Life is all about taking chances: asking your crush out, jumping out of a plane, adding (roasted) almonds to your salad. I decided to take a chance on writing a book review while listening to “Take A Chance On Me” by ABBA, their best song—don’t @me! Writing a book review involves less steps than my Fitbit on a lazy Saturday. To make a good book review, the right book, the right atmosphere and “All the Stars” (another song on my writing playlist) must align. This guide a.k.a blog a.k.a. useless soliloquy gives you the three steps to writing a book review. 0 out of 5 dentists don’t approve, but what do dentists know about books? Without further ado, here is “An Unqualified Lady’s Guide on How to Write a Book Review” using the book, A Lady’s Guide to Selling Out by Sally Franson.
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Judge a Book by its Cover!
As a college student of the 2010’s, I am always reading: academic articles, textbooks, tweets, tabloid headlines, Instagram captions. You might catch me reading (and being left on read) both outdoors and indoors. Recently, I have been craving a pleasurable, leisurely read–I also have been craving Chipotle, who’s up for a field trip?–so I put on my 2019 vision board that I was going to read at least one book this year that had not been assigned to me. Once I placed my magazine cutout of books on my dream board, I began my (Google) search for the best book.
Alas, the World Wide Web is much like my tinder matches: empty and littered with cobwebs.
I tried my second-best option: a bookstore. It was there, on the left-hand side, three columns in, fourth row, front-and-center, that a bold magenta cover caught my eye. I reached for the book and ran my hands across its smooth cover. The title was written in an elegant font placed over a fashion-illustration of a woman in a chic white gown: A Lady’s Guide to Selling Out. I opened the hardcover flap:
A brilliant young woman navigates a tricky twenty-first century career—and the trickier question of who she wants to be—in this savagely wise debut novel in the tradition of The Devil Wears Prada.“
This was the book I had been waiting for. I scanned the cover for a price. Found it, then closed it. Ain’t nothing wrong with getting this book from the library!
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NO SPOILERS.
I talk a lot. I write a lot. I am a lot. But while conducting my research on writing a book review, I discovered that you can’t give away the ending. Let me tell you, I LOVE to give away endings. I’m like the freaking Oprah of giving away endings. You get an ending! You get an ending! We all get endings! But because I love you, I will not spoil this book for you. I’m just going to give you the meat and potatoes (and some veggies because during my “research” I also learned our generation isn’t eating enough veggies and we need those greens, along with green cash amiright?) seasoned with some Alina.
Our main character (and my new idol) Casey Pendergast is a twenty-eight-year-old PR marketing agent in Minneapolis—the city I should be living in according to Buzzfeed’s “Which American City Should You Live In Based On Your Blood Type”–who, according to her best friend Susan, is a sell out because she chose money over passion. Susan, an assistant to a children’s photographer by day and struggling novelist by night, can’t help but judge her best friend’s materialistic nature. Susan could live off cigarettes and Lean Cuisine’s leftover from 2003. She doesn’t have much money or even much of a novel, but she won’t trade off her dream of being a writer for a designer handbag from Chanel, Jimmy Choo pumps or even a first edition of Ernest Hemingway book (I would though!).
Casey’s job doesn’t sound half-bad. She creates ads for Minneapolis’s finest: Ellen Hanks, the star of The Real Housewives of Minneapolis (not really a part of Bravo’s franchise, but I’m sure Andy Cohen is in pre-pre-production for this show now), her small group of co-workers is kind of like The Breakfast Club but with early aughts lingo. She makes her own hours and uses her English degree to create pitches, which she calls “stories” (honey you ain’t fooling no one, they are pitches). Casey is the Lauren Conrad of 2018: She’s cool, witty, hardworking—she’s the girl I grew up wanting to be.
Except Casey isn’t the girl she wanted to be, and that my friends is where the real theme of the story comes. Casey–the girl who has everything including a top floor apartment in a mansion-turned-condo development–feels empty. She searches for approval from her boss, from her mom, from her friends, from strangers. She puts on a brave front and tries to buy happiness, but when she is home alone on her couch swiping through Tinder, she can’t help but think she’s swiping through her life.
By book magic (not to be confused with movie magic), Casey is forced into a world she never wanted to be a part of: the world of a struggling writer. Her mission, if she chooses to accept it (she does, thank you book magic!), is to convince writers to give up on their dreams and use their skills to design campaigns for plus-size clothing labels and/or granola. Casey accepts this new role, but after falling in love with a boy–I love a B plot love story–the doubts she had suppressed bubble over like the hot chocolate I made this morning. (I always overestimate how long to microwave it.)
What happens next? For one, I had to clean up my microwave which made me ten minutes late for my subway which made me miss making eye contact with my subway boyfriend! Oh–you mean what happens next in the story? Well, I can’t tell you that. I don’t want to disappoint the Council of Book Reviewers.
You’re just going to have to read the book for yourself!
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If this book was a Facebook status, would you like it?
You don’t need the ending to know my verdict on this book. You can, of course, slide into my DMs (in fact, if you are cute I demand it) to find out the ending. 10/10, highly recommend.
The book is a quick 273 page read—yes, I said quick.
Relatability is a huge factor in the books that I enjoy. I look for books that I can blue skadoo into. Stories about someone fighting dragons? Ha! You will never see me hanging with a dragon (unless he is lighting my BBQ grill). Stories about a frail runt becoming an Olympic gold champion? Puh-lease! The only relatable thing about a story like that would be me screaming, “Oh! I have a limp because I tried climbing up a Claire’s sales rack to reach for the fake gold necklace I have wanted since I was six. I couldn’t reach and I fell on the ground and the gen Z-ers took videos of me. I think I’m viral!”
Casey Pendergast might not look like me, might not have the same finances as me, and might not have the same experiences as me, but I related to her insecurities, her reasoning, and most importantly, her voice.
Author Sally Franson created a character who, in anyone else’s story, would be the funny best friend that the typical protagonist looks to for advice. I mean, I would want to ask Casey for advice; she has a stellar job, great friends, cute clothes and her own apartment. But what Franson adds to Casey is humanity.
Like Casey, I expected to have my life together by 21. So when she sat at home alone, questioning how she got to where she was and wondering whether her choices were making her happy or miserable, I asked myself the same questions.
While Casey spoke about her fractured relationship with her mom and her experiences with childhood humiliation, I thought: These things don’t go away, they impact the decisions one makes. Like Casey, there are times where I’m too afraid to make myself vulnerable because I’m afraid of rejection.
4. Tie Together in A Cute Little Bow.
For a fun, witty book that mentions a lot of pop culture, this book really makes you think. Like me, many people will see the fun cover and overlook its depth.
If you choose to read this book, embrace the importance of fulfilling your passions and breaking social norms.
A Lady’s Guide to Selling Out is an easy, breezy, cute cover, worth-a-read-book (and so is my book review, if I do say so myself).