Rating: 
Summary: repetitive
Review: entertaining most of the time, but the same scenario every time...got a little old..The author writes well, but this story should have ended after 200 pages.
Rating: 
Summary: FUN BUT EXTREMELY EXAGERRATED
Review: I just got out of college and worked one year for a company which I thought treated its employees in the most servile way possible. Fortunately, I moved on for better things in life but the experience is unforgettable. 'The Devil Wears Prada' is a fun read but things were a bit too farfetched and the writing extremely redundant. For such a lengthy book, some chapters could have been dedicated to make the book a little insightful than repeating the atrocities of the boss over and over again.
Rating:
Summary: Misses the mark
Review: I really looked forward to reading this book and was very disappointed when I finished it. First off, I strongly suspect this is Ms. Weisberger's first efforts at writing a novel (meaning she has no "trunk" novels) and unfortunately it shows. There's repetition that should have been winnowed out (characters give too many "withering" looks; everyone "shrugs" into coats and jackets.) Then there's moments in the book that completely baffled me. (How could Lilly be putting on Andrea's make up one minute and then be passed out on the bed the next? I looked for a transistion but couldn't find it.) Additionally, the efforts to make Andrea seem "likeable" are awkward.(Sending clothes to that pre-teen girl, buying lattes for homeless people) I feel like they were inserted during a re-write.
Her humor and metaphors are clunky (she first compares a character to a platiiff on Judge Judy, than she switches to a defendant, and the comparison falls flat due to over-explanation.) Nor did I have a clear fix on any of the people in Andrea's life. They seemed like cut-out characters. The most disappointing character was Miranda. I read this book hoping for a little dish on Anna Wintour and what I got was the this mean, one-note character who was predictable and boring. There was no insight offered as to why she was such a pain. But the main flaw in this book is the complete lack of plot. There's a little stir of forced excitement at the end, but other than than, the reading of this prose is as plodding and tedious as Andrea's year at Runway magazine. Even though this book's obviously made a pot of money, it shouldn't have been published in this condition. It's a disservice to the readers and the author (an obvious newbie who should have been properly edited.)
Rating:
Summary: Scarily Funny
Review: Just the title of this book made me buy it. This is the story of aspiring writer Andrea who wants to work for The New Yorker but gets her start as a lowly assistant at a Vogue type magazine for a psycho (aka "Devil") boss. The tasks that the poor heronie is made to endure are way over the top but the author conveys them with some dark humor. Very much in the vein of the Nanny Diaries (without of course the sickening child neglect). This was a fun, quick read if you can handle reading about the demeaning treatment of another human being. It's really scary, but there are actually jobs out there like the one in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty entertaining
Review: The Devil Wears Prada is not classic literature. It's not even Bridget Jones' Diary. But it is a fun-filled, entertaining way to spend a day or two. That's about the maximum time it would take to read this book. This is the story of Andrea Sachs, a new college grad who dreams of working for a high-brow magazine and ends up working for the boss from hell,Miranda Priestly, the demonic editor of a glossy fashion magazine. What follows is an amusing and often laugh-out-loud-funny account of Andrea's attempt to survive in the world of high fashion.This is really a guilty pleasure. It probaby won't be remembered in a decade but most books aren't anyway. It was a fun, enjoyable read
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time!
Review: With everyone falling on the "chick-lit" bandwagon, some real clinkers are going to get published and heavily promoted--and even become best sellers. Well, this is one of them. This book fails on so many levels that I don't even know where to begin; it's essentially a dumbed-down cross between Thackeray's Vanity Fair and Goethe's Faust, with a little coming-of-age story thrown in for good measure. The novel is based on the author's real-life experience working for Anna Wintour at Vogue magazine. Andrea takes the position for one reason; she wants to get a toe-hold in publishing so that she can become a writer. At the onset, this strains credulity. Andrea has no experience in publishing, and she admits to having zero interest in fashion. It's difficult to believe that she would make it past the first round of job interviews, let alone become the personal assistant to the best -known fashion editor in the world. As in Vanity Fair, none of the characters in The Devil Wears Prada is particularly likable. Andrea is a cypher, and her boyfriend might as well be a Ken doll. We gain precious few insights into the novel's slightly more intriguing characters, Lily and Christian. The novel's only truly interesting character is Miranda Priestly, the "devil" of the title. I wondered more about Priestly than any other character. Ultimately, we are left frustrated by the utter lack of insight into Miranda Priestly. If the book were a satire, the dearth of likable or even interesting characters wouldn't be a problem, because the book's message would be of paramount importance Since this book's message appears to be "Grow up!!!" the lack of likeable characters is much more of a problem, and seems to result not from any satirical point of view, but from authorial ineptness. The ineptness continues in the book's plot, which unfolds with all the excitement and unpredictability of an episode of Beverly Hills 90210. Andrea's big Epiphany finally occurs! Andrea grows up! She discovers that instead of truckling to Miranda Priestly in order to get a job at The New Yorker, she can actually become a writer by [gasp!] *writing*. Ironically, at the end of the novel, Weisberger's protagonist is writing fiction that she admits is only a thinly disguised version of her real life experiences. Weisberger's novel mercifully ends therefore as the difference between herself and her fictional protagonist is reduced to almost nothing at all. In Weisberger's novel, we are assured that Andrea is a pomising and talented writer. Would that we could say the same of Lauren Weisberger.
Rating:
Summary: Read a fashion magazine instead.
Review: If you enjoy reading lists of fashion products you might enjoy reading this book, but even that's a long shot. There was so little story between the description of clothes that it was more like looking at the Fall issue of any fashion mag which would have been cheaper and taken less time. I could have forgiven it's lack of plot if it had been the least bit clever -- or if any of its characters had been the least bit clever. A waste of time even using it to get to sleep.
Rating:
Summary: Every day, I thank fate for ...
Review: I am so eternally grateful that I do not have a job like Andrea Sachs in this book. All that hours catering to a fashion editor's job and having to hear "Millions of girls would die to have a job just like yours!" 24/7 ~~ no thanks! I'll pass up on the Guccis and Pradas and meeting celebrities at parties and everything that passes for entertainment in the fashion world. Ok, I know this book isn't the classic novel that people seem to be expecting ~~ I expected it to be an entertaining and fun read and Weisberger didn't disappoint me here! Full of witty remarks (and catty ones to!) and heavy on the sarcasm, I really enjoyed reading this book about Andrea Sachs who got hired just out of college to work at Runway, one of the fashion world's premier magazines. And not only was she hired there, she was also hired to work for Miranda Priestly, the fashion world's "it" woman, who is the fashion editor of Runway. Andrea heard that if she survived one year at that grueling indentureship, Miranda will see to it that she will get any job that she wants. Any job and there is nothing more that Andrea wants in the world other than to work for The New Yorker. So Andrea agreed to work for her for a year. Little did she know what that year entailed. Andrea was literally on call 24/7 as her boss' junior assistant. She was ordered to fetch coffee, newspapers and magazines every day like a latch-key. She had to field requests from everyone that wants to meet with Miranda. And she also has to anticipate every demand that Miranda might have ~~ as well as sorting through her dirty clothes to ready for dry-cleaning. Trying to keep her sense of humor, and trying to keep her relationships with her family, boyfriend and best friend ~~ Andrea begins to wonder if this is worth all the aggravation. It is, like I mentioned, a highly entertaining read. It's actually nicer to read about someone else's problems with their boss. Weisenberger does it with grace and humor. This is one of the funnest reads I've had this fall. If you're not expecting it to be a serious tome on the fashion world, this book is for you. 9-28-03
Rating:
Summary: Just dreadful
Review: I can't figure out how this book made the Bestseller list. It's the worst book I've read all year, and I read a lot. I loved the Nanny Diaries. This book isn't even in the same ballpark.
Rating:
Summary: Every writer has to start somewhere
Review: I've read a fair number of the other reviews here and have noticed that plenty of readers find Weisberger to be an ungrateful, immature, spoiled brat because of her apparent attitude toward her job at Vogue and her former boss, Anna Wintour. While it's difficult to imagine Weisberger distancing herself very much from her actual experiences as an assistant, as a writer myself I must concede her the benefit of the doubt; that perhaps Andrea Sachs doesn't necessarily possess the same personality and manner as Weisberger. It is a novel, after all. That being said, no one can defend the stilted prose style of this book, or the wooden, robotic dialogue, or the complete absence of storytelling skills. Weisberger has woven into this narrative a few interesting and well-told anecdotes, but the novel as a whole fails on almost every level. One of the most sacred rules of writing, "Show, don't tell," seems to have been intentionally ignored; I can remember no novel in recent history that so flagrantly attempted to tell a story by the narrator recalling for the reader what happened yesterday or two weeks ago. The Devil herself, Miranda Priestly, is frighteningly offstage for much of this novel, as are many of the "scenes" with Andrea's boyfriend. And while many readers have complained about the editing, or lack thereof, I place this burden squarely back on the shoulders of Weisberger. Acquiring editors and copy editors can and do make suggestions--many of them, in fact--but ultimately Weisberger can reject anything she wants. To suggest Doubleday purchased this book for so much money and voluntarily allowed it to go to press in this condition strains credibility. I wish I knew if Weisberger intended for her protagonist to be so unlikable, because that's certainly the way she wrote her. The elitist attitude regarding everything from the fashion world to the city where a minor character lived (Houston) was unfortunate. There is nothing inherently wrong with this if Weisberger intended for us to interpret Andrea as stuck up. What surprised me, however, was how unhip the character was for someone who considered herself so well-bred. This girl thinks culture exists only north of the Mason-Dixon line, and yet she isn't familiar with Bed Head? She's trying to hide panty lines when even girls in Oklahoma wear thongs? There are plenty of snobby, aloof characters in fiction, but to write a girl who is both stuck up and ignorant is not the way to endear her to most readers. A sunny place in all this muck is that Weisberger shows promise as a writer. Even with my disappointment in the book overall, she hooked me enough to stagger to the end, and the pages leading up to the confrontation with Miranda moved quickly. With a lot of hard work and dedication to the craft, Weisberger could sharpen her talent into something more rewarding. All writers have to start somewhere. Even the best in the business possess horribly-crafted fiction projects stashed away where they may never again see the light of day, but the difference here is that this early-career project was actually published. It would be satisfying to complain about the publisher's role in all this, but it would also be naive, because no longer can the publishing industry distance itself from Hollywood, where poor storytelling and shoddy character development has become an art form. Books with killer titles and the promise of real "insider" gossip are a virtual lock to earn a big profit. But I wonder, with Weisberger's new seven-figure contract and critically-panned first novel, if perhaps the well will run dry before the second book is released. I suppose only time will tell. Any completed novel is a success in the eyes of a writer. Many are begun, and a relative few are ever finished. I really hope Ms. Weisberger will work hard to fashion a better novel next time out, because with her name and sales success, she could serve as a role model for other young women who hope to write for a living.
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