Saturday, August 21, 2010

Carrie Pilby by Caren Lissner

From Amazon: Carrie, 19, is a genius: she's already graduated from Harvard. But social success has always eluded her. She now lives alone in a New York apartment and every week sees a therapist who makes a list of goals for her, including going out on a date and joining an organization. Of course, Carrie goes about these things in her own quirky and hilarious way. The organization she picks is a church, which she is certain is cultlike and run by a minister who is fleecing the parishioners. She turns to the personal ads for a date, and picks Matt, an engaged man looking to cheat on his fiancee, and Carrie plans to rat on him. But even brilliant Carrie can't predict that she'll be attracted to Matt or that the minister is actually moral. Lissner's heroine is utterly charming and unique, and readers will eagerly turn the pages to find out how her search for happiness unfolds.

I came across this title on netgalley and was intrigued by the premise. Even though it is not a paranormal book it is outside of the box as far as typical YA literature goes. The main character seemed pretty eclectic. I enjoy the sarcastic wit in books and decided to give this one a try. As far as wit goes this book gets a 5/5. There are so many hilarious dialogues between Carrie and the other characters throughout the book. In addition, her internal monologue is pretty hilarious. Caren Lissner created a character that stayed true to herself throughout the book as she gave us glimpses inside her head. Having been in school with a few prodigies in my lower school education I feel that Carrie’s character was well researched and true to the struggles that most prodigies go through.

Carrie’s personality comes out when she places a personal ad to satisfy her therapists requirement for going on a date.

Prodigy seeks genius- I’m 19 very smart seeking nonsmoking nondrugdoing very very smart SM 18-25 to talk about philosophy and life. No hypocrites, religious freaks, macho men.

The story is one comical social interaction after another as Carrie seeks to fulfill her therapists list of social interactions to become a happier person.

The only drawback I found to this book was that at times it was a bit slow and there were some lags in between. However, it was not a dominant part of the book. If you are someone that enjoys dry wit then you will definitely enjoy this book. I give it a 4.5/5.

3 comments:

  1. PS really well laid out blog! I'll have to read more...

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  2. I agree that this is a wonderful book. Caren Lissner is a wonderful writer.

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