Sykes and Piazza must be connected with most of Hollywood on social media; it won’t be long before this story moves off the...
The glamorous world of fashion is met with a tech invasion in this satirical novel by fashion editor Sykes and editor/journalist Piazza (Love Rehab, 2014, etc.)
The fashion industry is notoriously cutthroat; The Devil Wears Prada taught us all about the nasty power struggles. In this story, though, the “devil” comes not in a dictatorial fashion editor but instead in the form of technology and the millennials who wield it with the goal of taking over the world, one click or “like” or Tweet at a time. Here, our likable protagonist is Imogen Tate, a 40-something fashion goddess and editor in chief who is just returning to her post after a six-month medical leave. Much to her surprise, she returns to Glossy magazine to discover her staff has been entirely replaced by young women strapped to devices that never stop beeping, no matter the hour. Imogen’s respected magazine has been turned into an app, and digital-only Glossy.com is now run by the hyperactive Eve Morton—Imogen’s old assistant, who left to get her MBA two years ago. Eve has returned a sociopath, a “techbitch” who labels Imogen the office dinosaur and laughs in her face when she doesn’t understand what a “gif” or a “dongle” is. As Eve becomes increasingly power hungry, Imogen realizes she must figure out how to adapt and take back what’s hers. This story is over-the-top, no doubt: it’s hard to believe the speed with which Glossy is revolutionized or just how tech-illiterate Imogen is, and Eve is simply a monstrosity. These exaggerated moments would translate well on the big screen, as would the portrayal of the generation gap and the endless, comedic tech struggles.
Sykes and Piazza must be connected with most of Hollywood on social media; it won’t be long before this story moves off the page.Pub Date: May 19, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53958-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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