Mom Lit - Reviewed August 2009

This is the first novel I’ve read of Madeleine Wickham a.k.a Sophie Kinsella and I was really looking forward to reading it, but unfortunately I was disappointed.

There are a few redeeming parts to this novel, namely that some of the other characters are interesting. I found Richard’s daughter Penelope, Penelope’s awful husband Lambert and Richard’s sister-in-law, Gillian, all had promise. I also enjoyed the character of Fleur’s daughter, but felt sorry for her as her mother’s maternal instinct seemed to be non-existent.

I think I probably found this book lacking because I never felt attached to Fleur. We knew very little about her life prior to the funeral crashing and so I didn’t ever warm to her. The storyline could have been good as the framework was there but I definitely felt that it fell flat in the end.

I was disappointed by this book, especially with knowing that Madeline Wickham is Sophie Kinsella. Possibly just having read Twenties Girl, which I absolutely loved, didn’t help matters, but The Gatecrasher just didn’t live up to my expectations. This is chick lit with multiple characters from their different points of view and has none of the humour I have come to expect from great chick lit.

It started well enough. The premise was interesting and I had no complaints about the writing style or that it was different points of view (which she did brilliantly). But I found that as I was getting to know the characters, I just wasn’t really interested. I didn’t find much emotion, the characters seemed two dimensional to me and the plot wasn’t terribly interesting. I feel like I’ll forget most of this one. I didn’t hate it, but definitely didn’t love it.

I’m looking forward to reading another Madeline Wickham novel soon to see if it was just this book that I’m disappointed in.

Single Girl Lit,