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A review by pushingdessy
Most Hated by Kara Alloway
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I received this ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Let me preface this by saying that I don’t watch reality TV, I don’t enjoy it, I don’t find it worth my time (unless it’s like, cooking competitions). I picked this book precisely because of that, as I thought it would be an interesting exploration of the genre (which was implied in the blurb). Especially after I found out the author was a former reality TV participant.
Unfortunately, instead of the literary fiction I expected, I just found it to be rather shallow “chick lit”, a term I don’t even like using.
Six women join a “docu-soap” showcasing the lifestyle of the rich and glam. For Dahlia and Sabrina, as well as producer Zoe, this is also a chance at reinvention. These are the three POVs into which the book is split, though only one of them is in the first person. This seems like a random choice, but considering the frustrating misuse or lack of commas as well as sentences that didn’t make much sense to me, I’m once again pointing at editors.
The women get to know each other, their interactions and social events are scripted, and Zoe plays some really ugly tricks to amp up the drama, which include instigating catty fights and straight up roofing their drinks.
While the story deals with misogyny, in particular the treatment of women in the public eye and the media, and internalized sexism that makes women see each other as competition, it did so in the most obvious, cartoonish ways possible. The character of Zoe, for example, is described as “ugly”, someone who isn’t particularly smart, unsociable… even her parents don’t like her! At first she’s positioned as someone who couldn’t care less about all this because she’s so emotionally detached, but then it becomes clear she’s jealous of the other women; her journey ends up being about wanting to be picked by a man. And of course, she’s the bad guy.
This tendency of pointing out how ugly/ridiculous/loser a woman was also happened to apply only to the other characters who were bitches to the end, except for Regan, who was a cool girl as lifted exactly from the Gone Girl monologue, and Lexi, who was mocked for her appearance only at first, until she turned out to be just a harmless gold-digger..
This wasn’t a terrible read per se; it was very light-hearted and might be fun for people who love the drama of reality TV. Just don’t expect any particularly profound thoughts on womanhood, feminism or the televisation of modern life. There was a also a missed opportunity of talking about racism, as all the participants are presumably white. For me, the way Zoe was written was a deal breaker; it just came off as a cry of “ugly, poor women are so jealous of me!!”
Let me preface this by saying that I don’t watch reality TV, I don’t enjoy it, I don’t find it worth my time (unless it’s like, cooking competitions). I picked this book precisely because of that, as I thought it would be an interesting exploration of the genre (which was implied in the blurb). Especially after I found out the author was a former reality TV participant.
Unfortunately, instead of the literary fiction I expected, I just found it to be rather shallow “chick lit”, a term I don’t even like using.
Six women join a “docu-soap” showcasing the lifestyle of the rich and glam. For Dahlia and Sabrina, as well as producer Zoe, this is also a chance at reinvention. These are the three POVs into which the book is split, though only one of them is in the first person. This seems like a random choice, but considering the frustrating misuse or lack of commas as well as sentences that didn’t make much sense to me, I’m once again pointing at editors.
The women get to know each other, their interactions and social events are scripted, and Zoe plays some really ugly tricks to amp up the drama, which include instigating catty fights and straight up roofing their drinks.
While the story deals with misogyny, in particular the treatment of women in the public eye and the media, and internalized sexism that makes women see each other as competition, it did so in the most obvious, cartoonish ways possible. The character of Zoe, for example, is described as “ugly”, someone who isn’t particularly smart, unsociable… even her parents don’t like her! At first she’s positioned as someone who couldn’t care less about all this because she’s so emotionally detached, but then it becomes clear she’s jealous of the other women; her journey ends up being about wanting to be picked by a man. And of course, she’s the bad guy.
This tendency of pointing out how ugly/ridiculous/loser a woman was also happened to apply only to the other characters who were bitches to the end, except for Regan, who was a cool girl as lifted exactly from the Gone Girl monologue, and Lexi, who was mocked for her appearance only at first, until she turned out to be just a harmless gold-digger..
This wasn’t a terrible read per se; it was very light-hearted and might be fun for people who love the drama of reality TV. Just don’t expect any particularly profound thoughts on womanhood, feminism or the televisation of modern life. There was a also a missed opportunity of talking about racism, as all the participants are presumably white. For me, the way Zoe was written was a deal breaker; it just came off as a cry of “ugly, poor women are so jealous of me!!”