THE BOOKWORM SEZ: 'Prada' gang 10 years on and still fascinating

Everybody thought you were a lifer at work.  Nobody thought you'd ever leave.  But you'd been quietly job-hunting for months, and on the day you got the call you were waiting for, you shocked them all.  You quit — quit! 

And you couldn't stop smiling. 

Ten years ago, Andy Sachs famously quit her job at Runway with a big, Parisian f-bomb.  But in the new book "Revenge Wears Prada" by Lauren Weisberger, she should've known that you can't escape The Devil that easily. 

Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. 

Andy Sachs was sure she had that once, thanks to her assistant's job with Miranda Priestly at Runway magazine.  Now, it had been a full decade since she had escaped, 10 years since Miranda's ring tone made Andy cringe. 

Ten years since Andy quit in a blaze of dubious glory. 

Things sure had changed in that decade. 

Right after she left Runway, Andy found work as a wedding blogger.  Her best friend, Lily, moved to Colorado, and Alex, Andy's first love, broke up with her in a most pathetic way. 

Not long after that, Andy and her former-enemy-turned-bestie, Emily, started The Plunge, a fabulous celeb- and picture-filled wedding magazine, the cover on which every bride wanted to be.  Best of all, Emily introduced Andy to Max Harrison, and now Andy was a newlywed. 

Yep, The Plunge was good.  It was Andy's "baby," and it made her happy.  Everybody loved that magazine — including Elias-Clark, the firm that wanted to acquire it, the firm that also owned Runway. 

Runway, with Miranda Priestly at the helm

Oh, my, there's a lot going on in "Revenge Wears Prada."  And you're going to love every single page of it. 

It's always nice to reconnect with old friends, especially when they're as sweet and smart as Andy Sachs.  Author Lauren Weisberger let her character mature, but she otherwise hasn't altered those aspects of Andy's personality.  Even though it has been 10 years since we met her, Andy's just as endearing as she was in Weisberger's first book. 

What's different here is that Miranda Priestly is even more evil.  Honestly, there's one passage in this book that made my skin crawl.  It's deliciously scary, almost reminiscent of a horror novel, and that couldn't be more perfect. 

I don't think you need to have read Weisberger's first novel to understand this one; it might help, but you can get a sense of what happened pretty much anywhere. 

I can tell you this, though: whether you're new to this story or an old fan, once you start reading "Revenge Wears Prada," you won't be able to quit. 

Terri Schlichenmeyer writes about books.  Contact her at bookwormsez@yahoo.com.