The Good, The Bad And The Dumped

by Jenny Colgan

[Leah]

Posy Fairweather is on top of the world – quite literally – when her boyfriend Matt proposes on top of a mountain. Posy, though, doesn’t appear to be quite as happy as you would expect when your boyfriend of three years proposes, and her friends think it may have something to do with her ex ‘Lord Voldemort’; he who shall not be named. Posy realises that before she can truly commit to Matt she must track down her previous boyfriends and find out exactly why their relationship ended and decide if the grass IS greener on the other side. Once Matt finds out what Posy is doing, though, he calls of the engagement leaving Posy more confused then ever. But if she loves Matt, why is she playing with fire by trotting all around the country to see her exes, and what exactly will come of her adventures?

It’s probably fair to say that I’m not a huge fan of Jenny Colgan’s books. It took two attempts to read West End Girls and even after I finally finished it I wasn’t overly impressed. I also read Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend shortly after it’s release and again, it wasn’t anything special. However I really loved the sound of her 2010 release The Good, The Bad and The Dumped so I decided to give Jenny’s books one last chance and pre-ordered it for myself. It came into stock a few days before it’s actual release and I eventually received my copy the day of it’s actual release and decided to start it right away.

My first problem with The Good, The Bad and The Dumped is the fact that the blurb on the back of the book is misleading. For starters, Posy is called Posy Sutherland on the blurb but on the first sentence of the book she’s Posy Fairweather; how an error like that slipped through the editing/proof-reading stage is mind-boggling since I picked up on it immediately. Secondly, the blurb on the back states that Matt backs out of the engagement days after proposing and then Posy goes off around the country trying to track down her exes. This isn’t true; Matt backs out of the engagement after Posy decides to start finding out why her relationships ended and Matt accidentally finds out. They are just little errors, but they irritate me. Particularly the error pertaining Posy’s second name, it’s just not acceptable when a lot of people read a book before it goes off to print.

For me, I didn’t think the story itself was portrayed as interestingly as it could have been. Mainly because Posy spent the majority of her time whinging and moaning, which is never a good start. Posy says yes to getting engaged but doesn’t seem at all excited about the potential for an upcoming wedding; it comes across as if she only said yes because it was the only answer that would save her from having to possibly be single again. It kind of ruined the proposal itself for me, which was incredibly sweet. Then, of course, Posy goes off to discover if she could have been happy with her previous boyfriends. To be honest I did quite like the idea of Posy tracking down all of her exes, it sounded like it could make for a fun and interesting read and although it was interesting, it kind of felt a bit flat. There was supposed to be a bit of mystery surrounding ‘Lord Voldemort’, the man Posy couldn’t speak of but I found it tedious and just wanted to know who on Earth he was. There’s also an underlying feeling throughout the book that Posy’s mother (which I won’t even attempt to spell, never-mind pronounce) had somehow affected Posy’s views of relationships. I thought though that it was just a blatant attempt to try and justify what Posy does.

Because the book is told from the third-person point of view, it’s hard to really relate to any of the characters. I think Posy might have come across much better had the book been told entirely from her point of view. As it was, it was hard to really understand why she felt she had to do everything she had to do before she could contemplate marrying Matt. There were a few other characters; Matt, who seemed OK; Fleur, Posy’s sister; Leah, Posy’s best friend (who seemed a tad wet and rather man-obsessed, making me said she had my name!); Posy’s mother with the unpronouncable name, as well as Posy’s father and new family. We also, of course, have Posy’s exes who weren’t up to much, to be honest.

Jenny’s writing is fairly easy to read although as I said, it would probably have worked better told from Posy’s point of view solo rather than the third-person perspective that was used. Although it is actually Jenny’s writing that brings me back to some more irritating errors. A few pages into the book, Posy’s friend is discussing how her life might pan out and is mentioning having a baby and says “…do mass murder…”, then there’s another occasion where Posy is somewhere and the line says “…and did pillage and stuff…”, and finally, when one of Posy’s exes is talking about one of his exes he says “…and did a lot of crying”. All three sentences are phrased so badly that I just couldn’t understand how they had been left in when the book was edited. All three sentences should have been totally different – like this perhaps: “…commit mass murder…”, “…and pillaged and stuff…” and “…and cried a lot…”. I’m not a picky reader, and I don’t sit and comb through a book picking out errors purposefully, but all of those I’ve mentioned jumped out at me and I couldn’t ignore them.

Overall, I think that’s it for me with Jenny’s books. A lot of people say she’s a fantastic author but of her three books I’ve read so far, they’ve all been incredibly disappointing. I had high hopes for The Good, The Bad and The Dumped as it sounded interesting but to be honest I don’t think it really worked. I wouldn’t really recommend the book – even more so if you’re particular to editing errors and wrong character names! If you’re looking for a Jenny Colgan book to read the only one I would recommend is Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend. That was the best of the three I’ve read!