Citizen Girl

Rating:
Summary: Victim of a HORRIBLE READ!
Review: As I exited my flight from Seattle to Boston I left the book on the seat. A gentleman said, "you left your book." I looked at him with a blank stare and said, "yes I did for the next victim." This book was a sorry waste of paper, and words. Boring to the last page, as a college student I couldn't afford to not finish the book, having paid full price. Please save your money and DO NOT waste your time!

Rating:
Summary: Dissapointed
Review: I couldn't follow the story line. I'm not sure if it just bored me so much that I skimmed past anything meaningful. I just didn't get where it was going. No plot, no significant character devolpment. A real shame as I was looking forward to it so much. Maybe that was the problem.

Rating:
Summary: dreary & nearly unreadable
Review: I read a lot of chick-lit books mainly because my library seems to have a lot of them in the New-Book section. Granted, I am a woman in my mid-20's... but I am also a stay-at-home mom of 2 kids. (Maybe it's just interesting to see the glamorous life I could have been leading, instead of wiping snotty noses & making PB & J's.) But I actually LIKED the Nanny Diaries, and I'veenjoyed some of the other chicklits I've read (though for the most part I can't tell them apart.)

But this one is just odd. Thanks to the authors' cutesy way of only giving characters generic names (which was ok in ND but starts to grate on me here) it's hard to tell who is coming and who is going. Characters appear, disappear, and reappear & I had to flip back several pages to figure out who the heck they were. (True story: a pregnant character is introduced towards the end of the book but she is never described as 'pregnant,' only 'puffy' or 'swollen' or something like that. It isn't until the character says "Those What to Expect women are sugar Nazis" [btw, my fave line in the book] that I figure out she isn't just experiencing premenstrual bloating.)

Girl's job(s) seem pointless, and her relationship with Buster disastrous - she seems merely to drift about in life, falling into things merely by chance. Girl needs to get a grip on her life but the closest she comes is refusing to work for a porn company.

I did, however, find the bits about feminism funny, though it didn't seem like they were meant to be. Girl wants to work for feminist companies but can't seem to find anyone to agree on what the definition of 'feminism' is - just another way that she is out of touch with the world.

Rating:
Summary: Sophomore Slump
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed THE NANNY DIARIES - maybe it was a bit of a guilty pleasure, but it was a fun read. I eagerly anticipated the arrival of CITIZEN GIRL and started reading the moment it received. Quelle letdown! Almost unreadable in parts and just a little TOO in love with its own quirkiness - the protagonist is named Girl - get it? She's EVERYGirl! Except she isn't ANY girl I have ever known - this is a TOTAL pass and should be avoided in favor of better reads like PREP (by Curtis Sittenfeld).

Rating:
Summary: Blah!
Review: I was very disappointed with this book! Was excited when I first got the book because nanny diaries was so good, but this one is not. Very hard to get into the book even in the first few pages. And someone tell me why they call the character "girl." Pass on this one.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, Frustrating, Gratifying, and Overall - Good
Review: I'd heard the buzz about The Nanny Diaries, but the subject never appealed to me. When this came in at our library, I figured their writing was probably palatable to most and the subject spoke to me. I read this in one sitting. It wasn't gripping, but, yet it was. Anyone who has had an insane boss, night terror inducing job or tried to find a paycheck, ANY paycheck, will appreciate this book. Girl's work situation spiraled further and further away from her core values to eventually end up at a place that surprised me. I really did not see it coming.

As for the language that everyone is kvetching about, I found it realistic for the 20-somethings I know. When things go wrong I do repeat an expletive over and over in my mind. It's one of the things that made it real to me. Not everyone says or thinks, "oh phooey, I burned the darned muffins."

As for what Girl does, I found it yet another helpful example of what not to do to get ahead in the world. It's a man's world, unfortunately, and you can't ask permission for everything you do. You just do it. Everytime she cornered her witless boss and tried to make him tell her exactly what he wanted her to do, I felt like screaming. I did a lot of sighing when those parts came up. About halfway through the book, even I got that he didn't want to hear a thing from her, he just wanted her to do it because that is what she is paid for. Yet, she plugged on, trying to get them to give straight answers. I was completely baffled as to how/why her superiors thought that she was just so perfect, yet didn't really like what she did, but it all comes together and you realize their true intent. That, however doesn't explain the ending and why she is viewed as perfect for the now changed company. Some of what Girl did made me proud of her, like not just wallowing in her dark apartment about her boss wanting to fire her. Instead, she writes a solid piece on why the company would be remiss in firing her, making her boss a solid enemy. However, she did this on her boyfriend's insistence.

And the boyfriend . . . another example of something that makes me cheer and shake my head. Sometimes i think she gets it and then i don't. I really didn't like that she kept tryin to get together with him just to end up yelling at him for the adult videos that seemed to play 24/7 on his and his roommates' tv. And yet, she kept saying she wasn't trying to change him and he kept saying he wasn't that guy. Why can't we all just be honest with each other and accept or get out? And the bizarre sex scenes that one person commented about . . . she was toasted and he watches a lot of adult videos. Live a little. It wasn't graphic and I thought her reaction was right on target. The whole thing lasted for one fairly short paragraph and even then I didn't know exactly what happened until they talked about it later.

Despite it's shortcomings, I stayed up until 4:30 in the morning to finish this, so that must say something good about it.

Rating:
Summary: Loathsome, terribly written, plotless waste of time.
Review: It's a shame that Amazon doesn't allow reviewers to give no stars, because this book doesn't even deserve ONE.

Like most of the reviewers here, I read "The Nanny Diaries" and enjoyed it (although sometimes wanting to wring Nanny's neck for being such a doormat to the evil Mrs. X) even with the less-than satisfying ending, and was hoping that "Citizen Girl" would be as enjoyable.

Unfortunately, I couldn't have been more wrong.

Apparently, the authors' idea for their second book was to follow the same format as their first one - give the main characters 'generic' names (Girl, Guy, Buster, Manley), set most of the action in NYC, and have Girl/Nanny be taken advantage of during the entire course of the 'action'.

Shabbily written and VERY difficult to follow, with no real plot to speak of, a lot of retro-feminism mixed with soft and hard-core porn.

The only interesting part of the book was the opening chapter, then it was all downhill from there.

If you MUST read it, check it out from the library (even though it's a fairly new book, my library had plenty of copies available...THAT should have told me something - Nanny Diaries was on the hold waiting list for MONTHS). But you still might get upset anyway, depending on how valuable your free time is.

Rating:
Summary: Dumb on so many levels
Review: Like many others, I have read "The Nanny Diaries", twice, and I own it. "Citizen Girl" came from the library and it was just dumb. I'm so over the generic character names, and frankly Girl's relationship with Buster was just outright depressing. If that's what I have to look forward to, then I'll just be a hermit, thank you very much. Also, there were so many opportunities where if Girl would have actually grown a backbone, I could have rooted for her. But thank God she couldn't compromise her values enough to work for a porn company! She still holds true to feminist values!!! (Sarcasm dripping.) For better chick lit, try "The Devil Wears Prada", or things by Candace Bushnell.

Rating:
Summary: Either over my head or just not very good
Review: Like other reviewers, my hopes were pretty high after The Nanny Diaries. Although I have never been a nanny, I went through all the emotions in that book because it was so well written. Not so with Citizen Girl. Maybe that is what it is like to be a woman trying to make it in the big city, but it was just too far fetched for me to buy in to. I know the struggle to find work is very real but things like the authors' unimaginative names like Girl for the main character and My Company for the corporation she works for make everything that follows seem surreal. I was also disappointed by the ending, I know not everything can end happily but anything would have been better than what they wrote. I wouldn't recommend buying this one, but hold out for their next book because it's got to be better!

Rating:
Summary: Loved Nanny Diaries, Loathed Citizen Girl
Review: The Nanny Diaries is my favorite book, and I've been waiting with baited breath for these two to write another one together. I was SO disappointed. The sharp wit and style that they are known for with Nanny was lost in Citizen Girl bc of the gratuitous swearing and bizarre sexual scenes. It could not be more obvious that they wrote this book with a different voice, one that says "if we say &%$@ every other line, it'll sound cool and edgy". They clearly fell into the trap of wanting to shock us and all they did was fall to the bottom of the chick lit pile. I was so disappointed and I really hope they read these reviews and bang out another nanny diaries super star again.
Ladies, if you are reading this. . .go back to your old style! We need a Nanny Diaries sequel! :)