Chloe Does Yale

by Natalie Krinsky

Go back to college with Natalie Krinsky in this frothy, first novel from the sex columnist for the Yale Daily News , now in paperback Chloe Carrington is a typical Yale student, except that along with toiling through the usual grind of coursework, she pens a notorious and much dished-over sex column for the campus newspaper. This touch of scandal has wrought havoc on her social and love life, turning it into an open book. Chloe doesnt help matters much; she likes to share, and cant resist divulging the gory details of her most recent date (or lack thereof) in her column, baring her soul, and sometimes the souls of others, for all to see. And that's where the trouble begins. As Chloe probes the campus hot spots, we get a peek at what goes on behind the Ivy League's dormitory doors -- from drinking at Toad's, to Exotic Erotic, Yale's answer to a Playboy mansion bash, complete with coeds in skimpy bikinis and a lacrosse team clad only in socks. Of course there's perhaps the most favorite extracurricular activity -- lots and lots of sex. Teeming with exuberance and late-night shenanigans, Chloe Does Yale is filled with humor and candor about typical college situations, both inside and outside the dorm rooms.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Romance, New Adult, College, Novels, Young Adult

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Jim son of Jim (formerly PhotoJim) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a romance novel. Not even a novel really. Chloe is a Yale undergrad who writes a column for the Yale paper. Many of the columns appear here. Spacing between the columns are vignettes of her college life. My big thought was that Chloe doesn't get nearly enough for someone who writes a sex column. She seems rather uptight about several sex discussions. I don't know, I felt at times like the author was bragging about what she'd done. At other times it seemed like she was saying what she wished she would have done. While I didn't particularly like the spoiled rich girl main character, some of the supporting cast was very likable. I give it 2.5 stars and let it round up.

[John Jr. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chloe Carrington attends classes, goes to bars and parties, has sex, and writes about much of it for a campus newspaper. It’s no accident that the same was true of Natalie Krinsky shortly before she published this novel, nor is it likely to be an accident that both “Chloe” and “Carrington” call to mind Carrie Bradshaw, as do Chloe’s activities, apart from the classes and the campus. And if you consider that Carrie took instruction in the boutiques and fashions shows of Manhattan, the distinction nearly vanishes. While Candace Bushnell built first a series of newspaper columns, then a book, then an HBO TV series, and finally a couple of movies out of Carrie Bradshaw, even American culture has limits when it comes to exploiting derivatives, and as far as I know Krinsky has been able to “carry” her idea no farther than this.

In the early teens of the 21st century, the term “derivatives” more readily calls to mind financial shenanigans, but we shouldn’t forget the extent to which we employ the “something borrowed” part of the traditional wedding-gift repertoire. This book is practically post-modern in that it deliberately appropriates from an existing source--not any of the actual material (unless I've forgotten an allusion or similar) but at least the idea. See--it’s possible to read trash fiction and find some snippet of cultural significance to say about it, just as one can bring something trashy away from an encounter with high art. In truth, highbrow and lowbrow are all mixed up in our time, producing an unsightly spectacle that some have called no-brow.

I gave this novel to a friend as a diversion; he read it quickly and gave it back to me, and I finished it off in a weekend, using it for just the same purpose. What I took away from it is that sex in college during the naughts was not really much different from some of the more exotic doings of my college years some decades earlier, even from some of my high-school excursions, the main exception being that we didn’t then write publicly about them. What I’m curious about now is how photos, videos, the Internet, etc., play a part. And I’m not thinking of a horror story for parents such as Helen Schulman recently produced in This Beautiful Life. For this purpose, we may need yet another iteration of Candace Bushnell and Natalie Krinsky, to undertake some kind of cross between William Gibson and Gossip Girl, depicting technology’s cultural consequences as Gibson does and displaying the sex lives of the young and privileged like the latter (maybe the books, which take adults more seriously, would be a better model than the TV series). Who will take up the challenge?

[K · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could have done without reading this book. When I found it at the used bookstore and read the first page I had too high of expectations. I anticipated a cute, funny, well-worded beach read with an interesting story line. The book was definitely well-worded but by the end of the novel I felt like the plot didn’t go anywhere from beginning to end and the end felt as though it had been haphazardly thrown together. Perhaps the author had no idea where they were going with the plot until the epilogue (and not in a good way).

I kept thinking the book was going to go somewhere. I was wrong. I won’t give this book one star since I did find the story mildly entertaining. But my expectations were in no way met. You would think for one that a sex columnist wouldn’t be a prude. You would also think that between jumping from guy to guy maybe she would grow as a human being and at least be somewhere on her way towards self-actualization. But no. By the end of the book Chloe is the same immature semi-adult that she is at the beginning.

Any build in the storyline leads no where. Sure there’s an obvious plot twist, and yeah, the annoying heroine falls in love in the last chapter of the book or so (which there is absolutely no build to), but ultimately this book was a huge disappointment to me.

[Ra-ra-ra-rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, this book was so obvious, I was even able to predict that there were going to be 10 chapters. I guessed the author of the "emails" immediately. Also, if I would have known that Yale and its classes were so easy ... I would have applied.

This is supposed to be marketed towards fiction. However, the author ALSO wrote the sex column for the Yale newspaper. So, why not make it a memoir? Is her life that uneventful that she can't just make a memoir about herself? Weird.

The stories were very contrived. I found myself rolling my eyes nearly the entire time that I was reading.

I did not enjoy it. I do not plan on reading anything else by her. I've been browsing over this book at the library for years now ... I wish I would have just left it on the shelf.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have passed this book a bunch of times at the bookstore and was a little scared to buy it because the cover and title suggests that it's about sex. And for some reason, I seem to think that the person at check out is going to care what I'm buying. It was only $5 so I figured I will just get it instead of starring at it every time I hit the bargain shelf. It actually wasn't that bad of a book. The best way to describe it is if Sex And The City went to Yale. Basically, it follows Chloe through the school year as she writes for the sex column for the Yale newspaper. The thing I didn't quite get was how someone who never has sex can write a column about it. Regardless, it was a quick read and worth the $5 it cost. So don't be shy, check it out.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious Sex and the City on Campus. The student life how it sometimes is and sometimes isn't!

I loved Chloe, the whole package with her conservative Wasp background and her I write a Sex Column but I am not really confident and comfortable around naked people attitude.

Although I have to say that I knew from the beginning who PostBoy was, the little twist in her love life towards almost the end was unexpected.

All in all an entertaining read for hot summer (vacation) days. Must read for college students!

[Bookbybook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contrary to popular belief, I quite like this book. It was fun, light and nothing to take too seriously. It was quite a good representation of life in the early 2000s as a college student I suppose. It reminded me of gossip girl and a lot like the sex lies of college girls. I don’t really understand all the negative reviews about it. I understand it didn’t really go anywhere and the ending was kind of flat but it’s just a cute book. Not every book is meant to change your life.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I expected a realistic expose of Yale or maybe even a scandalous tale like gossip girl but I was not amused by the rather uninteresting characters in this novel. Chloe's column isn't as witty as Carrie Bradshaw and I wasn't motivated enough to finish the book.

[Jenny Muller · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book 14 years ago and it still bugs me. The thought of it popped into my head today and I decided to check out what other Goodreads reviewers had to say about it. Thankfully, it isn't very highly rated.

Natalie Krinsky has a basic level of literacy that you would expect from a girl with an affluent background like hers, but she isn't a good writer. She's uncreative and buys wholly into stereotypes. It's super annoying that THIS is the Ivy League grad who got a book deal in her early 20s. It says something super annoying about who gets into the Ivy League and who gets book deals. PLUS she gets to claim the mantle of "sex columnist," implying she's so sexy and desirable, and maybe even edgy. This is not edgy.

[Steffie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book from a library spring season sale and here are my thoughts....I actually really enjoyed this book overall! It would have been a 5 star read for me but ended up being 4 stars because I thought the ending fell a little flat and felt a little rushed. Some of the columns Chloe wrote made me burst out laughing and were quite enjoyable, but I wished there was more romance after what I felt like was a slow burn into Chloe's love life. The epilogue did help finish off the book and answer any remaining questions I had, but I would love to see a second book further navigating Chloe's life with her new boyfriend!

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Half Sex in the City and half Gilmore Girls the college years. It's a fun quick read about a college girl who writes a sex column in the Yale Daily News. And her friends and life take you back to the more simple college years. An easy fluffy read to take your mind off life for a while.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light read but, with no expectations going in, thoroughly enjoyable. Kudos to the twenty year old author!

[Hendrix Eva]

Blast from the past days of filofax and newspapers.

[Rhea · Rating 5 out of 5]

probably the best book of all time. i got so nervous near the end that she was going to end up with the wrong guy but she DIDNT. Ws all around

[Michele Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining book. Great Book Club meeting at Yale!

[Ari · Rating 2 out of 5]

IQ "'Aren't you going to write it down?' I [Chloe] ask, panicked, and in a moment of extreme unsuaveness.
'I have the memory of a hawk,' [Colin]
'Do they have good memories?'
'I'm not actually sure, but I thought it sounded convincing. Didn't it?
'Yes.' I smile. 'It did' pgs. 231-232

This book did exactly what I needed it to do, provided some space in between some heavy reads (I started it after I finished Middlemarch and while I'm in the middle of reading Vanity Fair ). That being said, I do wish it had been a bit funnier/sexier/a tad more depth. It's about a college sex columnist and while I'm not big on sex scenes I feel like it should have been a more prevalent topic in the book. Or she should have gone into further detail about her past sexual exploits because it was hard to understand why she felt she could be a sex columnist (other than the fact that she considered herself funny and willing to talk about sex). Also (and this may not entirely be the author's fault) it was a bit outdated in terms of both advice and pop culture references. If you don't read Cosmo the stuff in Chloe's columns may be news to you (and I didn't start reading Cosmo until like 6 months ago and I still felt up to speed) but if you read Cosmo/Glamour/maybe any other women's magazine, the stuff she talks about isn't exactly groundbreaking. It does read like a conversation you might have with your girlfriends though (depending on your friends). But all the talk of parties with Biggie Smalls playing and mention of email started to bug me. The mysterious commentator was super predictable so that was frustrating. Another thing I didn't get was why people either had to call or email to go on a date, what happened to texting? That is one thing I feel no one in real life has ever addressed. For my generation, is texting about going on a date now considered ok? One final thing, do people still hook up with professors? I'm genuinely curious...Furthermore, many subplots were brought in but never fully explained such as the relationship between Chloe's parents and why she had to meet Joshua.

I did really like the references to Anna Karenina and I laughed at most of Chloe's observations about college food, parties, homework, evne a quick comment about how students don't really understand university labor disputes, those seemed to be universal. I adored Colin but he was basically designed to be Mr. Perfect so that's not a surprise. Chloe's friends were all three-dimensional characters which helped the book, even the random guys she and her friends hooked up with had more than one shade to them. I did enjoy all the toasts they made, those were actually funny. I wish there had been more, such as Cara's "We might not get what we want. We might not get what we need. But in the end, here's hoping we never get what we deserve!" (pg. 45). I didn't need this book but I did want a fun and speedy read about fellow college students and this delivered.

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. Took me a while to get through it. My heart wasn't in it, I wasn't invested in it, it didn't pull me in. The last couple chapters were good. I needed more of that feel throughout the book, not just at the end. I didn't hate, didn't love it either, just kinda 'eh' about it.

[Melissa (Semi Hiatus Until After the Holidays) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yale junior Chloe Carrington writes the Yale Daily News's most notorious column, "Sex and the (Elm) City." And though she writes about sex, Chloe's love life leaves a bit to be desired. The men she dates are intimidated about seeing the exploits of their encounters not-so-subtly chronicled in Chloe's column. However, between attending classes, writing papers, hanging out in campus bars, and refereeing fights between friends, Chloe doesn't have much time to pine away from loneliness.

Then Chloe begins to receive critical comments posted to the newspaper website about her column from a person known only as "Yalemale." The two start to communicate via e-mail and form a friendship--which Chloe hopes will develop into something more. Is there hope for romance when school keeps getting in the way?

Chloe Does Yale is not spectacular chick lit, but it is entertaining. College students are under-represented in this genre and will get a kick out of something they can identify with. Chloe is obviously patterned directly after the author, who wrote a column by the same name. I suspect the columns used in the book are actually Ms. Krinsky's from her stint at Yale. A great deal of risqué behavior is discussed and performed compared to a very slight amount of schoolwork. Yes, it would be boring to read about studying and classes, but Chloe's lack of work ethic and continual partying made me cringe more than once at the waste of money on an Ivy League education.

Chloe Does Yale is decently written when one considers the author is only twenty-one. I'll be interested to see if she can polish her skills with another book that isn't quite so autobiographical. There are some funny and highly original sections, but it's difficult not to compare this book to "Sex and the City" (both the book and the show) and find that it comes up short. Next time, Krinsky would do well to find a unique subject that doesn't have quite so many loyal fans. If you enjoy reading about college life in all its glory, Chloe Does Yale is a pleasant way to pass the time.

[Elise · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was funny and cute but that was about it. It didn't have much substance. This book did however make me laugh in places and make me feel sad for Chloe in others and not in a good way. The plot was cute but very two dimensional and not much actually happened in the book. The characters were also very two dimensional and a little boring.

The plot is about a woman named Chloe who is the sex columnist at Yale. Through most of the book she whines and bemoans her lack of love life and writes rude coulmns about those who have a love life. She is shallow and jealous but she is funny. She has a crude but witty sense of humor that was her only saving grace. Unfortunately almost all of the characters in the book were shallow and mean. I almost didn't finish the book.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fairly funny, but over 100 pages in, I found myself struggling to keep up with far too many extraneous characters with no discernible plot in sight. Well, maybe a slight plot, but it's only there 'cuz it has to be and everyone tries very hard to ignore it for the most part. Very sad since I think the book has a cute premise and would probably be pretty good if it were more focused. To me, it seems like it's basically the author's college diary; full of names, places and Ivy League inside jokes that I'm sure all her former dorm mates loved, since they're probably in it too (names changed, of course, but basic blandish personality intact). If college psuedo biographies are your thing, check it out. Other than that, I'd skip it.

[stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

apparently a true story, i admit i'm slightly biased because i was like, "oh no, not another elizabeth wurtzel!" but this isn't anything like that.

yet, it's rather boring. you'd think she'd be better at writing having graduated from yale and writing for the YDN. but it has it's merits in describing college life, though listening to yalies i know, it's not really the average life of anyone at the school.

wouldn't recommend unless you're really bored, or into college setting chick-lit tales.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chloe writes a Sex column but no one in her family knows about it. One of her longest friends (a male) acts towards her like she writes until she gets up and walks away. Then he starts writing bad things in her blog and that upsets her. When she finds out who it is she confronts him and she tells her how he feels. To top all this off her family finds out that she is the one that is writing this column and her dad is disappointed and her mom goes out on her spending sprees.

It does put a new twist on the new college generation.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book, but only luke-warm liked it. The premise and set up made me think this was going to be full of juicy experiences like "Pledged" by Alexandra Robbins, but it was far less exciting. I suppose in regards to it being about a smart, educated woman's struggle with coming of age and putting the college partying years behind oneself to settle down, it does well at addressing that conflict. Maybe it's because I couldn't relate, but it did seem striking that even so much benign stupidity was occurring at Yale, one of the most prestigious universities in the country.

[Jen Mendeck · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was amusing, if somewhat incomprehensible to me. The book reads like an autobiography, although it is billed a work of fiction, perhaps because the author wishes to cast doubt on how much of the book is based on her own life.

Sufice it to say that my college experience was nothing like Chloe's, so I had a little trouble identifying with her. The writing is decent, but I'm not sure I learned much of anything from this book other than how to be mildly shocked.

[Sheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sex and the City – the college years. I came across some back articles of Natalie Krinsky’s column a few years back on a particular boring afternoon and instantly liked her commentary on college relationships, and more often college hook-ups’s. Krinsky’s columns that are interspersed throughout are much better than the actual story, but still good chick lit, especially if you’re looking to relive those great (and not so great) college times.

[RAB · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't think this book was show stopping but not too bad. I briefly read a review about this book being predictable, and spent the whole book trying to second guess everything. I think I only guessed one major event. It could be that I'm too used to young adult predictability, but I thought this book was just the life of a normal uni student - not too overly dramatic. That said, if you are looking for a thrilling book this wouldn't be it.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since high school, I've probably read this book four times. I love it. It's fluffy, and funny...and written with a fantastic vocabulary. As an added bonus, I can get right into the setting as I'm from Connecticut and kind of familiar with New Haven.

Yes, it's no literary work of art, but for a light laugh, it's great. I saw it for $4 on my Nook and HAD to pick it up, because I never did actually own a copy.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

My neighbor in grad school wrote this book, so I felt I needed to support her undergrad senior thesis project. It was very witty, and the references to the university were spot-on. It wasn't a book for geniuses, so I loved it. If you didn't go to school there, I think it would still be good, but you'll be missing half the jokes.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a first-time novel by a sex columnist from some college newspaper. It's really bad. Written in the first person, the narrator is also a sex columnist from some college newspaper. She goes around to parties, jerks some guy off, talks to her friends about various sexual topics of interest to the undergrad set, etc.

[David Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chloe Does Yale by Natalie Krinsky (Hyperion 2005) (Fiction- General). Chloe writes a column for the campus newspaper at her Ivy League school. She explores and exposes for her readers all of the privileged hot spots. This book is a sort of kiss-and-tell to make the non-Ivy Leaguers amongst us think that we missed something . My rating: 6/10, finished 2008.