Review: Hot Mess: Summer in the City by Julie Kraut
Hot Mess: Summer in the City
by Julie Kraut, Shallon Lester
Emma Freeman is spending her summer in New York City after escaping the dullsville of suburban Bridgefield. The teenager is thrilled: a summer with no parental supervision and her best friend Rachel along to keep her company sounds perfect! Her desire to be with her boyfriend Brian almost prevents her from going…until he cheats on her during his college orientation. With nothing at home to hold her back, Emma is ready to tackle the Big Apple!
Upon arriving in NYC, Emma and Rachel are determined to live the fabulous city life as seen on TV, and at first it seems like all is possible. Rent is cheap for the luxurious apartment Emma finds on Craigslist, and their roommate is perfect: a twenty-one-year old socialite who is wealthy, stylish, and stunning. It’s the perfect set-up for a teenage fantasy.
Hot Mess is definitely a pure teen fantasy. The ease with which these girls land their internships seem almost laughable, and the idea that one’s parents would allow their naïve daughters to live alone in New York City - and pay for it, to boot! - is utterly ridiculous! But let it go, and enter this world of make-believe. If I didn’t think too much about the events in the book, I could continue to drift along with it. There was a bit of a disturbing vibe to the book, in that the girls seem half-convinced that they can make their lives just like Sex in the City if they try, and I kept thinking to myself, “Why do these teenagers want to act like thirty-somethings? Why is Carrie Bradshaw their standard for all things cool?” (Seriously, folks. Carrie Bradshaw is a hot mess if there ever was one.) But whatever. They want to be cool in New York City. It’s a relatable fantasy, even if the way it plays out in this book would never work in the real world. What teen dreams do? (I mean, when I was in high school I was 75% sure I would marry Nick Carter. It would surely happen. Yeesh. Emma Freeman probably doesn’t even know who Nick Carter is.) (He’s from the Backstreet Boys, you punks. Stop laughing at me! I WAS A TEENAGER HAVING A CRAZY FANTASY. Just like this book.) I think that teen readers might very much enjoy this book, but it definitely isn’t the sort of book that crosses genre lines and entertain adults. Think Sweet Valley High, not Twilight.
One of my pet peeves in books is shameless dropping of names. Now, I know teenagers are notorious for doing this - I could not believe how uncool my parents were because they had never heard the bands I listened to during middle school and early high school - but it’s still something I just can’t stand in a book. A band mentioned in one chapter, a clothes designer mentioned in another: this I can handle. Small doses are tolerable. But when it’s multiple references on every page, it gets to be a little much. If I don’t know the celebrities, it takes a lot of the enjoyment because I’m clearly not the target audience. If I do know the names, it’s still annoying because it takes my imagination out of the equation. Chapter Seven of Hot Mess averaged 1.67 dropped names per page, ranging from MySpace (which is fine) to a Chloe handbag (I would have preferred the bag as a soft leather purple hobo sling, or whatever, instead) to Pete Wenz (who?). It was rather unfortunate; the book was published in 2008 and it already feels a bit dated because of all the pop culture references.
This is written for the teenagers who watch One Tree Hill and Sex in the City, enjoys celebrity gossip and devours fashion magazines. It amuses me to think that when I was a teen, my mother would have never allowed me to read this book because of the girls' frank, open attitude toward sex. ('Tramp' would not be inappropriate.) I think it's a fun book that certain teenagers may enjoy, but I would not recommend it simply because it is such a frivolous novel. It's like a top from Forever 21. Cute and trendy for a night out, but ready to be tossed aside when the next IT trend comes rolling in.
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