Maillard over this one (which is also longer).
This is the first novel by Katie Crouch, and it's reminiscent of films like Hope Floats, and various books written about debutantes. The characters are interesting, and will not always do what the reader will expect of them, but you are often left hanging with their storylines, never to find out how situations were resolved. I had hoped to like it more, but it was an okay read. I found myself getting frustrated with the main character and sometimes being more interested in other characters because she got so tiresome.
If you want a fast read, this one might do, but there are a lot better books out there. If you like debutante books, I'd recommend Gloria by Keith Maillard over this one (which is also longer).
emilyisreading2024's review against another edition
3.0
I am not sure where the author was trying to go. Various story lines were interesting but then left unresolved as she switched to a different story and in some cases a different narrative voice. I was curious to see what would happen to these girls who grew up together in the Charleston area, but the main character wasn't very likeable and much of the book was depressing.
mattlefevers's review against another edition
2.0
It's difficult for me to extricate my feelings about this book from my feelings about its main character.
The book: well-written, with a light but poetic touch. Very engaging, drew me in right away and kept me wanting to finish. The chapters are broken up in an interesting way, almost post-modern: each chapter has a different style, and you might finish one that is written in third person, in large blocky paragraphs, only to start the next one and find yourself in first-person, broken up into bite-sized snippets of text. One short chapter (by far the most intriguing) seems to be written in second-person, future tense, from the point of view of a dead woman. Describing the layout like this makes this book sound really avant-garde but it's not, at all - the story is pure young-Southern-woman-coming-of-age and not very out-there at all. Very interesting authorial decision to structure this in such a unique way just to tell a fairly plain story.
The character: Sarah Walters is kind of hateful. She appears to be willfully unhappy, moving through a series of relationships and trying her hardest to ruin every one. She is either pining after cruel, dismissive guys that are obviously terrible from the moment she meets them, leaving the reader wondering what the allure is, or dating good, reliable men and sulking about it for no clear reason. She is the epitome of that person everyone knows who keeps insisting they have terrible luck and just can't catch a break, while making profoundly awful decisions that are designed to keep them miserable. You don't get to ruin every good relationship in your life out of boredom or ennui and then complain about being alone. That is not sympathetic.
I stayed with this book, in part due to the good writing, and in part hoping for some kind of redemption, a narrative arc that would take the spoiled, selfish, mean-spirited protagonist to a place where she could find or offer love. There wasn't really any such arc. We witness twenty or thirty years of this woman's life and she ends up the same as she began: flighty and morose, prone to run from anything good and complain about the bad hand the universe dealt her.
Much like Rainbow Rowell's "Eleanor and Park", I feel like this is a great novel somewhat ruined by a hateful main character that deserves everything she gets. You have got to have some redeeming qualities, man. Even Walter White sometimes did the right thing.
The book: well-written, with a light but poetic touch. Very engaging, drew me in right away and kept me wanting to finish. The chapters are broken up in an interesting way, almost post-modern: each chapter has a different style, and you might finish one that is written in third person, in large blocky paragraphs, only to start the next one and find yourself in first-person, broken up into bite-sized snippets of text. One short chapter (by far the most intriguing) seems to be written in second-person, future tense, from the point of view of a dead woman. Describing the layout like this makes this book sound really avant-garde but it's not, at all - the story is pure young-Southern-woman-coming-of-age and not very out-there at all. Very interesting authorial decision to structure this in such a unique way just to tell a fairly plain story.
The character: Sarah Walters is kind of hateful. She appears to be willfully unhappy, moving through a series of relationships and trying her hardest to ruin every one. She is either pining after cruel, dismissive guys that are obviously terrible from the moment she meets them, leaving the reader wondering what the allure is, or dating good, reliable men and sulking about it for no clear reason. She is the epitome of that person everyone knows who keeps insisting they have terrible luck and just can't catch a break, while making profoundly awful decisions that are designed to keep them miserable. You don't get to ruin every good relationship in your life out of boredom or ennui and then complain about being alone. That is not sympathetic.
I stayed with this book, in part due to the good writing, and in part hoping for some kind of redemption, a narrative arc that would take the spoiled, selfish, mean-spirited protagonist to a place where she could find or offer love. There wasn't really any such arc. We witness twenty or thirty years of this woman's life and she ends up the same as she began: flighty and morose, prone to run from anything good and complain about the bad hand the universe dealt her.
Much like Rainbow Rowell's "Eleanor and Park", I feel like this is a great novel somewhat ruined by a hateful main character that deserves everything she gets. You have got to have some redeeming qualities, man. Even Walter White sometimes did the right thing.
awhite's review against another edition
4.0
Surprised by the large number of negative reviews. Like many, I too was intrigued by the cover alone. Then I got wrapped up in the story. I loved the different point of views displayed throughout the book, and the dynamics between the different characters. Fast read, not your typical "chick lit" (in a good way).
jkkb332's review against another edition
1.0
The main character wasn't even remotely likable. Neither were any of the other characters, for that matter. Why read a book with nobody to root for? Maybe an incredible story or fantastic writing...I don't know. Girls in Trucks didn't even have those things.
The biggest offense, though, was that the majority of the book was in first person, but it randomly switched to third person for about four chapters in the middle of the book. Pardon my language but WTF! It was confusing and completely pointless.
Don't bother with this mess.
The biggest offense, though, was that the majority of the book was in first person, but it randomly switched to third person for about four chapters in the middle of the book. Pardon my language but WTF! It was confusing and completely pointless.
Don't bother with this mess.