Book-It 'o14! Book #34
The Fifty Books Challenge, year five! ( 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013) This was a library request.
Title: The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
Details: Copyright 2008, Random House
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap):
"In this irresistible follow-up to her New York Times bestselling debut, Garden Spells, author Sarah Addison Allen tells the tale of a young woman whose family secrets-and secret passions-are about to change her life forever.
Twenty-seven-year-old Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter in her North Carolina hometown is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds her closet harboring none other than local waitress Della Lee Baker, a tough-talking, tenderhearted woman who is one part nemesis-and two parts fairy godmother...
Fleeing a life of bad luck and big mistakes, Della Lee has decided Josey's clandestine closet is the safest place to crash. In return she's going to change Josey's life-- because, clearly, it is not the closet of a happy woman. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey is soon forgoing pecan rolls and caramels, tapping into her startlingly keen feminine instincts, and finding her narrow existence quickly expanding.
Before long, Josie bonds with Chloe Finley, a local woman who makes the best sandwiches in town, is hounded by books that inexplicably appear when she needs them, and, -most amazingly of all- has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush.
As little by little Josey dares to step outside herself, she discovers a world where the color red has astonishing power, passion can make eggs fry in their cartons, and romance can blossom at any time-- even for her. It seems that Della Lee's work is done and it's time for her to move on. But the truth about where she's going, why she showed up in the first place- and what Chloe has to do with it all- is about to add one more unexpected chapter to Josey's fast-changing life.
Brimming with warmth, wit, and a sprinkling of magic, here is a spellbinding tale of friendship, love-and the enchanting possibilities of every new day."
Why I Wanted to Read It: In my continuing hunt for Pagan fiction, I remembered a book that is not Pagan fiction but is sort-of Witch-y fiction, Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic which was a lovely book made into a (if memory serves) truly inane movie (which tainted the book a little for me). Rereading the book again, it has many relating-to-my-kind-of-Witchcraft type elements (seeing auras, psychicism, Tarot cards) so I thought I'd given Alice Hoffman's other books a try.
While hunting through her work, this (albeit by a different author) was recommended to me in the same vein as Practical Magic.
How I Liked It: It's been a while since I've actually delved into fiction and I've forgotten how awful fiction can be (yes, non-fiction can be awful as well; it's the distinct kind of awful I'd forgotten).
I'll preface this a bit by saying that many years ago, I read a lot of young adult "Southern belle" fiction (set in the time it was written, the '80s and '90s) and mainly got the idea that the South was populated by people who were proudly racist as fuck, believed Gone with the Wind was a documentary, and the South Shall Rise Again. Debutante balls and men from Fine Old Families still existed in this bizarre world and the Southern authors who wrote it were apparently proud of all those things. The books, I suspect, were not written for Northerners like me (Maryland may be just on the line to some, but my ancestry is scattered farther north), but for Southerners (or people that would like to be thought of as Southerners) with a firm adherence to nostalgia goggles. At any rate, I grew to hate the idea of "Southern belles" and the myth of the South that is still firmly maintained. So the first hint that this was in any way a "Southern belle" story was turning my stomach, but... the character makes a sorry Southern Belle? She resists the racism, classism, Xenophobia, and other ills of this bigoted pageantry?
Apparently, the author's first book was really good and this is considered by many to be a poor follow-up. As I haven't read the first book yet (and do so with much trepidation after this book), I can't speak to any skills the author might be hiding.
The book reads as though it should be part in a series, since the author attempts closeness with so many characters that she doesn't bother with giving us a main-character's-eye-view of many of them. Also, the necessary history that rules the machinations of the town is kind of barely mentioned, leaving you to wonder if you skipped over it or if there were prior books that would explain this one.
The characters are flat, unlikeable, and when they aren't interchangeable, they're stereotypes. The icy, unaccepting social climber mother, the late great social architect who turns out not to be what he seemed, the One That Got Away, the Nice Old Couple... and their being poorly drawn is actually one of the least offensive characteristics. Domestic abuse, cheating, and particularly violent marital rape are all qualities in mates that are glossed over, and not treated for what they are: gigantic warning signs. Given the easy vilification that the author has with other characters, one wonders why she spares the truly deserving.
Books about self-actualization (or "coming of age") never cease to be appealing, but are far more tricky to execute than some authors seem to realize, particularly with the amount of self they give the characters to actualize. The story wraps up with a bow and plenty of unanswered questions and plotlines, but frankly you're so glad it's over, who cares?
Notable: A big red flag is the title. The main character can't be fat because she's fat, she has to be fat because she doesn't care about her appearance, and because she doesn't care about her appearance, she hides out and eats from her stash of junk food and she hides out and eats from her stash of junk food because she stuck in her shell.
This is such a tired trope it's not even pathetic. Hell, the "hides-out-and-eats-junk-food-and-is-fat-and-has-low-self-esteem" character has been done and done so much better. Why does the character have to be fat? Plenty of not-fat people have low self esteem and don't care about their appearances, and there are fat people who are attractive and have high self esteem. Even the character's introverted qualities (she likes to be alone and read and snack on sweets) being vilified whatsoever is unnecessary. Plenty of unhappy, in-need-of-self-actualization people are actually extroverts and try to lose themselves in people and events.
This kind of staggeringly unoriginal writing and overuse of tropes and stereotypes lay thick throughout the novel.
Title: The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
Details: Copyright 2008, Random House
Synopsis (By Way of Front Flap):
"In this irresistible follow-up to her New York Times bestselling debut, Garden Spells, author Sarah Addison Allen tells the tale of a young woman whose family secrets-and secret passions-are about to change her life forever.
Twenty-seven-year-old Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter in her North Carolina hometown is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds her closet harboring none other than local waitress Della Lee Baker, a tough-talking, tenderhearted woman who is one part nemesis-and two parts fairy godmother...
Fleeing a life of bad luck and big mistakes, Della Lee has decided Josey's clandestine closet is the safest place to crash. In return she's going to change Josey's life-- because, clearly, it is not the closet of a happy woman. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey is soon forgoing pecan rolls and caramels, tapping into her startlingly keen feminine instincts, and finding her narrow existence quickly expanding.
Before long, Josie bonds with Chloe Finley, a local woman who makes the best sandwiches in town, is hounded by books that inexplicably appear when she needs them, and, -most amazingly of all- has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush.
As little by little Josey dares to step outside herself, she discovers a world where the color red has astonishing power, passion can make eggs fry in their cartons, and romance can blossom at any time-- even for her. It seems that Della Lee's work is done and it's time for her to move on. But the truth about where she's going, why she showed up in the first place- and what Chloe has to do with it all- is about to add one more unexpected chapter to Josey's fast-changing life.
Brimming with warmth, wit, and a sprinkling of magic, here is a spellbinding tale of friendship, love-and the enchanting possibilities of every new day."
Why I Wanted to Read It: In my continuing hunt for Pagan fiction, I remembered a book that is not Pagan fiction but is sort-of Witch-y fiction, Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic which was a lovely book made into a (if memory serves) truly inane movie (which tainted the book a little for me). Rereading the book again, it has many relating-to-my-kind-of-Witchcraft type elements (seeing auras, psychicism, Tarot cards) so I thought I'd given Alice Hoffman's other books a try.
While hunting through her work, this (albeit by a different author) was recommended to me in the same vein as Practical Magic.
How I Liked It: It's been a while since I've actually delved into fiction and I've forgotten how awful fiction can be (yes, non-fiction can be awful as well; it's the distinct kind of awful I'd forgotten).
I'll preface this a bit by saying that many years ago, I read a lot of young adult "Southern belle" fiction (set in the time it was written, the '80s and '90s) and mainly got the idea that the South was populated by people who were proudly racist as fuck, believed Gone with the Wind was a documentary, and the South Shall Rise Again. Debutante balls and men from Fine Old Families still existed in this bizarre world and the Southern authors who wrote it were apparently proud of all those things. The books, I suspect, were not written for Northerners like me (Maryland may be just on the line to some, but my ancestry is scattered farther north), but for Southerners (or people that would like to be thought of as Southerners) with a firm adherence to nostalgia goggles. At any rate, I grew to hate the idea of "Southern belles" and the myth of the South that is still firmly maintained. So the first hint that this was in any way a "Southern belle" story was turning my stomach, but... the character makes a sorry Southern Belle? She resists the racism, classism, Xenophobia, and other ills of this bigoted pageantry?
Apparently, the author's first book was really good and this is considered by many to be a poor follow-up. As I haven't read the first book yet (and do so with much trepidation after this book), I can't speak to any skills the author might be hiding.
The book reads as though it should be part in a series, since the author attempts closeness with so many characters that she doesn't bother with giving us a main-character's-eye-view of many of them. Also, the necessary history that rules the machinations of the town is kind of barely mentioned, leaving you to wonder if you skipped over it or if there were prior books that would explain this one.
The characters are flat, unlikeable, and when they aren't interchangeable, they're stereotypes. The icy, unaccepting social climber mother, the late great social architect who turns out not to be what he seemed, the One That Got Away, the Nice Old Couple... and their being poorly drawn is actually one of the least offensive characteristics. Domestic abuse, cheating, and particularly violent marital rape are all qualities in mates that are glossed over, and not treated for what they are: gigantic warning signs. Given the easy vilification that the author has with other characters, one wonders why she spares the truly deserving.
Books about self-actualization (or "coming of age") never cease to be appealing, but are far more tricky to execute than some authors seem to realize, particularly with the amount of self they give the characters to actualize. The story wraps up with a bow and plenty of unanswered questions and plotlines, but frankly you're so glad it's over, who cares?
Notable: A big red flag is the title. The main character can't be fat because she's fat, she has to be fat because she doesn't care about her appearance, and because she doesn't care about her appearance, she hides out and eats from her stash of junk food and she hides out and eats from her stash of junk food because she stuck in her shell.
This is such a tired trope it's not even pathetic. Hell, the "hides-out-and-eats-junk-food-and-is-fat-and-has-low-self-esteem" character has been done and done so much better. Why does the character have to be fat? Plenty of not-fat people have low self esteem and don't care about their appearances, and there are fat people who are attractive and have high self esteem. Even the character's introverted qualities (she likes to be alone and read and snack on sweets) being vilified whatsoever is unnecessary. Plenty of unhappy, in-need-of-self-actualization people are actually extroverts and try to lose themselves in people and events.
This kind of staggeringly unoriginal writing and overuse of tropes and stereotypes lay thick throughout the novel.