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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
This book was everything that I wanted Bright Young Things to be. I found it to be much more exciting and the characters more engaging. I look forward to #2!
Somewhere in the back of my head, while reading Vixen, I learned that I'm glad I wasn't born a girl. And it's not for the patriarchal reasons that most men might come up with, but because when it comes to cruelty, you girls take the cake. Boys will physically bully the weaker one, but girls destroy you socially, emotionally, mentally - which is far worse than the bruise on your forearm.
Jillian Larkin created a world - set in the 1920s, the flapper generation (not to mention the age of the Lost Generation where expatriates roamed around other countries, each writing great novels) - that sucks you right in and leads you down the path of three lives of three rather stunning girls.
There's Gloria, a top-notch socialite whose engagement to Sebastian "Bastian" Grey only means a life of boredom for her. In a last attempt of adventure, Gloria sets off with friend Marcus Eastman to the most notorious speakeasy in Chicago - the Green Mill. There, Gloria is lured into the world of the flapper. She's seduced by their allure and their brash lifestyle. The singer on the stage sparks her most wildest dream of singing in front of a live crowd - a dream that would never be realized as long as she is engaged to marry Bastian. Most of all, she feels a sudden magnetic attraction to the piano player and jazz musician, Jerome Johnson.
Then there's Clara, Gloria's cousin from Pennsylvania, who arrives to Chicago under the assumption to help Gloria with her wedding. Truth is, Clara's running away from the life she led in New York. She plots to use Chicago as a fresh start. There she is drawn into her cousin's secrets and her inner circle. Most of all, she is drawn to Marcus Eastman. However, strange notes start arriving - first mysteriously left in her room - and a ghost from her past resurfaces. Clara is faced with her secret life unraveling while keeping up her act.
And finally, there's Lorraine, Gloria's closet friend. As she realizes those in her world are slowly drifting in several directions, she begins to scheme how to get them back. However, the more she schemes against her best friend and Clara, the deeper she digs her grave.
Jillian Larkin breathes a unique life into each of her characters, never afraid to turn the tables at a whim. Vixen is probably the best young adult novel I've read this year (that's not saying a lot considering it's the first I've read this year). Best of all, it lacks what is taken too seriously these days - you won't find cell phones, wizards or vampires in this novel. Instead, you get the sheer glamor of a lifestyle your grandparents probably enjoyed or were against. You are dropped into a world where communication between friends isn't as easy as signing onto an instant messenger or picking up your cellphone to text. No, Larkin picked the 1920s because things were difficult back than, while at the same time being much simpler. She created a love story we wouldn't think twice about these days but would have caused an uproar in scandal back then. She created a world in which girls still scheme against each other, but they did it in fashion - no joke, I really do like the 1920s which acts as the sole reason for my interest in the novel. I surely can't wait until Ingenue hits bookshelves in August of this year.
Jillian Larkin created a world - set in the 1920s, the flapper generation (not to mention the age of the Lost Generation where expatriates roamed around other countries, each writing great novels) - that sucks you right in and leads you down the path of three lives of three rather stunning girls.
There's Gloria, a top-notch socialite whose engagement to Sebastian "Bastian" Grey only means a life of boredom for her. In a last attempt of adventure, Gloria sets off with friend Marcus Eastman to the most notorious speakeasy in Chicago - the Green Mill. There, Gloria is lured into the world of the flapper. She's seduced by their allure and their brash lifestyle. The singer on the stage sparks her most wildest dream of singing in front of a live crowd - a dream that would never be realized as long as she is engaged to marry Bastian. Most of all, she feels a sudden magnetic attraction to the piano player and jazz musician, Jerome Johnson.
Then there's Clara, Gloria's cousin from Pennsylvania, who arrives to Chicago under the assumption to help Gloria with her wedding. Truth is, Clara's running away from the life she led in New York. She plots to use Chicago as a fresh start. There she is drawn into her cousin's secrets and her inner circle. Most of all, she is drawn to Marcus Eastman. However, strange notes start arriving - first mysteriously left in her room - and a ghost from her past resurfaces. Clara is faced with her secret life unraveling while keeping up her act.
And finally, there's Lorraine, Gloria's closet friend. As she realizes those in her world are slowly drifting in several directions, she begins to scheme how to get them back. However, the more she schemes against her best friend and Clara, the deeper she digs her grave.
Jillian Larkin breathes a unique life into each of her characters, never afraid to turn the tables at a whim. Vixen is probably the best young adult novel I've read this year (that's not saying a lot considering it's the first I've read this year). Best of all, it lacks what is taken too seriously these days - you won't find cell phones, wizards or vampires in this novel. Instead, you get the sheer glamor of a lifestyle your grandparents probably enjoyed or were against. You are dropped into a world where communication between friends isn't as easy as signing onto an instant messenger or picking up your cellphone to text. No, Larkin picked the 1920s because things were difficult back than, while at the same time being much simpler. She created a love story we wouldn't think twice about these days but would have caused an uproar in scandal back then. She created a world in which girls still scheme against each other, but they did it in fashion - no joke, I really do like the 1920s which acts as the sole reason for my interest in the novel. I surely can't wait until Ingenue hits bookshelves in August of this year.
I realize this is flapper dessert to indulge in, but I had too many others to read and had to put it down for now. It just was not that well written and kind of silly. I will revisit later due to reviews and my lack of patience.
I was a tad skeptical about this book, I thought it would be too much like Bright Young Things, but I had nothing to worry about. This book was glorious. (You'll get it once you've read it) No really, it was like 400 pages of pure bliss and excitement. It was jam packed with a thrilling story that will have you hooked from start to end.
The plot was like nothing I have read before. And although I read it in two days I felt like I had been reading it for a week because so much happened in such a limited amount of pages and I felt like I had been there in the book for the whole time that it played in my head because it was just so vivid. The story line was definitely thought about a lot and a lot of research must have been put into this novel and it didn't disappoint. That's what's good about Larkin. She hasn't gone halfway with the research, she's gone all out and written the book to perfection.
The prose was gorgeous. The writing was smoulderingly good and the essence and description of it really sent you to the musky world of flappers and exposed the true 1920's to my mind. The writing is so good, good being the climax of every other word variant of it. I don't like to use good and I set it aside for when a string of words can not describe how good something is and then I use good. Because then that means it is the best. And this novel really was the best. The writing was powerful and strong, drawing you in from the beginning and keeping you there, leeching of every word, leaving at the end wanting more.
The characters were so perfect for the book and it just had some many twists and turns, underlying layers of characters getting exposed as the book progresses. I mean trust me, there are some dramatic surprises in this novel. But what I like about the novel was that for every character there was an opposite, which kept the book nice and balanced. The character formed well in you mind and you felt very close to them. Lorraine is my favourite character. She was strong and shrewd but living in Gloria's shadow and i just felt so overwhelmed when she started to want take Gloria's perfection away from her. I couldn't help but imagine her as the Lady Gaga of the 1920's.
Overall I adored this novel with a passion! It was fantastic, beautifully written novel, full of twist turns and smouldering story just eating to be told.
The plot was like nothing I have read before. And although I read it in two days I felt like I had been reading it for a week because so much happened in such a limited amount of pages and I felt like I had been there in the book for the whole time that it played in my head because it was just so vivid. The story line was definitely thought about a lot and a lot of research must have been put into this novel and it didn't disappoint. That's what's good about Larkin. She hasn't gone halfway with the research, she's gone all out and written the book to perfection.
The prose was gorgeous. The writing was smoulderingly good and the essence and description of it really sent you to the musky world of flappers and exposed the true 1920's to my mind. The writing is so good, good being the climax of every other word variant of it. I don't like to use good and I set it aside for when a string of words can not describe how good something is and then I use good. Because then that means it is the best. And this novel really was the best. The writing was powerful and strong, drawing you in from the beginning and keeping you there, leeching of every word, leaving at the end wanting more.
The characters were so perfect for the book and it just had some many twists and turns, underlying layers of characters getting exposed as the book progresses. I mean trust me, there are some dramatic surprises in this novel. But what I like about the novel was that for every character there was an opposite, which kept the book nice and balanced. The character formed well in you mind and you felt very close to them. Lorraine is my favourite character. She was strong and shrewd but living in Gloria's shadow and i just felt so overwhelmed when she started to want take Gloria's perfection away from her. I couldn't help but imagine her as the Lady Gaga of the 1920's.
Overall I adored this novel with a passion! It was fantastic, beautifully written novel, full of twist turns and smouldering story just eating to be told.
As other reviews have said, this book reads like Gossip Girl, but set in the 1920s. (I'll have to trust to the analogy as I've never seen an episode of GG, but, from what I know of it, it seems an apt description.)
And while such high school type drama amongst bratty socialites isn't something I normally read, it still could've been enjoyable had the characters not been such 1-dimensional, cardboard cutouts. And being likeable would've been nice.
I just never clicked with them. Maybe it's because of the lack of dimension, or the 'eyes meeting from across the floor insta-love' things, or the pettiness, or the actions which sort of came out of nowhere whose motivations were never fully explained, or the utter predictability of most of it.
I don't know what I expected when I picked up this book. I was dazzled by the prospect of it - a story set in an era I'm somewhat enamoured with, and from the perspective of flappers, for a chance, instead of the usual gangster stories! So much potential.
And there are some interesting bits - underage drinking (which was sort of rampant in the book and, ya know, you expect it in a book of this era and about flappers, but these girls were, like, never without a drink), sex, racism - but I feel even those things were given only superficial treatments.
All-in-all, this book could've been so much more than it was.
2-stars instead of 1 because it was a fast read, and it wasn't all bad. I mean, it painted a decent portrait of the era, even if I'm not certain about all the details presented in it.
(And there was one line, in particular, which bugged me... about absinthe. The character referring to it calls it the Green Fairy, but then thinks to herself she doesn't know why it's called the green fairy when it tastes like black licorice, and I sorted wanted to hit her upside the back of the head and go "because it's green, you twit!")
I doubt I'll be continuing the series because it requires a level of caring about the characters that I just don't have, since the book is all about their interpersonal dramas much more than about the time period or the movement. (Also, the blurbs for the future books in the series are spoilerific, so don't read them ahead of where you are if you do plan on going through the series.)
And while such high school type drama amongst bratty socialites isn't something I normally read, it still could've been enjoyable had the characters not been such 1-dimensional, cardboard cutouts. And being likeable would've been nice.
I just never clicked with them. Maybe it's because of the lack of dimension, or the 'eyes meeting from across the floor insta-love' things, or the pettiness, or the actions which sort of came out of nowhere whose motivations were never fully explained, or the utter predictability of most of it.
I don't know what I expected when I picked up this book. I was dazzled by the prospect of it - a story set in an era I'm somewhat enamoured with, and from the perspective of flappers, for a chance, instead of the usual gangster stories! So much potential.
And there are some interesting bits - underage drinking (which was sort of rampant in the book and, ya know, you expect it in a book of this era and about flappers, but these girls were, like, never without a drink), sex, racism - but I feel even those things were given only superficial treatments.
All-in-all, this book could've been so much more than it was.
2-stars instead of 1 because it was a fast read, and it wasn't all bad. I mean, it painted a decent portrait of the era, even if I'm not certain about all the details presented in it.
(And there was one line, in particular, which bugged me... about absinthe. The character referring to it calls it the Green Fairy, but then thinks to herself she doesn't know why it's called the green fairy when it tastes like black licorice, and I sorted wanted to hit her upside the back of the head and go "because it's green, you twit!")
I doubt I'll be continuing the series because it requires a level of caring about the characters that I just don't have, since the book is all about their interpersonal dramas much more than about the time period or the movement. (Also, the blurbs for the future books in the series are spoilerific, so don't read them ahead of where you are if you do plan on going through the series.)
Rating this for real will require some thought. Back later. Not sure about the 3 star business.
I actually enjoyed the story and (somewhat to my surprise) the characters. But I am a big fan of period-piece books that can actually make me feel like I am seeing a real glimpse into the era in which they are set, and Vixen just didn't do it for me. It read far too contemporary for my liking, with bits and bobs of 1920s "jargon" tossed into the dialogue-- not at all what I was expecting or looking for. Books like the Luxe series, by comparison, are much better representations of their time periods.
I don't read much historical fiction, but after reading Vixen, I've realized that I really need to reconsider and add more of this genre to my TBR.
Just as the cover implies, Vixen is a sultry novel, and I'm really surprised by how much I liked it. I could scarcely put it down, and the only reason I did was because my sister was visiting from out of town and got in my face more times than I care to remember. LOL
Based on some meandering impressions I've collected from various mediums, it seems to me that the high society lifestyle of the early 1920's was highly coveted yet rarely something to feel fortunate about or even enjoy. Was it really such an imposition to have everything handed to you on a silver platter?
Gloria Carmody seems to think so. Forget engagement parties, Gloria would rather sneak off to find her thrills in the sinfully exotic underground world of speakeasies, where jazz music and drinking are more than forbidden delights. Her polite manners, perfect grades and pristine beauty may have landed her a handsome if not boring suitor, but what Gloria really longs for is the uninhibited lifestyle of a flapper, which would allow her to purse a career as a singer and a lover like Jerome Johnson. But she couldn't possibly dare to dream such a thing, right? Because not only is Jerome poor, he is also black.
Along for the rebellious ride from all that is proper to all that is dangerously delicious was Gloria's best friend, Lorraine and her cousin Clara, who couldn't have been more opposite from one another. Poor Lorraine. She has to be the most pathetic character I have ever come across. Her desperation reeked through the pages, and her tiresome antics firmly put her at the bottom of the barrel for me.
Clara, I did like. She was very guarded because of her painful past, but she paid the price for it. Once she embraced braver and bolder attitude, she really glowed and turned out the be my favorite character. Gloria has potential to be someone I could like, but not in this novel. She was a bit too selfish and reckless, leaving me to believe she was nothing more than a spoiled brat, but hopefully she will redeem herself.
I'm not sure any of the male characters added anything really intriguing to the storyline, aside from the trouble they caused by doing what was expected (i.e. cue menacing gangster). They were all kind of bland, but maybe that was done on purpose. I really didn't find myself falling in love with the ones that were supposed to be swoon worthy, but I did feel hopeful about the romances that Clara and Gloria got swept away in.
The story was more about the girls finding their own way, and I really enjoyed the three narrators POV shifts. As it usually does, it helped move the story along and added some much needed mystery to a somewhat predictable plot.
Vixen was a fun, fast read, and I really adored the lingo used. It made me smile every time. Who wouldn't love being called Dollface or hotsy-totsy? And I gotta give Larkin major props for not going down the dark and evil cliffhanger alley. It would have been majorly cliche for the story to end with a who done it vibe, but thankfully that didn't happen, though there is definitely more to come. Ingenue (Flappers, #2) will be released in August, and I'm looking forward to following the girls on their next adventure.
http://www.theunreadreader.com/2011/02/review-vixen-by-jillian-larkin.html
Just as the cover implies, Vixen is a sultry novel, and I'm really surprised by how much I liked it. I could scarcely put it down, and the only reason I did was because my sister was visiting from out of town and got in my face more times than I care to remember. LOL
Based on some meandering impressions I've collected from various mediums, it seems to me that the high society lifestyle of the early 1920's was highly coveted yet rarely something to feel fortunate about or even enjoy. Was it really such an imposition to have everything handed to you on a silver platter?
Gloria Carmody seems to think so. Forget engagement parties, Gloria would rather sneak off to find her thrills in the sinfully exotic underground world of speakeasies, where jazz music and drinking are more than forbidden delights. Her polite manners, perfect grades and pristine beauty may have landed her a handsome if not boring suitor, but what Gloria really longs for is the uninhibited lifestyle of a flapper, which would allow her to purse a career as a singer and a lover like Jerome Johnson. But she couldn't possibly dare to dream such a thing, right? Because not only is Jerome poor, he is also black.
Along for the rebellious ride from all that is proper to all that is dangerously delicious was Gloria's best friend, Lorraine and her cousin Clara, who couldn't have been more opposite from one another. Poor Lorraine. She has to be the most pathetic character I have ever come across. Her desperation reeked through the pages, and her tiresome antics firmly put her at the bottom of the barrel for me.
Clara, I did like. She was very guarded because of her painful past, but she paid the price for it. Once she embraced braver and bolder attitude, she really glowed and turned out the be my favorite character. Gloria has potential to be someone I could like, but not in this novel. She was a bit too selfish and reckless, leaving me to believe she was nothing more than a spoiled brat, but hopefully she will redeem herself.
I'm not sure any of the male characters added anything really intriguing to the storyline, aside from the trouble they caused by doing what was expected (i.e. cue menacing gangster). They were all kind of bland, but maybe that was done on purpose. I really didn't find myself falling in love with the ones that were supposed to be swoon worthy, but I did feel hopeful about the romances that Clara and Gloria got swept away in.
The story was more about the girls finding their own way, and I really enjoyed the three narrators POV shifts. As it usually does, it helped move the story along and added some much needed mystery to a somewhat predictable plot.
Vixen was a fun, fast read, and I really adored the lingo used. It made me smile every time. Who wouldn't love being called Dollface or hotsy-totsy? And I gotta give Larkin major props for not going down the dark and evil cliffhanger alley. It would have been majorly cliche for the story to end with a who done it vibe, but thankfully that didn't happen, though there is definitely more to come. Ingenue (Flappers, #2) will be released in August, and I'm looking forward to following the girls on their next adventure.
http://www.theunreadreader.com/2011/02/review-vixen-by-jillian-larkin.html
Part 2 was definitely better than part 1, but overall, I do not recommend this book. Writing isn't very good, characters aren't believable, and the plot isn't anything that hasn't been done before. However, I can see why someone would like it, as long as they don't think too hard about it.
Long version ahead.
Writing:
The biggest problem is that the author doesn't trust her readers, which makes the writing seem very childish. She tells every thought or feeling instead of showing them. A character will say a line of dialogue, and immediately the narration explains their intentions. The worst example I can think of comes from page 27:
"I'm only a year older than Gloria."
"And yet, interestingly enough, she's the one getting married," her aunt replied. It was a barb intended to sting, Clara was sure of that.
Another big problem was the overuse of punctuation. About 1/4 of the sentences were rhetorical questions, on any given page you could find about three em dashes, and there were more colons in this book than I think I have ever seen in my life. And all of these things were used to create cheap tension. Speaking of cheap tension, the prologue is pointless. In fact, it's so pointless that it's actually repeated word for word later in the book. It's just there to "hook" the reader and it serves no purpose story-wise. Sometimes showing a really climactic scene at the beginning and then going back works and it's really interesting. Sometimes it doesn't. This is one of the latter cases.
Also, there were quite a few typos in this book. I don't know if it's just my copy or what, but that was seriously disheartening and made me question whether it was edited before printed.
Page 179: Sebastian's golf clubs were in the corner, next to a framed oar and his Harvard diploma She stopped by the mantel and picked up a photo.
Page 386: Clara tugged at a strand of Clara's hair.
There are more, but these two were just the most glaringly obvious. Also, at one point in the story, she launches into how prohibition came around, but the information she gives is straight up wrong.
Despite all of this, her descriptions of places and people were actually pretty good. She set the ambiance well and used descriptions that were short enough that they didn't slow the pace but vivid enough that you could still see the room. You knew exactly what people looked like and what they were wearing (it sometimes got repetitive, but I didn't mind all that much so I'm counting it as a win). Some of her similes were very specific & offered some cool characterization, such as Her aunt selected her words as if they were bonbons on a silver platter (pg. 30) and His voice was raspy and deep, as if he gargled with broken glass (pg. 235).
(By the way, that second example is said about Thor the midget gangster. If there is any reason to read this book, it's for him, even though he only shows up in like 5 pages out of 421).
Characters:
Everyone fits perfectly into a trope. We have the good-girl-gone-bad, the bad-girl-gone-good, the secretly-evil-best-friend, the ~forbidden~love-interest, the playboy-with-a-heart-of-gold, and the evil-dude-who-wants-the-protagonist. It's not bad that these characters are the physical embodiment of these tropes, but it's not delivered in an interesting or nuanced way.
Of the three main characters, Clara was definitely the most interesting, and I think hat has a lot to do with motivation. Hers was the most clear (wanting to escape her past), so it was easier to root for her. She grew as a character by becoming more trusting and kinder. Honestly, she was my favorite, mainly because she acted with at least a little bit of self-awareness.
Gloria was a little all over the place, motivations-wise. At first, I couldn't figure out what it was that she wanted, which made her act like a passive character. One her motivations cleared up, she did start acting with conviction, but it never made sense with her background. She grew up as a rich girl in the 1920's who had never done anything bad in her life (seriously, her friends had to force her to get a haircut). Then, all of a sudden, she was breaking rules left and right without a second thought. On top of that she never really had to work for anything and never grew as a character. She was spoiled and selfish in the beginning, and she was spoiled and selfish by the end.
Lorraine never had a motivation. I never found out what she wanted. She said she wanted to be with Marcus, but besides show off at the Green Mill, she never did anything to try and get with him. She said she wanted to be best friends with Gloria, but she spent every other minute acting jealous of her or straight up hating her. Speaking of... One of my biggest pet peeves is when every girl in a novel hate each other for absolutely no reason, and this book followed that trope like it was the bible. Even these supposed "best friends" couldn't stop ragging on each other. The second Clara arrives, Gloria and Lorraine are scheming to get rid of her. Every female side character is a complete bitch or a complete airhead, and they're all despised by the main characters. However, I was surprised by part 2 of the novel, in which Clara & Gloria and Clara & Aunt Bea actually start to like each other, and there were even semi-justifiable reasons for this happening! I was floored. Astounded. Excited. It was truly a miracle.
The men were honestly kind of forgettable. Like they each had a trope that they generally fit into, but other than that, they just became whatever the plot needed them to be. I never got a sense that they were their own people. The same holds true for the other side characters, too.
The relationship between Jerome and Gloria seemed unnatural. First off, it's insta-love. Gloria sees him playing the piano, and bam! She's in love. No matter how "rude" he was to her, it was presented as an obstacle for Gloria to get past. Second, I never understood Jerome's motivations or why he fell in love with her. He flirts and dances with her, then all of a sudden he's telling her to get lost (which I completely supported, she was such a brat & he deserves better). They're forced to work together, which he is not too keen about. Then like a week later they're professing they're love for each other. What? When? How? Did some development happen off-screen that we never got to see? Third, there's no way Gloria, growing up so white, entitled, and around all those conservative people, would not be racist, especially if she's never met a black person in her life, a fact that can be easily assumed by her social life. And there was one paragraph on page 101 that creeped me out about the way Gloria saw Jerome:
...and have a good laugh about this insolent, low-class, ill-mannered—
She realized she was thinking like her mother. That alone made her want to kiss [Jerome], right then and there, to prove she was different.
Keep in mind that at this point in the book, she was in the middle of her first conversation with Jerome. They address racism too, saying that's it's unfair and all that, but they never address Gloria's racism. Nothing Gloria does feels believable when you consider her background.
I was hoping that when Clara swore off men in her very first chapter, she would stick to it, and then there would be something unique in all this. But no, she falls in love with Marcus. Their relationship is a little rushed, but I can blame that on how relationships worked in the 1920's because honestly, their scenes were kind of cute. Marcus is a little bland, but at least his motivations and actions were clear, unlike Jerome's.
I don't even know what was going on with Bastian. At first I was rooting for him; he seemed like a pretty normal guy and not the complete demon Gloria made him out to be. But I should have known better that to disagree with the main character about something. He's literally just evil for the sake of being evil and I don't understand.
Vera. She was literally the most interesting character in the book, and she's in like 3 scenes. It's just not fair. It's also not fair that Gloria hates her for no reason. Like, Vera literally complimented Gloria, and Gloria was like, "it's clear that she hates me." That was the most confusing. I guess I'm just salty that Vera was not a main character despite being the coolest person in the book.
Plot:
Some pretty standard, teen drama plot points. I swear, some scenes were so cliched that I could've sworn I had seen them somewhere else. The first half of the book is pretty stereotypical, but by the time part 2 comes around, it actually picks up. It even threw in some twists that I was not expecting, which was nice. Part 2 doesn't make up for part 1, but it does alleviate the headache that I got from reading it.
Long version ahead.
Spoiler
Writing:
The biggest problem is that the author doesn't trust her readers, which makes the writing seem very childish. She tells every thought or feeling instead of showing them. A character will say a line of dialogue, and immediately the narration explains their intentions. The worst example I can think of comes from page 27:
"I'm only a year older than Gloria."
"And yet, interestingly enough, she's the one getting married," her aunt replied. It was a barb intended to sting, Clara was sure of that.
Another big problem was the overuse of punctuation. About 1/4 of the sentences were rhetorical questions, on any given page you could find about three em dashes, and there were more colons in this book than I think I have ever seen in my life. And all of these things were used to create cheap tension. Speaking of cheap tension, the prologue is pointless. In fact, it's so pointless that it's actually repeated word for word later in the book. It's just there to "hook" the reader and it serves no purpose story-wise. Sometimes showing a really climactic scene at the beginning and then going back works and it's really interesting. Sometimes it doesn't. This is one of the latter cases.
Also, there were quite a few typos in this book. I don't know if it's just my copy or what, but that was seriously disheartening and made me question whether it was edited before printed.
Page 179: Sebastian's golf clubs were in the corner, next to a framed oar and his Harvard diploma She stopped by the mantel and picked up a photo.
Page 386: Clara tugged at a strand of Clara's hair.
There are more, but these two were just the most glaringly obvious. Also, at one point in the story, she launches into how prohibition came around, but the information she gives is straight up wrong.
Despite all of this, her descriptions of places and people were actually pretty good. She set the ambiance well and used descriptions that were short enough that they didn't slow the pace but vivid enough that you could still see the room. You knew exactly what people looked like and what they were wearing (it sometimes got repetitive, but I didn't mind all that much so I'm counting it as a win). Some of her similes were very specific & offered some cool characterization, such as Her aunt selected her words as if they were bonbons on a silver platter (pg. 30) and His voice was raspy and deep, as if he gargled with broken glass (pg. 235).
(By the way, that second example is said about Thor the midget gangster. If there is any reason to read this book, it's for him, even though he only shows up in like 5 pages out of 421).
Characters:
Everyone fits perfectly into a trope. We have the good-girl-gone-bad, the bad-girl-gone-good, the secretly-evil-best-friend, the ~forbidden~love-interest, the playboy-with-a-heart-of-gold, and the evil-dude-who-wants-the-protagonist. It's not bad that these characters are the physical embodiment of these tropes, but it's not delivered in an interesting or nuanced way.
Of the three main characters, Clara was definitely the most interesting, and I think hat has a lot to do with motivation. Hers was the most clear (wanting to escape her past), so it was easier to root for her. She grew as a character by becoming more trusting and kinder. Honestly, she was my favorite, mainly because she acted with at least a little bit of self-awareness.
Gloria was a little all over the place, motivations-wise. At first, I couldn't figure out what it was that she wanted, which made her act like a passive character. One her motivations cleared up, she did start acting with conviction, but it never made sense with her background. She grew up as a rich girl in the 1920's who had never done anything bad in her life (seriously, her friends had to force her to get a haircut). Then, all of a sudden, she was breaking rules left and right without a second thought. On top of that she never really had to work for anything and never grew as a character. She was spoiled and selfish in the beginning, and she was spoiled and selfish by the end.
Lorraine never had a motivation. I never found out what she wanted. She said she wanted to be with Marcus, but besides show off at the Green Mill, she never did anything to try and get with him. She said she wanted to be best friends with Gloria, but she spent every other minute acting jealous of her or straight up hating her. Speaking of... One of my biggest pet peeves is when every girl in a novel hate each other for absolutely no reason, and this book followed that trope like it was the bible. Even these supposed "best friends" couldn't stop ragging on each other. The second Clara arrives, Gloria and Lorraine are scheming to get rid of her. Every female side character is a complete bitch or a complete airhead, and they're all despised by the main characters. However, I was surprised by part 2 of the novel, in which Clara & Gloria and Clara & Aunt Bea actually start to like each other, and there were even semi-justifiable reasons for this happening! I was floored. Astounded. Excited. It was truly a miracle.
The men were honestly kind of forgettable. Like they each had a trope that they generally fit into, but other than that, they just became whatever the plot needed them to be. I never got a sense that they were their own people. The same holds true for the other side characters, too.
The relationship between Jerome and Gloria seemed unnatural. First off, it's insta-love. Gloria sees him playing the piano, and bam! She's in love. No matter how "rude" he was to her, it was presented as an obstacle for Gloria to get past. Second, I never understood Jerome's motivations or why he fell in love with her. He flirts and dances with her, then all of a sudden he's telling her to get lost (which I completely supported, she was such a brat & he deserves better). They're forced to work together, which he is not too keen about. Then like a week later they're professing they're love for each other. What? When? How? Did some development happen off-screen that we never got to see? Third, there's no way Gloria, growing up so white, entitled, and around all those conservative people, would not be racist, especially if she's never met a black person in her life, a fact that can be easily assumed by her social life. And there was one paragraph on page 101 that creeped me out about the way Gloria saw Jerome:
...and have a good laugh about this insolent, low-class, ill-mannered—
She realized she was thinking like her mother. That alone made her want to kiss [Jerome], right then and there, to prove she was different.
Keep in mind that at this point in the book, she was in the middle of her first conversation with Jerome. They address racism too, saying that's it's unfair and all that, but they never address Gloria's racism. Nothing Gloria does feels believable when you consider her background.
I was hoping that when Clara swore off men in her very first chapter, she would stick to it, and then there would be something unique in all this. But no, she falls in love with Marcus. Their relationship is a little rushed, but I can blame that on how relationships worked in the 1920's because honestly, their scenes were kind of cute. Marcus is a little bland, but at least his motivations and actions were clear, unlike Jerome's.
I don't even know what was going on with Bastian. At first I was rooting for him; he seemed like a pretty normal guy and not the complete demon Gloria made him out to be. But I should have known better that to disagree with the main character about something. He's literally just evil for the sake of being evil and I don't understand.
Vera. She was literally the most interesting character in the book, and she's in like 3 scenes. It's just not fair. It's also not fair that Gloria hates her for no reason. Like, Vera literally complimented Gloria, and Gloria was like, "it's clear that she hates me." That was the most confusing. I guess I'm just salty that Vera was not a main character despite being the coolest person in the book.
Plot:
Some pretty standard, teen drama plot points. I swear, some scenes were so cliched that I could've sworn I had seen them somewhere else. The first half of the book is pretty stereotypical, but by the time part 2 comes around, it actually picks up. It even threw in some twists that I was not expecting, which was nice. Part 2 doesn't make up for part 1, but it does alleviate the headache that I got from reading it.
If i could put ten stars i would... This book was AWESOME!!!!! I thought it would be a bit like "The Luxe" series by Anna Godberson but it was honestly 100x better!!!!!!! It was such a good read!!!! I couldn't put it down. I saw the second book on sale and i immediately bought it and i am so excited to read it!!!!