Lucy Sucks (Lucy Talk - Fiona Walker)

Member Name: looby5

Product:	Lucy Talk - Fiona Walker
Date:	02/02/05 (266 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to Read

Disadvantages: Unrealistic

Books are relatively expensive here in Australia, there is no equivalent to the top ten shelves in Asda or Tesco (that I’ve found yet) and there is no Australian Amazon unfortunately, so when I spotted a small shop just outside Sydney’s Central Station that proclaimed on it’s hoarding, ‘3 Books for $12 (about four and a half quid to you and me) I skipped inside with glee. The selection was quite limited and just one shelf was discounted, however, seeing my crest fallen gaze the man behind the counter took pity on me and said I could pick any I wanted. Yippee! One of the books I picked up was Lucy Talk, by Fiona Walker, which is the subject of this review.

I knew from the back cover, and I suppose the title that this was a ‘chick lit’ style book. Although I keep professing not to like this genre very much I do seem to keep buying them. Note to self: Stop buying crap books.

Anyway, Fiona Walkers sixth novel is an unusually structured affair, in so much as it comprises only of (fictional) e-mails, notes and letters written by Lucy and occasionally her friends and family. The story unfolds quite adequately using this method but it did seem a little unlikely to me, I mean, come on, who would write a note on a napkin in your boyfriends flat while he slept next to you only to go and flush it down the loo, well I wouldn’t any way, seems a bit bonkers to me. If you can get past the way the book is written and concentrate on the plot you might be in with a chance of enjoying the story.

Without giving too much away, the story centres around Lucy Gordon and her disappointing love life. We learn she lives with her two friends, Bella and Jane and has lousy taste in men. The problem is that although Lucy comes across as a nice, fairly likable girl she really is as thick as pig poo when it comes to blokes. Ms Walker asks us to believe that although Lucy is a professional person, intelligent and well balanced she can’t see through the most obvious lies and tales from the philandering boyfriend and can’t spot that the guy next door (Big Mike) has always had the hot’s for her. I’m sorry, I just don’t buy it.

Lucy’s family feature throughout with Big Brother in New Zealand, she has plenty of letters to write, and her slightly eccentric mother who wants nothing more in the world than to be on Masterchef, oh dear, say no more.

There are a couple of meandering sub-plots which work quite well all to do with her friends and her work and I suppose it’s quite clever the way the author manages to do this without any real narrative

If I’m honest the way this book is written does spoil it for me, I’ve got to say. It was an ok read; I read all 426 pages in just 3 or 4 sittings so I suppose I must have enjoyed it on some level. It would be fairly good beach reading material I think as it’s not at all hard on the grey matter.

I suppose I would have to say get it out the library or borrow it from a friend but I wouldn’t really recommend buying it unless you love this kind of stuff. I would try another of Fiona Walkers books, although this wasn’t for me I did enjoy the easy writing style.

The UK RRP on Lucy Talk is £6.99 though I’m sure Amazon Market Place will have it for under a pound. At that price it would probably be worth a look.

ISBN 0-34-77131-3

Summary: