Fancy White Trash
Abby has a plan. A plan to find her One True Love, and to avoid getting impregnated while in high school, causing her to drop out and never graduate like her two older sisters. And with this plan, she has come up with five rules – rules she developed through her many hours watching soap operas and her sisters’ mistakes – in order to find her One True Love:
Rule #1 – Find Someone New.
Rule #2 – No Baggage from Past Relationships.
Rule #3 – Looks Aren’t Everything.
Rule #4 – Don’t Need Him.
Rule #5 – Get Out of Town.
Only problem is that her best friend’s older brother, Jackson, has just come back to town, and while Abby has the hots for him, he definitely DOES NOT fit in with the rules.
I’m somewhat torn about this book. On one hand, I found it perversely entertaining. On the other hand, the author didn’t make me empathize with or care for any of the characters. The main character, and her family, are exactly what the title implies – white trash. I don’t understand what motivated these characters, and the author didn’t make that any easier. Especially when we get into the details about how Abby’s step-father also dated her oldest sister, and is her other sister’s daughter’s father, and is still sleeping with her oldest sister while still being married to her mom. Um, yeah. It was like watching an episode of Jerry Springer. And unless you’re a fan of Jerry Springer, I would suggest you skip this one.
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Eeeeew. Uh, yeah. Skipping as suggested. *salutes*
Hi,
I have to disagree with you on your review. I read this book and was laughing so hard my stomach hurt. I think you misinterpreted a farce as a serious book about relationships.
Great, Michael, I’m glad you liked it. We all have different tastes in what we find hilarious – chances are something that I find absolutely brilliantly hilarious, you wouldn’t, because we all have different ideas as to what good humour is. That still, however, doesn’t change the fact that I didn’t care for any of the characters, and if I don’t care for the characters then there’s a 99% chance that I won’t enjoy the book – no matter how funny it is supposed to be. I didn’t understand what motivated any of the characters, and imo, that is one of the most important parts of reading a good book.
Apparently the American Library Association disagreed with your review and selected it for both their 2009 Best Books for Young Adults and their 2009 Rainbow List.
wow! I might have picked up this book but Michael’s comments sound a little obsessive and I am going to stay away.
I never go by people who flaunt American Library ( or any other established institution) as a defense on a book blog devoted to a reviewer’s own bias.
The title was enough to make me consider straying, but this overly-defensive commenter cements it.
I wonder if he is commenting on other blogs. I think I will warn people against reading and blogging about this text: lest the community become privvy to his nasty and way-too-involved comments.
your opinion means more, moonsoar, than any Rainbow List!
Rachel – two brief comments in a blog is obsessive? Your comment is longer, part of a growing vendetta against an author for comments by what seems to be her husband (if a link to a website is proof of identity. You can’t even be sure she knows about, let alone endorses, the comments. Stay classy.
“two brief comments in a blog is obsessive? Your comment is longer”:
I am a friend of this blogger, hence plural comments.
Okay seriously? person who won’t actually leave their name, but goes by both “hmmpf” and “strongly disagree”, PLEASE stop picking on my friends. You are on my blog – you are more than free to disagree with me, but like you said, “stay classy.” acting like this isn’t going to make me want to agree with you, it isn’t going to make me want to see your pov, it’s just going to annoy me. Please leave Rachel alone.
Your friend Rachel was picking on an author and calling for a boycott when the author had done nothing wrong.
I’m glad she came to her senses and took the post down. There’s another one by someone in the LiveJournal booksellers community with threats to remainder the book and “accidentally” send it back to the publisher. Do you think that’s okay?