Book #3
Title: The Bachelorette Party
Author: Karen McCullah Lutz
Pages: 300
Grade: B+
Buyability: 3.5/10
Status: Owned (gift)
Given I am planning my friend Sarah's bachelorette party, this was a cute Christmas gift from Robyn. The story is fairly self-explanatory. About two-thirds of it centre around one crazy all-day and eventually all-night bachelorette party where the uptight, prim bride lets loose - the bride happens to be the cousin of Zadie, the main character, who is best friends with the husband-to-be. Needless to say Zadie is busy dealing with several things in the book, among them jealousy of her perfect cousin, annoyance with the fact her best friend and Miss Perfect are getting married when her own wedding ended up as a bust several months earlier, trying to control her cousin as she gets wilder throughout the night, coming to terms with her feelings for a male student of hers, and dealing with the mixed bag of characters also in attendance at the party.
The good things about this book are plentiful - the prose is light, fluffy, and easy-to-read, with a healthy dose of sarcasm that you find yourself shaking your head in agreement with. The characters, particularly what I would call the supporting ones in the Bachelorette party, are really fun and distinct from one another. The entire bachelorette party part of the book is really interesting and funny, and you, just like the characters in the book, almost don't want it to end. The writer also does a good job resolving some things in the story - namely the situation between Zadie and her student Trevor, and what ends up happening between Helen (the cousin) and Grey (the best friend of Zadie).
There are also some bads in the book. The main one being I had a hard time distinguishing the narrator's voice from the main character Zadie's voice. Which sounds like it shouldn't be a concern or something, but the book is written in third person, yet it feels like it should be written in first person from Zadie's point of view. As a result, there is sometimes a jarring effect where Zadie's thoughts seem really out of place with the narration or vice-versa. Going with that, there is a ridiculous amount of sexual talk in here. I understand a lot of these chick lit books have that, trust me I've come across it before, but a lot of it centres around Zadie's thoughts (or the narrator's) about Zadie taking care of herself...and it's not really something you want to read about. I also found the first section and last section of the book a bit draggy. After the big fun party scene(s) you have to endure an extra 80 pages that cram a lot of stuff into them, a lot of which didn't need to be there.
Overall I enjoyed this book. I started it last weekend and finished it last night - it was a good bit of fun that made me think about some aspects of weddings and marriages a bit differently. I have a tendency to think of books in terms of how they would translate onto film and this book *would* be good at it - particularly the party part, as sort of an Ocean's 11 meets girl's night out - except for the beginning and end would need to be seriously revamped.
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