PARTY GIRL

Party girl journalist parties too hard, crashes, reassesses life and ponders the difficulties of staying fabulous and sober.

For your consideration: Does a book count as chick lit if the heroine does blow and gets into ill-considered threesomes while utterly blotto? If nothing else, celebrity journalist and sex columnist David's first novel has navigated some of the genre's conventions; unfortunately, there’s little else here that’s new. David's heroine, Amelia, is a spoiled trust-fund kid with daddy issues and a prodigious coke habit who, when not out partying, scribbles celebrity gossip for an US Weekly–like rag called Absolutely Fabulous. Amelia has a habit of burning the candle at both ends, and, after throwing a couple of big stories, she is fired by her long-suffering boss. Coupled with losing her best friend over a guy, the unemployment news pushes Amelia into a full-fledged coke binge, eventually landing her in rehab. When a hot magazine asks her to write a “Party Girl” column, newly sober Amelia must decide whether she can maintain the “party girl” persona while remaining clean. It briefly seems possible that David is planning something fresh, but the monotonous language, undifferentiated characters and flat fringe-of-Hollywood setting quickly put the kibosh on that.

Raunchier than average, but nothing special.