Official Review: Beatrice Munson by Lorena Bathey
Posted: 11 Jul 2014, 20:06
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Beatrice Munson" by Lorena Bathey.]
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I want to start off by thanking Ms. Bathey for not only sending me a physical copy of this book for review, but also sending along a lovely note and signing the book itself. It was a pleasant surprise, and much appreciated.
When I first read the description for Beatrice Munson I was immediately reminded of Desperate Housewives. I'll be honest and say that chick lit/contemporary isn't my go-to genre, but the synopsis was interesting and I wanted to give it a try.
Marissa lives on a cul-de-sac of homes that are all the same. I'm sure we've all seen them, if not in real life than on television. They're all the same color, and the grass is all cut to the same required length, and the kids are perfect and the wives are all a little bit Stepford. But then Beatirce Munson moves across the street, Marissa's high school “nemesis” and she shakes up the small town, for the better. New relationships are formed, old – toxic – ones end, and the women of Vista Heights finally take off those Khakis.
I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this novel. I like the idea behind it – this one person storming into a little neighborhood of women and shaking them until they realize they're more than just wives – but I'm not sure if I could really believe that everything they've ever wanted would just fall into their laps the way it did. It's not completely far-fetched, but it also seems a little too good to be true, and I kept waiting for something bad to happen, for someone to make some sort of misstep and have reality come crashing down.
That's not to say they all lived happily the whole time, because there were problems. Some huge problems (and I will take this opportunity to tack on a trigger warning), but even in dealing with these huge problems, everything and everyone was just too... perfect. Even the kids' reactions to the events in their lives was all a little bit too calculated. I got pretty tired of all the praise that was heaped upon literally every single person Marissa encountered.
Except for that time when someone in her life made one, stupid mistake, and she ignored him for months even after he explained himself, even though he was perfectly entitled to have the reaction he did.
But, I didn't hate the novel. I think for chick lit/contemporary, it is what it is. If you're into that sort of thing, I think you would enjoy it. I don't particularly fall into the category that the women in the novel do (money, husbands and kids, etc), so I can't really relate to them. I did appreciate the inclusion of not only a gay character, but also one who is a drag queen. Diversity in books is still hard to come by, and with this type of novel – one where the men are Men – it's nice to see, especially when he's reacted to positively. As others who have reviewed this novel before me have stated, there was a lot of telling and not showing. I want to be able to watch the characters grow as people, not be told they did.
All in all, I'll give it 3 out of 4 stars and will recommend it to those who enjoy a chick lit/contemporary read.
***
Buy "Beatrice Munson" on Amazon
Share This Review
When I first read the description for Beatrice Munson I was immediately reminded of Desperate Housewives. I'll be honest and say that chick lit/contemporary isn't my go-to genre, but the synopsis was interesting and I wanted to give it a try.
Marissa lives on a cul-de-sac of homes that are all the same. I'm sure we've all seen them, if not in real life than on television. They're all the same color, and the grass is all cut to the same required length, and the kids are perfect and the wives are all a little bit Stepford. But then Beatirce Munson moves across the street, Marissa's high school “nemesis” and she shakes up the small town, for the better. New relationships are formed, old – toxic – ones end, and the women of Vista Heights finally take off those Khakis.
I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this novel. I like the idea behind it – this one person storming into a little neighborhood of women and shaking them until they realize they're more than just wives – but I'm not sure if I could really believe that everything they've ever wanted would just fall into their laps the way it did. It's not completely far-fetched, but it also seems a little too good to be true, and I kept waiting for something bad to happen, for someone to make some sort of misstep and have reality come crashing down.
That's not to say they all lived happily the whole time, because there were problems. Some huge problems (and I will take this opportunity to tack on a trigger warning), but even in dealing with these huge problems, everything and everyone was just too... perfect. Even the kids' reactions to the events in their lives was all a little bit too calculated. I got pretty tired of all the praise that was heaped upon literally every single person Marissa encountered.
Except for that time when someone in her life made one, stupid mistake, and she ignored him for months even after he explained himself, even though he was perfectly entitled to have the reaction he did.
But, I didn't hate the novel. I think for chick lit/contemporary, it is what it is. If you're into that sort of thing, I think you would enjoy it. I don't particularly fall into the category that the women in the novel do (money, husbands and kids, etc), so I can't really relate to them. I did appreciate the inclusion of not only a gay character, but also one who is a drag queen. Diversity in books is still hard to come by, and with this type of novel – one where the men are Men – it's nice to see, especially when he's reacted to positively. As others who have reviewed this novel before me have stated, there was a lot of telling and not showing. I want to be able to watch the characters grow as people, not be told they did.
All in all, I'll give it 3 out of 4 stars and will recommend it to those who enjoy a chick lit/contemporary read.
***
Buy "Beatrice Munson" on Amazon