The Bachelorette Party

By : Karen McCullah Lutz
Genre: Fiksyen Inggeris
Karen McCullah Lutz has form: she's the co-author of the movies Legally Blonde and 10 Things I Hate About You, so if anyone should know how to appeal to a chick-lit, chick-flick lovin' audience, it's her. Her debut novel The Bachelorette Party is about Zadie, who was recently dumped by her soap opera star fiance on the day of her wedding and now has to cope with the fact that her best male friend is marrying her straight-laced cousin Helen- and Zadie's going on the Hen Night, the last place on earth she wants to be...

For starters, can I just say that Bachelorette Party is a much more glamourous term than Hen Party?! Although this one leaves a little something to be desired... after yoga and a vist to a juice bar, Zadie manages to persuade the girls to go a little wild, and soon she's learning that Helen might not be quite as uptight as she seems...

When I picked up this book, I thought "a whole novel about a hen night?!" and to some extent I stand by that- although it's well-written and very pacey, how much can you really say about one party? Good job the author is so skilled at action and dialogue (I guess that's the advantage of polishing your craft on scripts first). This is a fun read with several hard-to-predict plot twists, but there were a few things I didn't like about it...

For one, the main character is cynical almost to the point of clinical depression- rarely have you seen a blacker worldview from someone with a good job and all their limbs, living in sunny L.A. Not only is she coarse for no good reason (I'm not a prude, but this seemed forced) she's self-pitying and very judgemental (hating anyone who does yoga, sneering at girls with the wrong manicure... and if I saw the words 'slutty whore' or 'whory bitch' one more time I was going to throw the book across the room!) Through Zadie, the author promotes the idea that everyone should be getting drunk and having sex with strangers- or you're just no fun. (Make sure the strangers are single though, or you're a slutty... !) Sure enough, rather than therapy the answer to Zadie's problems turn out to be drink and meeting a new man. If only everything in life was this simple!

I think my main problem was the author was trying to hard to impress and make her book stand out by being outrageous- if she had a more relaxed style I might have warmed to the characters more. However, if you can take this book a little less seriously than me and accept that you have to let some of the book's 'lessons' sail straight over your head, then you could find this book good escapism, with moments of humour and zest. But in future I'll be sticking to authors who do this kind of stuff ten times better.