Review: Humour & heartache
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 1, 2011
Kristan Hoffman describes her book by saying "Think Sex and the City meets Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." I really love this description because it makes it clear that the book is about a group of close-knit friends. The thing I loved about `Twenty-Somewhere' is that it's set right after the girls (Sophie, Claudia and MJ) graduate from college. I haven't read that many books that take place during this time, so that made it interesting for me. Hoffman did a good job describing the girls' feelings as they deal with new homes, new jobs, new loves, and just a whole lot of new situations.While I really loved the concept (and even the plot) of the book, I had a hard time with the style of writing. For some reason the present tense really threw me off, and I had a hard time differentiating between characters at first. I never really felt like I got to know the characters all that well, perhaps because of the third person narration, but also because of the abundance of dialogue. The lack of lengthy descriptions and the short section breaks make `Twenty-Somewhere' easy to read and kept me turning the pages, but it also kept me from feeling totally involved with the characters.As this book won the St. Martin's Press "New Adult" contest it's clear that it has a lot of potential. If you're looking for something quick and easy to read that also contains humour and heartache, then `Twenty-Somewhere' might be for you. This book covers a topic which could be pretty heavy, but Kristan makes it light and funny, having her characters find strength in their new situations.