Angie (Brooklyn Girls)

by Gemma Burgess

[Leah]

I really love Gemma Burgess. She’s one of those authors who writes like a dream, who tells you how it really is to be a twenty-something. There’s no faffing, no sugar-coating. IT IS WHAT IT IS. And I really admire that about her and she’s become an instant favourite of mine. I will read anything she ever writes, because I know she’ll be honest. A Girl Like You is one of my favourite books, ever, and I was hoping to add her new Brooklyn Girls series to that list, too. But it hasn’t actually worked out like that. I enjoyed the first novel, Pia, and I’ll say that I did actually enjoy this one, too. This one is about Angie. But it wasn’t perfect, and I did have some issues with it.

The whole hook about the Brooklyn Girls series is that it’s real, it’s about 5 friends, all down on their luck, all going through life the way many twenty-somethings are currently going through life, but I actually found Angie to not actually be as relateable as she should have been. I really wanted to like her, and there were times when I did – when she was being honest with Sam, when she was with Sam, period, let’s be honest. But on the other hand, I just wanted to shout at her to stop being such a prissy snob. Because, she is. Angie consistenly whinges about not having a job, but it’s not about having any old job, noooooooo, Angie only wants a job in fashion, and anything other than that isn’t worth her time or effort. I work in a supermarket. Is it my dream job? HELL NO. But this is the real world, you have to do whatever you can to make money to buy whatever you want to buy (in Angie’s case, booze, booze, booze), so you don’t just turn your nose up at a retail job. That irritates me. I also really hated how she was whinging about her Dad not calling her instead of, y’know, picking up the damn phone and ringing him herself. Phones call both ways, Angie.

Angie wasn’t all bad, though! I loved the way she stood up for herself on the yacht in Turks and Caicos when it all went horribly, disastrously wrong. (I also really loved Sam following her in the little boat when she swam away from the yacht.) I liked how she (eventually) saw the mess she was in, and pulled herself out of it, because she was a mess, and she was falling down a big, dark hole, and she got out, which takes immense strength. I will always love reading about the apartment the 5 girls share, because they’re friends forever, even if they’re not friends right now. They’re all there for each other, and Angie learnt her lesson when she decided she no longer wanted to be the black sheep of the group. Her friendship with Julia in particular is amazing, and I can’t wait until we FINALLY get to Julia’s book, because she sounds flipping amazing. She seems the most levelled headed of all the girls, if truth be told. But do you want to know who really made the book for me? Sam. Of course, it was Sam. I’m a sucker for a lovely boy, and Sam was a lovely boy. His and Angie’s “just friendship” was delightful, because we all know girls and boys can never just be friends… Every scene with Sam lit up, because Angie was a better person when he was around, she was the real Angie, not the Angie she projects to everyone else. She let her guard down, and I liked that glimpse into the real Angie.

I don’t quite know what it is about the Brooklyn Girls series that isn’t making me love it as much as I want to. The writing is quite a bit snarky, and normally I love my writing snarky, but for some reason I do struggle with it whilst reading Brooklyn Girls. I think it may just be that both Pia and Angie are so outspoken, so fond of swearing, so in your face, because normally I adore Gemma’s writing, there just seems to be something ‘off’ with book Brookly Girls books that I’ve read so far that I can’t put my finger on (it’s frustrating actually). I am quite excited about the next Brooklyn Girls book, mind you, as we’re getting Coco’s story. She’s an enigma wrapped up in a mystery (or whatever that saying is, eh, Angie?) and I think she has some hidden depths waiting to be unravelled. (I also worry she may be a bit jekyll and hyde, because she seems SUPER sweet, but she’s done a few things that are a bit bizarre.) Angie was a see-saw for me, it has it’s awesome moments, but there was just something I couldn’t put my finger on, and that was a crying shame, because I wanted to adore this book.