Reviewed by thepunktheory on
The most famous thing about this book is probably the movie it was turned into. Thus, the novel got hyped quite a bit a few years ago. As I had heard generally positive things about Weisberger's book and enjoyed the film, I decided to give it a go.
Big mistake. Despite being less than 400 pages long, the book seems to be going on forever. You read the blurb and think "Hey, this surely is an interesting story". But believe me, it is not.
First of all, I was quite annoyed by the main character Andrea. She goes to work at one of the most famous fashion magazines in the world but doesn't give a damn. She knows nothing about fashion and doesn't have the slightest motivation to learn anything. That's highly unprofessional and as Weisberger mentions about 2 billion times throughout the book, it's a job a million girls would kill for. So, if you really don't give the tiniest fuck, let someone have the job who enjoys it.
While Andrea is clearly meant to be the hero in this novel, I can't help but dislike her. She's super ungrateful, has no ambition and has no depth at all. I get that her tasks are tough and her boss demands a lot, BUT she has to survive only one year and can then get any other job she wishes for. Did she really expect getting that with a regular 9 to 5 job? Of course it will be hard work and it won't be easy.
Andrea's constant complaints get boring quite fast. Almost as boring as the descriptions of her errands. I get that she had to get Miranda's coffee every day but writing about that 20 times really was not necessary. Got the point, thank you very much. It might have been better if Weisberger had varied her vocabulary a bit but also the language she uses was highly repetitive and made me want to put the book down numerous times.
As I mentioned, Andrea feels quite one-dimensional but so do all the other characters in this book. Especially Miranda gets to depth at all, and we never get beyond the whole "she is super awful" thing.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 1 June, 2017: Finished reading
- 1 June, 2017: Reviewed