Thursday, October 1, 2009

L.A. Candy: A Novel by Lauren Conrad

A story of two friends: Jane, the sweet blond, and Scarlett, gorgeous, smart and sexy with a distrusting nature.

I had no idea who Lauren Conrad was when I picked up this book. It was on the best seller list and plastered all over the chain bookstores so I put it on hold at the Library. As I read, I was questioned by a gawking teenager in disbelief, “You’re reading that book?” When she filled me in (Conrad was a ‘reality’ TV star, The Hills, etc.), I suddenly understood how such a poorly written, barely interesting book could have been published.

When our two beauties are tapped to star in a ‘reality’ TV show (a la Sex in the City in LA and for teens), their friendship and their lives change forever. IN the passage below, Scarlett has just escaped from the cameras:

“She had also started going to the gym every day – it was a good way of releasing her pent up whatever – and re-reading all of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novels, in the original Spanish. Just for fun” (p 253).

Now, Scarlett is supposed to be oh-so-brillant, which to Conrad equates to speaking multiple languages but being unable to define feelings. A vague ‘whatever’ apparently suffices.

Every dim-wit thought that crossed our heroine’s minds was laid bare. Nothing was left to the imagination.

To those untouched by the Hollywood machine, some of the details about that world were interesting but this isn’t a book I’d recommend.

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