Book of the month was Careering by Daisy Buchanan. The Big Review is below.
***Big Reviews are written from the point of view that you have read the book. If this is not yet you, bookmark the page and come back once you have***
Careering – the blurb
Imogen has always dreamed of writing for a magazine. Infinite internships later, Imogen dreams of any job. Writing her blog around double shifts at the pub is neither fulfilling her creatively nor paying the bills.
Harri might just be Imogen’s fairy godmother. She’s moving from the glossy pages of Panache magazine to launch a fierce feminist site, The Know. And she thinks Imogen’s most outrageous sexual content will help generate the clicks she needs.
But neither woman is aware of the crucial thing they have in common. Harri, at the other end of her career, has also been bitten and betrayed by the industry she has given herself to. Will she wake up to the way she’s being exploited before her protégé realises that not everything is copy? Can either woman reconcile their love for work with the fact that work will never love them back? Or is a chaotic rebellion calling…
I’m a writer dahling
First of all I loved the name of this book. The double meaning and how well it fit with the story. I also loved the industry it was set in – the publishing world with it’s writers, editors and fashionistas. Amongst the glamour though there was the very harsh reality of those starting out. Too poor to buy shampoo, going hungry despite working more than 12 hour days. It felt very real and very sad. Imogen was such a lonely character. Her home life was difficult and she had very few people she could realistically lean on. This all jarred with her sex blog, a girl so confident she would publish her sex life for all to read, including her possibly violent father. I felt Buchanan never fully managed to merge the two sides of Imogen. I couldn’t connect between the Imogen I was reading about, having a panic attack, hiding in a cupboard and the Imogen who would go to a sex party.
I also didn’t get Harri’s relationship with Imogen. Why Imogen? Was it that Harri saw something of herself in her? If she did, it needed to be brought out more as it was hard to find.
The book was at times humorous and at times spilled in to Bridget Jones territory, I’m thinking the Gentleman interview. But overall it was a gritty look at faking it until you make it. I didn’t really like the ending. I found it a bit too sweet compared to the rest of the book but I appreciated its hopefulness. And I loved that title.
Get Involved
If you would like to get involved with the Book Of The Month choices try answering the Book Club questions published every month. Just search in the footnotes section for the ‘Get Involved’ articles. A new book is chosen every month so keep your eyes peeled for the Lowdown on next month’s book of the month soon.
