Scan barcode
A review by tjlcody
Not That Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian
3.0
(DAMN IT Goodreads messed up and ate my review)
Generally, I had two problems with this book.
First: Natalie was a jerk. A preachy, self-absorbed, condescending, "my way is the only right way of thinking" jackass. Reading from her perspective was difficult, and I can honestly say that I nearly dropped the book and didn't pick it up again for how much I disliked her.
In fairness, she comes around by the end of the book, and so I think the author was intentionally making her hard to like so as to better make her transformation, but still- reading from her POV was difficult and made me want to punch something.
Second: *Rubs eyes* This is the difficult part.
In the book, the author seems to be presenting two ways of thinking and debunking them both. Those being:
Guys Are All Misogynistic Jerks and Girls Who Put Out for Them Are Stupid, Naive Sluts Who Clearly Have No Self-Worth.
vs.
Girls Are Awesome and Have So Much Sexual Power That They Can Clearly Use to Take Advantage of Men, Who Are Stupid.
From what I read, the author seems to be saying that both of these perspectives have their good and bad points- girls should exercise good judgment in who/when/why they sleep with someone to protect themselves; yes, we do have more sexual power than certain people choose to give us credit for; no, girls who have sex are not sluts; and no, boys are not all misogynistic assholes lying in wait to take advantage of every girl they meet.
Natalie and Spencer are supposed to be extreme representations of those ideas. And of course, it backfires on both of them: Natalie treats her best friend like crap, and Spencer gets in over her head because she (wrongly) thinks she knows exactly how to handle herself to get what she wants, and she doesn't- she's too immature and doesn't have the foresight to predict the consequences of her actions.
And see, I can appreciate that. I can appreciate the author saying that neither of these extremes are correct, and you have to come to a middle-ground to find the truth.
Except that I wish maybe they'd both been toned down a bit.
The thing is, I've seen a lot of Natalies in this world. I've seen a lot of self-proclaimed feminists pull the crap that she does- sex is dirty, men are evil and can't be trusted, you're objectifying yourself, you clearly have no respect for yourself, here, let me tell you how you should be conducting yourself since I am the judge of ALL women, etc. I've seen a lot of Spencers too, but generally I'm not as insulted by them as I am by the Natalies.
My problem is that I feel like they both came off as too extreme to be believable. I feel like, at a lot of points, they were more like caricatures than people with differing ideas. Which is not good, because I'd like to think that a Natalie or a Spencer might pick up this book and think "Wow, is that how I've been behaving? Do I need to reevaluate my beliefs and behaviors?"
I don't know. Generally the book was good, and I'm glad I held in to the end to see how everything played out, but it just rubbed me the wrong ways in a lot of respects.
Generally, I had two problems with this book.
First: Natalie was a jerk. A preachy, self-absorbed, condescending, "my way is the only right way of thinking" jackass. Reading from her perspective was difficult, and I can honestly say that I nearly dropped the book and didn't pick it up again for how much I disliked her.
In fairness, she comes around by the end of the book, and so I think the author was intentionally making her hard to like so as to better make her transformation, but still- reading from her POV was difficult and made me want to punch something.
Second: *Rubs eyes* This is the difficult part.
In the book, the author seems to be presenting two ways of thinking and debunking them both. Those being:
Guys Are All Misogynistic Jerks and Girls Who Put Out for Them Are Stupid, Naive Sluts Who Clearly Have No Self-Worth.
vs.
Girls Are Awesome and Have So Much Sexual Power That They Can Clearly Use to Take Advantage of Men, Who Are Stupid.
From what I read, the author seems to be saying that both of these perspectives have their good and bad points- girls should exercise good judgment in who/when/why they sleep with someone to protect themselves; yes, we do have more sexual power than certain people choose to give us credit for; no, girls who have sex are not sluts; and no, boys are not all misogynistic assholes lying in wait to take advantage of every girl they meet.
Natalie and Spencer are supposed to be extreme representations of those ideas. And of course, it backfires on both of them: Natalie treats her best friend like crap, and Spencer gets in over her head because she (wrongly) thinks she knows exactly how to handle herself to get what she wants, and she doesn't- she's too immature and doesn't have the foresight to predict the consequences of her actions.
And see, I can appreciate that. I can appreciate the author saying that neither of these extremes are correct, and you have to come to a middle-ground to find the truth.
Except that I wish maybe they'd both been toned down a bit.
The thing is, I've seen a lot of Natalies in this world. I've seen a lot of self-proclaimed feminists pull the crap that she does- sex is dirty, men are evil and can't be trusted, you're objectifying yourself, you clearly have no respect for yourself, here, let me tell you how you should be conducting yourself since I am the judge of ALL women, etc. I've seen a lot of Spencers too, but generally I'm not as insulted by them as I am by the Natalies.
My problem is that I feel like they both came off as too extreme to be believable. I feel like, at a lot of points, they were more like caricatures than people with differing ideas. Which is not good, because I'd like to think that a Natalie or a Spencer might pick up this book and think "Wow, is that how I've been behaving? Do I need to reevaluate my beliefs and behaviors?"
I don't know. Generally the book was good, and I'm glad I held in to the end to see how everything played out, but it just rubbed me the wrong ways in a lot of respects.