I started reading gossip of the starlings by Nina de Gramont one morning at the breakfast table. I was riveted...didn't want to go to school (rarely happens) and I continued to read long after my granola was gone. I tucked it into my school bag and headed off for the day, hoping to read a few more chapters over lunch.
As soon as Catherine Morrow transfers in to Esther Percy School for Girls, Skye Butterfield
chooses her as her friend. Even though Catherine is at Esther Percy to turn over a new, clean leaf, she allows Skye to take control. Catherine has the connections and Skye has the typical burning desire to try it all. Skye's father is a famous senator and even though, she loves her father, she can't help but see all the hypocrisy surrounding their family life. This mixture of feelings pulls Skye in all different directions and seems to steer her down the continual wrong path. Catherine introduces her to coke but its Skye who needs to keep doing it and who discovers a variety of other drugs along the way. She also gets several teachers in trouble and has an affair with her English teacher.
My thoughts:
After the initial thrill of reading I was disappointed in the overall topic. I got tired of Skye running the show. I got tired of Catherine constantly accepting and excusing her friend's behaviour. Catherine, in this same, drug-filled year, is attempting to place at the National Horse Show and hold on to her own friends and family. There were parts of the book I enjoyed and while I see it as probably pretty accurate boarding school behaviour (any high school for that matter) I found it to be too over-the-top, which made me just want to shake Catherine-hello-can you just say NO, just once. I enjoyed the relationship between John Paul and Catherine-good young romance but beyond that I found nothing to connect to in the story.
Confessions of a bibliophile review
2.5/5 peaceful stars
YA Fiction
4 comments:
Oh darn, I was ready to be excited for a new private school book to read, but this one doesn't sound like it'll be the one. Have a good time in Chicago! The middle of the week looks like it'll be warm and sunny. :)
Enjoy Chicago!
Reading the start of your review made me open a tab to my public library's online catalog. But by the end, I had closed it out. Might be something to read over the summer though?!
Have a good spring break and enjoy your days reading!
Happy Spring Break ... even if you are stuck in Chicago and not some place warm and sunny!!!
And too bad that book was disappointing after such a good start.
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