Thursday, August 02, 2007

The Bitch Goddess Notebook

Every now and then I enjoy reading books in English. This time I chose "The Bitch Goddess Notebook" by Martha O'Connor. I expected it to be chick lit like Bridget Jones's Diary or something else very light to read. But this book was heavy indeed.
In a small-town high school in 1988, three misfit girls join forces to form the Bitch Goddesses, a take-no-prisoners gang of fierce teenage rebellion. Rennie, the stunningly attractive straight-A student, finds herself way out of her depth when she embarks on an affair with her married teacher. Cherry builds a shrine to Princess Diana in her bedroom while nursing her hippy mother through her coke-fuelled rages. Amy tears up her cheerleader's uniform while her drunken parents concentrate on presenting a façade of perfect family life to the outside world. The three girls swear to stick together, whatever life throws at them, until one night when something so horrific happens it shatters their friendship for ever.

Orion books

The book alternates between past and present life and each chapter is cycling between the three main character. I always love books which are written in this way. It gives the book more depth since the story will have more than just one side. Anyway. I stumbled across the Internet that people compare this book to the Secret History by Donna Tart. In a way there share some elements but in my opinion The Bitch Goddess Notebook is nothing like the Secret History at all. These girls in this book ain't no saints: they mess with drugs, prescription pills, alcohol, married men , boys and blood. It quite disturbing actually because there wasn't much else. They're were just totally fucked up till the very end.

It took time to understand what this book was about, and still I'm not sure if I understood it at all. Was it a survival story? A story about friendship? Was it supposed to warn us where a certain lifestyle can lead us? I honestly don't know. It was thrilling but at the same time it was total waste of time. And the ending sucked.

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