Reality Jane

by Shannon Nering

[Leah]

Reality Jane appealed to me because, like the rest of the world, I find reality TV fascinating. I’m not a reality TV junkie, but I like shows like I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and I’ve watched The Hills, but what mostly appealed to me about Reality Jane was the behind-the-scenes look it was going to give. I love to know what goes on behind-the-scenes because you always wonder how much of reality TV – which is meant to be real – is actually, in fact, scripted. Shannon Nering is a reality TV producer herself, so if there’s anyone who knows reality TV is must be Shannon and I was interested to see how she put it on the page.

For the most part, Reality Jane is a quick and fun read. It’s nothing entirely special, and despite the fact Jane does indeed spend a ton of time producing, none of it is particularly gossipy or juicy. It’s not as in-depth as Lauren Conrad’s LA Candy series; it’s not like an expose on reality TV, which I thought was a shame because that’s what I was expecting. It took me mere hours to complete the book but I just don’t think I’ll remember it in a weeks time. It’s never a good idea when I can’t wait for a book to end, and with Reality Jane I couldn’t wait to get to the end because it just wasn’t what I expected and it was just too all over the place for me.

The most disappointing part of the book is that Nering skips over a ton of details. I read one chapter early on in the book where Jane is all set for her new job, she’s agreed to spend a weekend in San Diego with Toni, her new friend, and come the next chapter, she’s been to San Diego and she has a new boyfriend, to boot. I mean, it was all done so quickly that I thought maybe she was dreaming, as she goes to her new boyfriend, Craig’s, house for a BBQ. There’s so much detail skipped when the book should have focused on some of the smaller details. It just seemed all over the place, the way the book moved on weeks later, months later, with big events occurring and us only knowing about them after the event.

Another really annoying part of the book is the love story. Oh my God, Jane is the most fickle female character around! She’s in love with Craig, she’s in love with Grant, she’s in love with Alex… I have never known anybody to be in love with so many people at exactly the same time. She happily kissed Alex then flitted to Grant, whilst not over Craig. It was mind-boggling and really, really confusing. Even as the book draws to a conclusion, she still isn’t sure who it is she really wants and I just wanted to slap her. I hate books where every male falls at the feet of the female character despite the fact the female character in questions says she’s not slim, not beautiful, etc because it’s unrealistic. I don’t want there to be three different men to choose from, I want one man to focus on, to root for but neither Grant nor Alex nor Craig were particularly swoon-worthy.

Reality Jane just wasn’t what I expected it to be. Jane was OK in the beginning – if naive – but as the book moved on, she got more and more big-headed. She blew up at Grant numerous times for no reason, when he was merely just trying to help. I’d have liked if the book focused more on the producing than Jane’s love life. The producing parts were good, and I think Jane redeemed herself well enough in the end… But this book just wasn’t for me. It was clunky in parts, it was all over the place with seemingly missing scenes that weren’t missing at all; Nering just hadn’t written them in, instead expecting us to guess where Craig had come from. Guess where Craig had gone… It’s sad. I wanted to like the book, it sounded interesting and it was readable enough, it just lacked the plot or the characters to really take off.