THE DIVA’S GUIDE TO SELLING YOUR SOUL

Thin, strained, chick-lit with a supernatural twist.

V has sold her soul to the devil, a gossip columnist named Lucy, and joined the Life Enrichment Program, a pyramid scheme delivering greater magical powers for each soul recruited. Among V’s rewards are a Fifth Avenue shop selling a line of Prada-like bags, boldface mention in Lucy’s column, and sex with celebrities. V gets in trouble for performing an inadvertent good deed—Lucy punishes her by adding an inch to her thighs—but nonetheless develops a conscience. There are a few clever moments (V’s designer, Paolo, keeps his heterosexuality in the closet), but not enough to overcome vulgarity passing for wit (“I spend the next TWO hours watching JAG on TV. I hate this fucking show”), name-dropping mistaken for sophistication, and characters behaving in ways that make sense only in terms of the author’s deadline.

For those daunted by the depth of Sex and the City.