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A review by literarywreck
A Hundred Other Girls by Iman Hariri-Kia
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.0
I absolutely couldn’t be more excited for this book. Stay tuned to watch me get on my hands and knees to beg for an ARC—because I will.
xxxxxxxxx several months later xxxxxxxxx
I received an eARC of this book months ago and enthusiastically dove in. In the end, I finished this book months later only because I ended up stuck on a long subway ride, and this was the only book I had downloaded on my phone.
Let’s talk about the good, the bad & the ugly aspects of this book.
The Good:
-The Iranian-American MC offers a perspective I will be grateful for the opportunity to have read for a very, very long time. Hariri-Kia writes eloquently about the experiences of Middle Eastern immigrants in a post-9/11 New York. I particularly appreciated the conversation around theSpoilerarticle from the perspective of the MC on the politicization of beauty trends and body hair.
-There really is some great diversity in the cast of characters. I appreciated that queer characters were just allowed to exist in this book; they weren’t expected to live out or tell a coming out story or act as a written defense of LGBTQ+ rights–they were just allowed to be characters. The diverse backgrounds, ethnicities and identities of the characters were an accurate picture of New York in so many ways and the strong racial/class/identity divide between the print & online segments of the magazine was well-executed.
-The rather hilarious repeated use of voting for Hillary Clinton as a verbal defense for bad behavior by white men
-This book really is what it promises to be. If you want a shockingly similar plot to the Devil Wears Prada peppered with all the cringe-factor, zillennial buzzwords and socially conscious plot points of the Bold Type, then this is the book for you. (And, truly, the similarities to the Devil Wears Prada are endless: there’s the plucky wannabe journalist stuck as an assistant to the old guard EIC; the alluring workplace drama she can't help but get wrapped up in; the unsupportive friends, or, in this case, Spoilerthe unsupportive sister, because the MC has no friends,; and the love interest who charms the MC with his good looks and truly slimy pick-up lines, but Spoiler whose amoral, no-holds-barred ambition eventually scares the MC into the obligatory “empowering breakup monologue”. Even the MC’s final decision Spoilerto leave the magazine over the same divisive internal politics that had her so enthralled with the job in the first place, showing that she has *learned her lesson* seems to echo tDWP.)
The Bad:
-my personal pet peeve: incorrect french. I understand that “comme des fuck down” is supposed to be a cheeky reference to Comme des Garçons… but I hate it.
-“Ladies, gentlemen, and nonbinary honeys”
-A clip of a fictitious news article completely seriously referring to the subject of the article as “the hypebeast”
-A few more words I never want to read or hear again in my life: “Major Atticus Finch zaddy vibes”
The Ugly:
-For a book that concerns itself so much with the morality and performativity of “wokeness,” it has some significant issues of its own. Perhaps the most irksome of these issues lies in this conversation:
xxxxxxxxx several months later xxxxxxxxx
I received an eARC of this book months ago and enthusiastically dove in. In the end, I finished this book months later only because I ended up stuck on a long subway ride, and this was the only book I had downloaded on my phone.
Let’s talk about the good, the bad & the ugly aspects of this book.
The Good:
-The Iranian-American MC offers a perspective I will be grateful for the opportunity to have read for a very, very long time. Hariri-Kia writes eloquently about the experiences of Middle Eastern immigrants in a post-9/11 New York. I particularly appreciated the conversation around theSpoilerarticle from the perspective of the MC on the politicization of beauty trends and body hair.
-There really is some great diversity in the cast of characters. I appreciated that queer characters were just allowed to exist in this book; they weren’t expected to live out or tell a coming out story or act as a written defense of LGBTQ+ rights–they were just allowed to be characters. The diverse backgrounds, ethnicities and identities of the characters were an accurate picture of New York in so many ways and the strong racial/class/identity divide between the print & online segments of the magazine was well-executed.
-The rather hilarious repeated use of voting for Hillary Clinton as a verbal defense for bad behavior by white men
-This book really is what it promises to be. If you want a shockingly similar plot to the Devil Wears Prada peppered with all the cringe-factor, zillennial buzzwords and socially conscious plot points of the Bold Type, then this is the book for you. (And, truly, the similarities to the Devil Wears Prada are endless: there’s the plucky wannabe journalist stuck as an assistant to the old guard EIC; the alluring workplace drama she can't help but get wrapped up in; the unsupportive friends, or, in this case, Spoilerthe unsupportive sister, because the MC has no friends,; and the love interest who charms the MC with his good looks and truly slimy pick-up lines, but Spoiler whose amoral, no-holds-barred ambition eventually scares the MC into the obligatory “empowering breakup monologue”. Even the MC’s final decision Spoilerto leave the magazine over the same divisive internal politics that had her so enthralled with the job in the first place, showing that she has *learned her lesson* seems to echo tDWP.)
The Bad:
-my personal pet peeve: incorrect french. I understand that “comme des fuck down” is supposed to be a cheeky reference to Comme des Garçons… but I hate it.
-“Ladies, gentlemen, and nonbinary honeys”
-A clip of a fictitious news article completely seriously referring to the subject of the article as “the hypebeast”
-A few more words I never want to read or hear again in my life: “Major Atticus Finch zaddy vibes”
The Ugly:
-For a book that concerns itself so much with the morality and performativity of “wokeness,” it has some significant issues of its own. Perhaps the most irksome of these issues lies in this conversation:
“She’s a psycho,” I finally spit out. Kelsea claps her hands excitedly.
“She’s totally bipolar, right?!”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that.” As much as I can’t stand Loretta, I don’t want to go around diagnosing people with a real mental illness. I don’t fuck with that.
As it turns out, the MC does absolutely fuck with that, as she goes on to then agree about the boss' bipolarity in every other way, highlighting her sometimes kind and sometimes excessively rude or downright cruel behavior in the workplace as traits of bipolar mood swings. (Added for clarity: these behaviors she cites are absolutely not indicative of bipolar mood swings; they are indicative of her boss being a manipulative person. This comparison is reductive and stigmatizing.)
Or, in another ugly mental health/abuse-related moment…
“Of course, Loretta gaslights me for this mishap.”
And, of course, this is followed by no actual gaslighting.
-This quote: “You have an empty JUUL pod where your heart used to be.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Sexual content