| Product: |
Everyone Worth Knowing - Lauren Weisberger |
| Date: |
25/08/06 (163 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: It can be recycled and used as loo paper
Disadvantages: Too many!
From Lauren Weisberger, the author of the best selling book ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, comes ‘Everyone Worth Knowing’. Again, this was another quick buy from WH Smith (see my Going Home review) and frankly, a terrible buy. But let’s start from the beginning:
• The Plot •
Bettina ‘Bette’ Robinson lives in New York in a dingy, insect infested flat. She is stuck in a boring, tedious job and doesn’t know what to do with herself. Cue the obligatory gay Uncle Will and his partner to help out. They manage to secure her an entry level job in a PR agency run by a shallow woman called Kelly. After finding out the life of a party planner, Bette begins to fall in love with her new life: partying in some of New York’s hottest clubs and bars ‘til the sun comes out, meeting the socially accepted, rich and famous and having a great time.
When she wakes up in a strange mans bed after one partying session she later finds out that this man is no ordinary bloke, he is Philip Weston, British playboy and heartthrob. After learning that they didn’t have sex, Bette leaves the rude mans house and heads to work, only to be greeted with pictures of her and Philip leaving the club in a newspaper. Suddenly the envy of her co-workers and the new star employee, Bette is forced into keeping up this showy-offy act and pretend she’s dating Philip to give the company good publicity and to hide a big secret. But is this life all she thinks it is? When she starts phasing out previously important people in her life and a new love interest, will she realise who is worth knowing?
Throw in a menial best friend with the token loser fiancé, hippy parents, occasional drug use, trendy parties and clubs in the city the never sleeps, the surprise gay man and the hunky bouncer who happens to be from the same town where Bette grew up and you’d think you’re in for a treat. You’re wrong.
• My Opinion •
For a start, this book is very poorly written. It has obvious plot holes, for instance, one night she invites a guy back to her hole of a house by the river, and the next time we hear mention of where she lives, she’s got a house in a different street by Lexington Ave! And to change a chubby girl who hated wearing fashionable clothes and didn’t care what sort of a mess she looked like in the morning to a stick thin girl who wore the most expensive designer clothes and HAD to have a highly coveted Birskin bag in a matter of weeks is highly unlikely. At the parties, half of her friends are so stoned and drugged up they can't talk, which makes for very boring reading.
The writing itself doesn’t flow; it makes it hard to read and detracts from the information being presented. I really struggled through this book and only during the pages about Turkey and the restaurant did I really start to care about what was going on. The plot was super thin and I guessed the ending after only reading a few chapters. The characters are all unoriginal stereotypes. If you could describe a twenty something party girl, how would you describe her? Chances are it would be the exact same description in this book. Two old, gay men? The same. Bette is a shallow character and I couldn’t sympathise with her at all.
As I said before, there was no element of this book that kept me hanging on and wanting to read more. You can make a book about party planning and scandal a lot more interesting than this. This is like reading about Paris Hilton or Nicole Richie for 400 pages and, to be honest, I just read it to pass the time. I should have left it on the plane!
• Characters •
Where do I start? Ok, well, Bette is the typical chicklit protagonist, a little fat, bored with something in her life and wanting a change. The only difference with this and the other chicklit books I've read is that she is completely superficial and lacks intelligence. She is pushed around by everyone and doesn’t make a stand for what she wants. Even in the end she somehow quits her job and just lets things ‘happen’. And the fact that she moans and drones on about how it's tedious to be famous and have money gets annoying.
Penelope is Bette’s best friend. She is marrying a complete loser who is so obviously cheating on her and her parents can't stand. She eventually gets phased out of Bette’s life. Cue the inevitable argument that sends them drifting apart and the teary reunion at the end. Boring.
Philip Weston is a spoiled rich kid who is using Bette as a distraction from the media. I know it's completely off topic, but if you’ve ever seen The Simpsons where Troy McClure marries Selma to take all the attention off his strange personal life, then you’ve read this. It turns out that Philip is gay, and Bette walks in on him and another member of her company having sex. This character changes throughout the book and occupies about 300 of the 400 pages. He changes from quite a strong character to someone that Weisberger decided she didn’t need anymore and left in the background.
Sammy is the cute bouncer who it also turns out, is a male escort. Although he likes Bette she, being the shallow character she is, won't go out with him, fearing he is too beneath her. Bette learns he doesn’t want to be a bouncer, detests his job and the A-Lister that think they’re something special and wants to be a chef. At the end, he sets up his own restaurant.
The characters are all one sided and lack personality. I didn’t feel like I could relate to any of them at all. There isn't a character with any humour or individuality, they all fit some stereotype. Weisberger, as a bestselling author, should have learnt how to inject some oomph into the story and people that make it.
All in all, this book was a serious waste of money. The ending was the best bit… literally. If the whole book had been written like the last 50 or so pages then it would have been a scorcher of a read and would probably be another best seller. I could see her talent, but for some reason it was missing. I wouldn’t recommend reading this unless you could get it from a library or borrow it from a friend, and in fact, I probably won't be reading her first book either.
• If you Really Must Have it, Where to Get It •
Again, it can be bought from traditional book shops at the RRP of £6.99 or even cheaper on site like Amazon or eBay.
• Paperback
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Language English
• ISBN: 0007182651
Summary: Boring, no plot, stupid mindless characters... stay away!
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