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corneliadolian 's review for:
The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing
by Melissa Bank
The prose is often much better than that of most "chick lit" novels. But half the jokes made me feel like I was watching a bad Woody Allen movie or a flailing stand-up comic. Too much shtick, too many puns, too much that says: "hey, this is a high-brow over-literate book by and about over-literate people". I got the references, but then I groaned that the were made to begin with.
It just reads like it's trying too hard, like Jane and her old man boyfriend are trying too hard. And it detracts from the credibility. If a guy is correcting your grammar while you have a fight, you need to slug him and never talk to him again. Otherwise, you lose my respect.
Another annoying thing: there are far too many characters with similar names. Jane, Jamie, Julie, Julia. Unless you deliberately want to incite confusion or have some grand purpose in mind, you need to get more creative with names!
Oh, then there's this one chapter/vignette completely devoted to Jane's neighbor and her scandalous son, which is somewhat useless in the scheme of the novel. In fact, I think "novel" is too strict a term for what this is.
It's not un-entertaining and there are many relatable incidents and aspects of the book. But, for the most part, it lacks warmth.
It just reads like it's trying too hard, like Jane and her old man boyfriend are trying too hard. And it detracts from the credibility. If a guy is correcting your grammar while you have a fight, you need to slug him and never talk to him again. Otherwise, you lose my respect.
Another annoying thing: there are far too many characters with similar names. Jane, Jamie, Julie, Julia. Unless you deliberately want to incite confusion or have some grand purpose in mind, you need to get more creative with names!
Oh, then there's this one chapter/vignette completely devoted to Jane's neighbor and her scandalous son, which is somewhat useless in the scheme of the novel. In fact, I think "novel" is too strict a term for what this is.
It's not un-entertaining and there are many relatable incidents and aspects of the book. But, for the most part, it lacks warmth.