MAGNOLIA WEDNESDAYS was the June 2012 pick in my online book club, The Reading Cove, and I really wanted to like it! I thought it got off to a pretty engaging start with a middle-aged woman becoming unexpectedly pregnant and unemployed in one shot (no pun intended)....but then it just meandered into Blah-ville, Population: Who cares?
Our heroine, Vivien, was way too self-centered and self-absorbed to be the focal character that carries an entire book. For a 41-year-old woman, her thinking was quite stunted and juvenile; she was more like an emotionally angst-ridden 19-year-old! Some chapters were told from her younger sister, Melanie's POV, but that seemed sparse at best.
The story made a very shallow attempt at having a murder mystery element with Viv "investigating" her brother-in-law JJ's death. And although there was a surprising twist in the end, for an investigative reporter, Viv sucked big time! The pacing was yawn-ably slow, and Viv's so called investigation became a joke I don't think the story got.
The prose drawing a picture of suburbia were too elaborate and overdone, assuming a low level of intelligence for the reader. It's like, OK we get it, it's the SUBURBS! LOL
The subplots felt like an extra 100 pages of unnecessary filler detracting from the main story, and were skimmable. I really had no interest in the problems of Ruth and her husband Ira, or Angie and her fiancé. And the dance class scenes got old pretty fast.
There were also many contrived comedic moments. It's as if this had been written as a Lifetime movie dramedy or something. The overdone Gone With the Wind characterizations and references; Vivien's disguised visits to the doctor's office; Were these things supposed to be over-the-top funny? Because it just came across as lazy writing to me.
Overall, this level of writing and character development just doesn't do it for me anymore. I've read one other novel by Wendy Wax, The Accidental Bestseller and had similar issues with it. I think I'll pass on reading anymore of her books. I'm torn between a C/C- on this one. I think there are other authors, like Kristin Hannah and Belva Plain, who tell these types of stories a lot better.
Our heroine, Vivien, was way too self-centered and self-absorbed to be the focal character that carries an entire book. For a 41-year-old woman, her thinking was quite stunted and juvenile; she was more like an emotionally angst-ridden 19-year-old! Some chapters were told from her younger sister, Melanie's POV, but that seemed sparse at best.
The story made a very shallow attempt at having a murder mystery element with Viv "investigating" her brother-in-law JJ's death. And although there was a surprising twist in the end, for an investigative reporter, Viv sucked big time! The pacing was yawn-ably slow, and Viv's so called investigation became a joke I don't think the story got.
The prose drawing a picture of suburbia were too elaborate and overdone, assuming a low level of intelligence for the reader. It's like, OK we get it, it's the SUBURBS! LOL
The subplots felt like an extra 100 pages of unnecessary filler detracting from the main story, and were skimmable. I really had no interest in the problems of Ruth and her husband Ira, or Angie and her fiancé. And the dance class scenes got old pretty fast.
There were also many contrived comedic moments. It's as if this had been written as a Lifetime movie dramedy or something. The overdone Gone With the Wind characterizations and references; Vivien's disguised visits to the doctor's office; Were these things supposed to be over-the-top funny? Because it just came across as lazy writing to me.
Overall, this level of writing and character development just doesn't do it for me anymore. I've read one other novel by Wendy Wax, The Accidental Bestseller and had similar issues with it. I think I'll pass on reading anymore of her books. I'm torn between a C/C- on this one. I think there are other authors, like Kristin Hannah and Belva Plain, who tell these types of stories a lot better.
