Helpful Score: 1
I liked the premise: who wouldnt? Especially when Gigi, Bea, Neerja and Sarah Strohmeyer can convince me that they truly are smart (young) women who also think about typical adolescent things.
But then I started noticing the weaknesses. The exposition that takes up nearly a third of the book before any forward action seems to happen. The fact that I couldnt distinguish between the three friends, despite the fact that the book is told from Gigis first-person point of view. Then the moment when I discover its inspired by Pride and Prejudice is usually a moment that feels me with giddiness, but in this case I couldnt bring myself to care all that much. In the long run, SMART GIRLS GET WHAT THEY WANT didnt add anything indispensible to the YA contemporary field, not when it seemed to have the potential to really be a 21st-century YA Jane Austen and not just an Austen wannabe. And that makes it hard for me to recommend this.
But then I started noticing the weaknesses. The exposition that takes up nearly a third of the book before any forward action seems to happen. The fact that I couldnt distinguish between the three friends, despite the fact that the book is told from Gigis first-person point of view. Then the moment when I discover its inspired by Pride and Prejudice is usually a moment that feels me with giddiness, but in this case I couldnt bring myself to care all that much. In the long run, SMART GIRLS GET WHAT THEY WANT didnt add anything indispensible to the YA contemporary field, not when it seemed to have the potential to really be a 21st-century YA Jane Austen and not just an Austen wannabe. And that makes it hard for me to recommend this.
