I really can't say that I enjoyed this book. As I mentioned in my
previous post about Remember Me?, there is not a lead character in a novel by Sophie Kinsella that hasn't sounded unavoidably similar to lead characters in her other titles (that I've read so far). I'm no writer myself, but to me this presents itself as a pitfall of choosing to write multiple books in first-person narrative. If an author decides to write in this style, they have to be super careful not to, whether purposely or accidentally, make one character sound overly similar to a character in another book. This is why I think Sophie Kinsella has failed here.
I've read a number of her books -
the Shopaholic series,
Twenties Girl and now
Remember Me?. Becky from the Shopaholic series is the exception (she has to sound the same in all 6 books because she's the same girl), the rest however need to sound completely different. But they don't. They all express themselves in the same way. Sophie Kinsella even follows the exact same blantant formula with each storyline; again I appreciate that the Shopaholic books can and need to sound similar, but do Twenties Girl and Remember Me? need to as well? It's basically this: all of them have families with some notably eccentric members, troublesome love lives and are career focused, and the story leads them through turbulance that eventually, by the end of the book, gets solved by some cunning plan and the girl ends up with the right guy.
While I appreciate that it's difficult to come up with new material sometimes, I really believe that if a writer is so adamant on not altering their style, they should write their books in third-person narrative. Then, the source of the character is solely their
own voice, and they don't need to worry about making each book sound different because they are the
sole storyteller. Am I making any sense?
Anyway, overall I was dissapointed. Lexi is this girl who gets into a car crash, bangs her head and loses 3 years of her memory. She wakes up and doesn't recognise her life at all - everything is different in this 'future world'. So we follow her as she tries to solve what happened to herself during these lost years that made her so different and unrecognisable. I think if this was your first Sophie Kinsella book, or if you don't mind reading about similar characters, you would enjoy this book more than I did. But if this isn't and you don't, you are going to probably find it pretty monotonous. While the plot is somewhat creative, it is a very predictable story.
I'd really like to know your thoughts. Have you read an author who, like Sophie Kinsella, doesn't distinguish different characters or storylines? How do you feel about the use of first-person narrative in novels?
Nic, Caryn and Tory: three girls who form a friendship that should last a lifetime. Nic is the daughter of a white Zimbabwean business tycoon. Despite a life of jaw-dropping wealth and privilege, all she really wants is a bit of attention from daddy. Caryn never met her father - but growing up on a tough London sink estate, she had other things to worry about. Like getting out and moving on. Tory just yearns for some space to be herself. Living in the shadow of your dead sister is tough, particularly when she seemed to be everything you're not. Then beautiful, ruthless Estelle McKenzie appears on the scene. Estelle has a secret - and one way or another, she's going to make each woman pay a very high price for it. (via amazon.co.uk)
