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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
As a millennial, it helped to see a book written from this perspective. Enjoyable, fun read.
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
This is a fun and quick read with a satisfying ending, if a bit contrived.
I'm not sure the big bad boss that's obsessed with herself would actually take the time to terrorize a ten year old, but the author needed something that would make Imogen snap.
Imogen was almost too perfect and nice for being in the fashion industry in NYC.
All the name dropping and label dropping.
Eve was a caricature--the only explanation was that she was a sociopath and the background is that her dad wanted a son. She's supposed to be really smart, but not smart enough to learn to hide her true-nature?
But I did love how the authors examined the obsession with social media, the constant need for newer and better, quantity over quality and how on-line life takes over real life. And they also explored the tension between the younger persons growing up in this social media saturated world and the ones who have been around longer and having to adapt. There are ways these two generations can grow together and teach each other, or how pride/drive for power on both sides can cause stagnation and strife.
Overall, perfect read for me this week.
Favorite quote:
"Have we all become so desperate to share everything that we've stopped enjoying our lives?"
I'm not sure the big bad boss that's obsessed with herself would actually take the time to terrorize a ten year old, but the author needed something that would make Imogen snap.
Imogen was almost too perfect and nice for being in the fashion industry in NYC.
All the name dropping and label dropping.
Eve was a caricature--the only explanation was that she was a sociopath and the background is that her dad wanted a son. She's supposed to be really smart, but not smart enough to learn to hide her true-nature?
But I did love how the authors examined the obsession with social media, the constant need for newer and better, quantity over quality and how on-line life takes over real life. And they also explored the tension between the younger persons growing up in this social media saturated world and the ones who have been around longer and having to adapt. There are ways these two generations can grow together and teach each other, or how pride/drive for power on both sides can cause stagnation and strife.
Overall, perfect read for me this week.
Favorite quote:
"Have we all become so desperate to share everything that we've stopped enjoying our lives?"
I absolutely loved this book. It was the kind of book that when I finished I wanted to read more. The story drives forward and kept me interested the entire time. I found the main character relate-able even though I'm the closer to the age of her colleagues in the book. The characters are engaging and I just couldn't put this book down! I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes fashion particularly if you liked The Devil Wears Prada books.
I can't wait to read more by Lucy Sykes!
I received this book as part of Birchbox's Book Club, however all opinions are 100% my own.
I can't wait to read more by Lucy Sykes!
I received this book as part of Birchbox's Book Club, however all opinions are 100% my own.
The Devil Wears Prada 2.0. Enjoyed it and will check out her other books!
Really enjoyed this. Excellent escapism. I wasn't sure about the narrator when I sampled it on Audible, but she was great.
Well I'll be darned! Yeah, it's a deeply flawed book just two notches above trash, but dang if I didn't get hooked by the gloriously entertaining trash. The book doesn't even bother to hide that this is definitely a modern retelling of All About Eve, with a little bit of Twitter and The Devil Wears Prada. The plot is executed smartly, and Imogen Tate ends up becoming enthralling and endearing, so I'm kinda bummed at how the beginning is achingly bad (it's almost as if this had more than one author. Huh!).
That first hour or so of reading is rough. Maybe I'm just not that into the fashion world, but Imogen comes off initially as a clueless, snooty moron ("WHAT'S VENMO?!" thinks the forty year old in New York City, unable to use context clues). It also doesn't help that it starts off with some good old millennial bashing, buncha grown infants living with their parents (it gets better by the end, sort of. Still a little patronizing, but whatever). There are WAY too many characters and the book is frankly about 100-150 pages longer than it had to be.
BUT, once the gears get going, it's a romp. When the book leans hard into Eve Morton's psycho fascist personality, it creates some gloriously nutty scenes. Yeah, the book kinda dates itself by being super contemporary ("Even Donald Trump couldn't have gotten away with what Eve did," the 2015 book laughingly posits. If only you knew, Imogen!), but it also helps the whole theme -- Eve is an airhead techie so focused on the now and Imogen is flustered by the disappearing past.
The end is...ehhh. Without spoiling things, Eve Morton's secret plot against Imogen seems so...petty and weird. It's clear she wants to replace Imogen, but how she goes about it is psychotically infantile and borders on the illegal --and worst, is kinda swept under the rug. But to the book's credit, it lays out in the beginning what it's all about: guilty pleasure reading of an intense catfight just waiting to happen.
Maybe what really made me like this is Katherine Kellgren's excellent audiobook narration. What a great performance! Sure, she only has like two male voices (dirty old businessman and sexy man), but she sells the crap out of this book and helps guide the reader past the book's bad parts.
That first hour or so of reading is rough. Maybe I'm just not that into the fashion world, but Imogen comes off initially as a clueless, snooty moron ("WHAT'S VENMO?!" thinks the forty year old in New York City, unable to use context clues). It also doesn't help that it starts off with some good old millennial bashing, buncha grown infants living with their parents (it gets better by the end, sort of. Still a little patronizing, but whatever). There are WAY too many characters and the book is frankly about 100-150 pages longer than it had to be.
BUT, once the gears get going, it's a romp. When the book leans hard into Eve Morton's psycho fascist personality, it creates some gloriously nutty scenes. Yeah, the book kinda dates itself by being super contemporary ("Even Donald Trump couldn't have gotten away with what Eve did," the 2015 book laughingly posits. If only you knew, Imogen!), but it also helps the whole theme -- Eve is an airhead techie so focused on the now and Imogen is flustered by the disappearing past.
The end is...ehhh. Without spoiling things, Eve Morton's secret plot against Imogen seems so...petty and weird. It's clear she wants to replace Imogen, but how she goes about it is psychotically infantile and borders on the illegal --and worst, is kinda swept under the rug. But to the book's credit, it lays out in the beginning what it's all about: guilty pleasure reading of an intense catfight just waiting to happen.
Maybe what really made me like this is Katherine Kellgren's excellent audiobook narration. What a great performance! Sure, she only has like two male voices (dirty old businessman and sexy man), but she sells the crap out of this book and helps guide the reader past the book's bad parts.
I almost didn’t finish this one! Eve is painfully cringy, Imogen is written as if she’s much older (printing out emails?!), and young women all sleeping at the office for an evil boss is just too unrealistic.
This is an enjoyable piece of summer fluff like The Devil Wears Prada. There are some weird issues. Imogen is so spineless! How on earth did she get to be in her position being as big of a pushover as she is? Also, as a 39 year old in the Midwest, I do not believe that a 42 year old who works in the media would be as massively stupid about tech as she is. That being said, it's a fun read and I enjoyed it.