I picked this up a couple weeks ago and read it immediately (which doesn't happen often/ever). But the movie had come out and I wanted to read the book before seeing the film. I was excited about the movie because the trailer, which I dedicated a post to. Anywho.. I haven't seen the movie and I am not sure that I will, now that I have read the book. I was not at all happy with this book.
First let me say. It was pretty boring. The main character-Rachel- is a work-aholic 30 year old single woman, who hates her job. Yeah that sounds like buckets of fun. So the story starts out with Rachel's best friend Darcy throwing her a birthday party. Where Darcy is, Dex is. Who is Dex? Dex is Darcy's fiance who she met through Rachel and whom Rachel is secretly in love with, and has been for a while. Darcy goes home early from the party due to extreme drunkenness. Dex and Rachel end up leaving the party together to go to another bar and end up in bed together later that night. Poor Darcy.
So up till this point I was fairly entertained with Something Borrowed. I went on reading thinking that I was going to read a funny account of how Rachel was going to have to keep this indiscretion from Darcy, and the awkwardness between her and Dex. But that is not what I got. What I got was a full blown affair between Dex and Rachel. Complete with sneaking around and lies. I was horrified. Did I mention that Rachel is supposed to be the Maid of Honour at their wedding. I am in no way a prude. But I found the plot to be terrible. Really. I am not a fan of infidelity, and I definitely don't like when it's glorified. I feel like this book totally glorified affairs. Especially in the end.
I probably could have handled this book if there was a bit more humour involved. But there wasn't any. There were no laugh out loud moments. I did not like Emily Giffin's writing. It lacked character. For me it was flat and emotionless. I found her character's incredibly selfish. Dex was a putz. I DID NOT him. Not at all. He was whiny and the most selfish man I have ever read about. I shake my head at the thought of him.
I guess, in the end I did not like this book, and I am sad that I read it. The only reason I finished it was because I wanted to know how the two got busted. It was a waste of time. The writing was bad, the plot was bad, the characters were bad. I will not be reading Something Blue or anything else by Emily Giffin.
Thanks for sharing, I think I'll give it a try though. Want to see what I think of the book. Love your writing. Happy Reading!!!
ReplyDeleteMia
http://bookaholic5.blogspot.com
Glad I'm not the only one who didn't like this one. Like you I picked it up in preparation for the movie, but I definitely won't be seeing that now. I just don't get the appeal at all. Especially because Dex was a complete idiot. I thought for sure Rachel would wake up and end up with someone else. And then the whole Darcy thing. She is horrible, and gets upset about things done to her, when she does terrible things as well. Oy. It gave me a headache to read about all the drama.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so maybe it was because I listened to the book rather than read it that I was more entertained - the girl who was narrating did a good job of it.
ReplyDeleteAs for the other stuff about glorifying affairs, I was surprisingly OK with the beginnings of Dex and Rachel, when they were starting to figure it out. But I did grow frustrated toward the end, reaching a point where I wanted both of them to make a choice, I wanted Rachel to stop being a doormat and Dex to grow some balls.
That last part was the one that I didn't like. So I would say that I was okay with the beginning, but not the end of the book, not exactly because of how it ended - though now that you mention it, it was a little irritating - but because of how they got there, part of me felt like they still let Darcy call the shots.