Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Every day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the tenth day of the month is "Judgment." I have personally decided that I will pass judgment on a book on the tenth day of each month.
***************
I'm in a bit of a reading rut and everyone was raving about Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Goodreads reviews are an outstanding 4.29/5 stars!) and who doesn't love some Reid? I have been mixed in the past (loved Daisy Jones, meh on Malibu Rising), but surely this book would get me out of my slump. Surely.
Carrie Soto retired from tennis six years ago after a knee injury, but her winning record is about to be broken by another player, so she's going back into the fray to make sure she remains on top. She ropes her dad into coaching her and she starts training with a male tennis player named Bowe Huntley. Meanwhile, the media is mocking "the Battle Axe" and suggesting she's too old and too broken down to succeed. But Carrie Soto isn't giving up.
You know what I don't care about? Sports.
Pages like this nearly sent me screaming into the void:
I take the next point. 15-love.
I take the next point. 15-love.
Her point. 15-all.
Her point.
Her point.
Match point.
I serve it low. She returns it down the line. Don't let them all be right about you.
I hit a drop shot. (page 154)
I guess TJR's in a rough spot here because if she left tennis off the page, people would riot, but people like me are just napping their way through endless passages about shots and scores and boring shit.
You know what else I don't care about? Uber successful people who are single-minded in their pursuit of being the best to the detriment of everything and everyone around them.
You know what else I don't care about? Self-absorbed people.
You know what else I don't care about? This book.
As I've said about a few TJR books now, I love that she writes female friendships in a real way. Carrie's developing relationship with Nikki Chan, her tennis rival, is really great to see. I'm clearly hungry for female friendships on the page. But Carrie's relationship with her agent is absolutely one way, with her agent doing all the work and Carrie giving nothing back. I guess it's real life because we aren't great friends with everyone in our life, but it seems like TJR wanted us to like Carrie because these two women like her and that just didn't come off the page for me. I mean, I don't have to like someone to want to read about them, but in this case, I didn't want to read about her because I just didn't want to spend time with her. It's like TJR wanted to write about a difficult woman, but couldn't quite strike the balance of Carrie's acerbic nature and still want the reader to come back to find out what happened next.
(I feel quite defensive about this. I don't think main characters need to be likeable. I enjoyed Smilla and Maud and Ove. But if your character is unlikeable, you need to have something there to make me want to go back and read more. It's not clear to me why the other characters in this book - including the love interest and the agent/friend - support this character. I'm honestly quite upset that I'm having these problems with the book because it makes it seem like I am being cruel about "unlikeable" women and that's not the case at all.)
I have a deep respect for TJR's ability to write in such varied settings of Hollywood in Evelyn Hugo, music and Daisy Jones, and tennis in this one. But that doesn't mean every setting is right for every reader.
2.5/5 stars
"We are older. Our bodies are different. You can't ignore that just because it's inconvenient." (page 123)
I went to a gynecologist appointment last week and I explained an issue I was having and the doctor listened and then said, "as we get older..." and I wanted to weep. I mean, it is inconvenient with my body doing things it's never done before.
He has a placid look on his face that reminds me of the surface of the ocean - which is to say it looks tranquil, but you know there are sharks mauling baby seals underneath. (page 147)
What a revolting metaphor. This is Carrie's inner monologue. Can you see why maybe I didn't want to hang out with her?
We live in a world where exceptional women have to sit around waiting for mediocre men. (page 297)
TJR gets it right in one.
I've only read Daisy Jones and loved it...I think I'll read this one just because of the hype (and I DO like sports), but it feels like it might be irkesome.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I don't want to feel apathetic about a character. I want to have strong feelings (good or bad)!
And, once again, YOU NEED TO WRITE BOOK REVIEWS FULL TIME. You're seriously the best at this.
***
You know what else I don't care about? Self-absorbed people.
You know what else I don't care about? This book.
***
I mean...mic drop, my friend.
You are so generous in your praise of my reviews. I really appreciate it. I think I'm just blunt and most people aren't used to that!
DeleteYeah...from the moment I starting hearing the hype on this one I knew it wasn't for me. I adored Evelyn Hugo but I've never been tempted to try any of her other books. Thanks for reading it so that I don't have to.
ReplyDeleteI liked Evelyn Hugo, too. I actually am a TJR fan, but this one just didn't hit for me. (Pun intended.)
DeleteHa ha, well put, Birchie. I couldn't explain why, but in spite of all the hype around this book I just didn't feel like reading it. Now I don't have to.
ReplyDeleteHa! If just finding out I don't like a book prevents you from reading something means you won't read it, I might have to reevaluate how I do reviews. This seems like too much power for me.
DeleteI love your tag 'books I don't recommend'. I think this book would not be a good fit for me either, for many of the same reasons.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a book for the more sporty in the world. Ha!
DeleteMy favorite thing about TJR is how different each of her books is from the others, even when the characters reappear.
ReplyDeleteYes! TJR does have quite the cast of characters now. It's pretty amazing. I do appreciate how much time she devotes to female friendships, too - there's a gap in a lot of the literature that I read about topic and she fills it pretty well.
DeleteI feel very seen, not because I've read this, but because I have had similar reactions to authors and books that are very hyped. I'm not going to say which because I don't want to alienate anyone, but there are a couple of authors and books that are hyped as the most amazing stories and they fall so flat for me, or I outright dislike them. I don't think this book is for me, and your review probably was the icing on the no-read cake!
ReplyDelete"I'm not going to say which because I don't want to alienate anyone" - and that is the crucial difference between you and me, Nicole! I cannot stop myself from giving everyone my opinion on books, agree or disagree. You have more self-restraint than I do, obviously.
DeleteI have never read a TJR book. She is SO popular, and yet I feel like she might not be my kind of writer? I don't know. I feel like you and I are typically pretty diametrically opposed when it comes to which books we like (with the possible exception of Cormoran Strike novels? Am I misremembering that you like them as much as I do? While also feeling yicky about reading books by JKR?), but perhaps we are aligned on this particular author. I just don't think she is for me. Without ever having read a word of her books. Is that terrible, to judge a book by not reading a work of it??
ReplyDeleteI do like the Strike books, despite my icky feelings about JKR. I actually do like TJR and I assume everyone else will because she has an easy style of writing. I just didn't like this particular book. Or maybe I just didn't like this particular book at this particular time in my life.
DeleteI've only read "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" by TJR and I loved that book. I guess I need to see what her other stuff is about.
ReplyDeleteTJR's writing style generally suits me. It's easy to read and immersive.
DeleteI liked Daisy Jones on audio, and I thought Evelyn Hugo was well constructed and enjoyable. I'm glad you read this book and posted because I was mildly curious, but now I'm pretty sure I would not enjoy reading this book. You're doing a good service here! I'm with you - sports + self-absorbed people = meh. Also novels about super wealthy and successful people - I don't know ... I mean everyone has their problems/issues/plot points, but it's harder for me to find empathy sometimes. Also why I couldn't get into watching Succession.
ReplyDeleteInteresting about Succession. I have heard good things about it, but I guess that might turn me off it, too.
DeleteWhen I saw you were going to review this book, my guess was that you were not going to like it! I really liked it but I like sports fiction even though I am not athletic at all, besides being a runner. I found the play by play stuff propelling, though. And I didn't think we were meant to like Carrie Soto. She was always going to be unlikeable even with the side relationships she developed. But I really loved the book despite really disliking Carrie.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think the unlikeable character + sports emphasis was just too much for me. Plus, I'm in a grumpy book rut and I think I'm taking it out on books that I would otherwise give more of a pass.
DeleteNever heard of this book, but what's new there. LOL. I'm like the Grandma who comes around saying, "Now what's this about something called Facebook??" 5 years after everybody already had Facebook. hahaha. So, can't really comment on this, and I don't, um, actually know who Carrie Soto is either? So apparently I just live in some sort of dark cave, I guess. (If you really feel I should know both about this book and this person, just delete this comment so no one else sees it and save me from embarrassment. 😂)
ReplyDeleteBut, I actually generally do love memoirs or even sports fiction about uber successful people/ successful athletes, personally. I find them fascinating!! I will never been an uber successful anything, so I guess I just really enjoy a peek into what makes these people tick, and what their lives look like. I often find them inspirational and just really fun. (However, I guess I would say I don't like the part about "at the detriment of all those around them"- that's not cool and that would turn me off, too. I can't say I've read a ton of this kind of thing, but if it seems like a genuinely good person who just really dials in and puts their head down and outworks everyone and is totally badass, I can really get behind one of those types of success stories. :)
Oh, this is straight up fiction. TJR has a wide world and a lot of characters make appearances in more than one book, although each book can be read as a standalone. Sorry if I wrote it confusingly like it was a real memoir!
DeleteAww, I'm sorry this book didn't work for you! Since I loved it so much, I figured you weren't going to like it. ;) I think we are each other's Book Voldemorts!
ReplyDeleteLike Lisa, I don't think we are meant to like Carrie. I don't think she's meant to be redeeming. But, for me, there was something so interesting about that. I loved how TJR explored the idea of the anti-hero, the singularly focused athlete who only wants to be the best. Male athletes are allowed to be this way, but female athletes must be more accommodating. I loved that Carrie wasn't accommodating and was just who she was. And her relationship with her father was just so sweet.
Right, I get that we weren't supposed to like her. But there was nothing else to read about in the book if you were invested in her character or the outcome of the tennis matches. I'm willing to accept that it was just a miss for me while understanding that other people enjoyed it.
DeleteI have not (yet) read any book by TJR. For some reason I can not find them interesting enough to pick up. There are always better ones. So if I can only read one of her books, which one would you recommend?
ReplyDeleteI really liked The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (sort of an old Hollywood vibe) and Daisy Jones and the Six (a fictional rock and roll oral history). If either of those things would appeal to you, dive in. TJR has a breezy writing style and I really like the way she writes.
DeleteI haven't read this yet (shocking... ha...) but this makes me think twice whether I want to read about someone eminently dislikeable (dislikable?). I love sports, though, so I might give it a try. That said I still need to read Evelyn Hugo and Daisy and Malibu Rising so... it'll be a while... ;) I always appreciate your frank reviews!
ReplyDelete