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Paulina & Fran
A story of friendship, art, sex, and curly hair: an audaciously witty debut tracing the pas de deux of lust and love between two young, uncertain, conflicted art students.
At their New England art school, Paulina and Fran both stand apart from the crowd. Paulina is striking and sexually adventurous—a self-proclaimed queen bee with a devastating mean-girl streak. With her gorgeous untamed head of curly hair, Fran is quirky, sweet, and sexually innocent. An aspiring painter whose potential outstrips her confidence, she floats dreamily through criticisms and dance floors alike. On a school trip to Norway, the girls are drawn together, each disarmed by the other’s charisma.
Though their bond is instant and powerful, it’s also wracked by complications. When Fran winds up dating one of Paulina’s ex-boyfriends, an incensed Paulina becomes determined to destroy the couple, creating a rift that will shape their lives well past the halcyon days of art school.
Crackling with bon mots and knowing snapshots of that moment when the carefree cocoon of adolescence opens into the permanent, unknowable future, Paulina & Fran is both a sparkling dance party of a novel, and the debut novel of a writer with rare insight into the complexities of obsession, friendship, and prickly, ever-elusive love.
At their New England art school, Paulina and Fran both stand apart from the crowd. Paulina is striking and sexually adventurous—a self-proclaimed queen bee with a devastating mean-girl streak. With her gorgeous untamed head of curly hair, Fran is quirky, sweet, and sexually innocent. An aspiring painter whose potential outstrips her confidence, she floats dreamily through criticisms and dance floors alike. On a school trip to Norway, the girls are drawn together, each disarmed by the other’s charisma.
Though their bond is instant and powerful, it’s also wracked by complications. When Fran winds up dating one of Paulina’s ex-boyfriends, an incensed Paulina becomes determined to destroy the couple, creating a rift that will shape their lives well past the halcyon days of art school.
Crackling with bon mots and knowing snapshots of that moment when the carefree cocoon of adolescence opens into the permanent, unknowable future, Paulina & Fran is both a sparkling dance party of a novel, and the debut novel of a writer with rare insight into the complexities of obsession, friendship, and prickly, ever-elusive love.
256 pages, Paperback
First published August 25, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 238 reviews
March 12, 2016
Oh My....
This was a $1.99 special....(a sauna read for me). Some of you know-- that I often have a book - or two - going when I take a sauna at my house ( I read them on my old Kindle) . For some reason... This Kindle won't die...it takes heat and steam with no complaints.
So... My complaints... for this novel? Well, for $1.99, I really can't complain that much, now can I?
It was 'kinda' good...'kinda' engaging'...'kinda sexy' ...'kinda funny'...'kinda annoying'...and 'kinda' intriguing in an artsy way.
This is an odd story...
2 women become 'obsessive' close friends... ( a honeymoon friendship where all other friendships are forgotten). But... Trouble begins when THE GUY comes into the story.
2 women & 1 guy... Sounds kinda hot? Well... not so much...because the women are in
Competition for the guy. Silly women!!! Have we not learned anything yet?
Plus...these are not the most lovable characters in the world either. Ha..( I'm being nice). You'll hate Paulina. You want to smack her. You won't want to 'smack' Fran in the same way... but you might want to toss her into a ice cold lake to wake he up.
Fran's dull and Paulina is narcissistic.
Hell... I don't know.. It's not like I'm going to choose this novel as my 'go-to-recommend' novel.....but I enjoyed this weird pathetic and sometimes sexy and funny oddball novel. For a sauna $1.99 read...I'd rate it 3 stars. ( maybe even 3.4)
This was a $1.99 special....(a sauna read for me). Some of you know-- that I often have a book - or two - going when I take a sauna at my house ( I read them on my old Kindle) . For some reason... This Kindle won't die...it takes heat and steam with no complaints.
So... My complaints... for this novel? Well, for $1.99, I really can't complain that much, now can I?
It was 'kinda' good...'kinda' engaging'...'kinda sexy' ...'kinda funny'...'kinda annoying'...and 'kinda' intriguing in an artsy way.
This is an odd story...
2 women become 'obsessive' close friends... ( a honeymoon friendship where all other friendships are forgotten). But... Trouble begins when THE GUY comes into the story.
2 women & 1 guy... Sounds kinda hot? Well... not so much...because the women are in
Competition for the guy. Silly women!!! Have we not learned anything yet?
Plus...these are not the most lovable characters in the world either. Ha..( I'm being nice). You'll hate Paulina. You want to smack her. You won't want to 'smack' Fran in the same way... but you might want to toss her into a ice cold lake to wake he up.
Fran's dull and Paulina is narcissistic.
Hell... I don't know.. It's not like I'm going to choose this novel as my 'go-to-recommend' novel.....but I enjoyed this weird pathetic and sometimes sexy and funny oddball novel. For a sauna $1.99 read...I'd rate it 3 stars. ( maybe even 3.4)
February 10, 2017
Paulina and Fran are total opposites. Where Paulina is promiscuous, outgoing and cruel, Fran is naive, introverted and caring. Both are beautiful however, and are fascinated by their differences. After only sighting each other on the dance floor at parties, the two find themselves on a school trip where a bond is formed. Their friendship is strong, but can it survive after one of the girls begins dating the others ex-boyfriend?
I wanted to love this, I really did, but Glaser makes it terribly difficult to due to how awful Paulina, her lead character is. I don't need all my characters in books to be good people, but when you are trying to create a powerful story about female connection through love and friendship, as I believe Glaser was attempting to do, you do want to be rooting for them. Paulina is such a disgusting, unsympathetic human being, everyone that comes in contact with her is repelled, except for Fran. It's difficult to understand why Fran would want to be around a person like this. Glaser gives no clue as to what has made Paulina so unbelievably egotistical and because of the fact that this book spans close to 10 years of these characters lives it was disappointing to not see any character development in regards to her personality. I kept on reading, waiting for something redeemable that never came.
There's a great book by Amanda Boyden called Pretty Little Dirty that is very similar and better written. Save yourself some time and pick that one up.
2.5/5
*Thanks to Harper and Edelweiss for this review copy.
I wanted to love this, I really did, but Glaser makes it terribly difficult to due to how awful Paulina, her lead character is. I don't need all my characters in books to be good people, but when you are trying to create a powerful story about female connection through love and friendship, as I believe Glaser was attempting to do, you do want to be rooting for them. Paulina is such a disgusting, unsympathetic human being, everyone that comes in contact with her is repelled, except for Fran. It's difficult to understand why Fran would want to be around a person like this. Glaser gives no clue as to what has made Paulina so unbelievably egotistical and because of the fact that this book spans close to 10 years of these characters lives it was disappointing to not see any character development in regards to her personality. I kept on reading, waiting for something redeemable that never came.
There's a great book by Amanda Boyden called Pretty Little Dirty that is very similar and better written. Save yourself some time and pick that one up.
2.5/5
*Thanks to Harper and Edelweiss for this review copy.
December 5, 2015
Many of us probably knew someone like Paulina, one of the title characters in Rachel B. Glaser's debut novel,
Paulina & Fran
. Always larger than life, always wanting to be the center of attention, women and men are drawn to her, and they often feel illuminated by her attention—until she tires of them and discards them, leaving them resentful. She seduces men and women to feel desirable and in control, and doesn't handle rejection well. And she isn't interested in other people's lives or problems at all, despite her reassurances to the contrary.
An art school student with little to no discernible artistic talent, Paulina is coasting academically. On a school trip to Norway, abandoned by the most recent object of her infatuation, she meets Fran, who is equally beautiful although she lacks Paulina's confidence, possesses artistic talent she can't seem to harness, and is sweet and trusting. The two quickly form an intense bond.
"She felt Gretchen was the kind of girlfriend she would be offered again and again by the adult world, the real world, but Paulina was someone truly original, someone who existed only once."
Paulina and Fran's friendship blossoms fully, leaving their other friends by the wayside. And then Fran decides to begin dating one of Paulina's ex-boyfriends, someone Paulina grew tired of and rejected. But as happens so often in life, once Fran finds him appealing, Paulina isn't so sure she doesn't want him anymore. However, she instead decides to do everything in her power to destroy their relationship, even if it means severing her friendship with Fran at the same time. And in one fell swoop, one action and its aftermath change everything, including their paths post-graduation.
This book was really intriguing, although both main characters aren't particularly likable. In Paulina, Glaser creates such an egotistical yet flawed dynamo, one who always draws your attention when she's on the page, yet after a while her fury and appeal peters out. (Luckily she regains both for a short while.) While people like Paulina do exist, at times I just found her ability to coast from opportunity to opportunity a little unbelievable. But Glaser's dialogue is funny, ribald, and occasionally moving, and her use of language and imagery is particularly vivid. She truly captures the mixture of innocence and cynicism that comes toward the end of college, and the weariness of recent graduates as they try to find their way.
I've seen this referred to as a "woman's novel." While it is about women, and perhaps women are more likely to have the type of intense friendships that occurred in the book, Paulina & Fran was definitely intriguing and entertaining for me. I think we could all use a little of Paulina's energy in our lives, perhaps without some of her intensity.
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
An art school student with little to no discernible artistic talent, Paulina is coasting academically. On a school trip to Norway, abandoned by the most recent object of her infatuation, she meets Fran, who is equally beautiful although she lacks Paulina's confidence, possesses artistic talent she can't seem to harness, and is sweet and trusting. The two quickly form an intense bond.
"She felt Gretchen was the kind of girlfriend she would be offered again and again by the adult world, the real world, but Paulina was someone truly original, someone who existed only once."
Paulina and Fran's friendship blossoms fully, leaving their other friends by the wayside. And then Fran decides to begin dating one of Paulina's ex-boyfriends, someone Paulina grew tired of and rejected. But as happens so often in life, once Fran finds him appealing, Paulina isn't so sure she doesn't want him anymore. However, she instead decides to do everything in her power to destroy their relationship, even if it means severing her friendship with Fran at the same time. And in one fell swoop, one action and its aftermath change everything, including their paths post-graduation.
This book was really intriguing, although both main characters aren't particularly likable. In Paulina, Glaser creates such an egotistical yet flawed dynamo, one who always draws your attention when she's on the page, yet after a while her fury and appeal peters out. (Luckily she regains both for a short while.) While people like Paulina do exist, at times I just found her ability to coast from opportunity to opportunity a little unbelievable. But Glaser's dialogue is funny, ribald, and occasionally moving, and her use of language and imagery is particularly vivid. She truly captures the mixture of innocence and cynicism that comes toward the end of college, and the weariness of recent graduates as they try to find their way.
I've seen this referred to as a "woman's novel." While it is about women, and perhaps women are more likely to have the type of intense friendships that occurred in the book, Paulina & Fran was definitely intriguing and entertaining for me. I think we could all use a little of Paulina's energy in our lives, perhaps without some of her intensity.
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
June 4, 2016
"I'm not like other girls. You can't straighten my curls."--PJ Harvey
It's rare to be so utterly entertained by a novel, and also to feel it, to fully believe in the people inside the world of the book. This is an intelligent, funny-as-hell, hip, sad, speedway of a novel. I loved it. I gobbled it. Long live the short novel! Rachel Glaser uses telling in such wonderful ways here, to plunge us into the lives of the characters, into the everyday, the routines. You can learn so much and feel so much in a paragraph. Time passes quickly, but I still felt nostalgic for what had come before. The scenes burst out like firecrackers. The dialogue is genius and often hysterically funny.
I think this novel is about how hard it is to attach ourselves to other people: friends, lovers, anyone. It's terrifying to allow closeness, to accept the other body. We fight it. We grow cruel. We seek out intimacy. We fail.
Just read it, ok? See yourself in it. Deny you see yourself in it. Have you ever been jealous? Have you ever lashed out at someone you love because you know exactly how to hurt them?
I can't wait for more Glaser on my shelf.
It's rare to be so utterly entertained by a novel, and also to feel it, to fully believe in the people inside the world of the book. This is an intelligent, funny-as-hell, hip, sad, speedway of a novel. I loved it. I gobbled it. Long live the short novel! Rachel Glaser uses telling in such wonderful ways here, to plunge us into the lives of the characters, into the everyday, the routines. You can learn so much and feel so much in a paragraph. Time passes quickly, but I still felt nostalgic for what had come before. The scenes burst out like firecrackers. The dialogue is genius and often hysterically funny.
I think this novel is about how hard it is to attach ourselves to other people: friends, lovers, anyone. It's terrifying to allow closeness, to accept the other body. We fight it. We grow cruel. We seek out intimacy. We fail.
Just read it, ok? See yourself in it. Deny you see yourself in it. Have you ever been jealous? Have you ever lashed out at someone you love because you know exactly how to hurt them?
I can't wait for more Glaser on my shelf.
March 6, 2016
(My interview with Rachel B. Glaser is now available at For Books’ Sake. I tried not to let my distaste for the book get in the way of asking her thoughtful, objective questions.)
Full of blunt, faux-profound sentences and smutty, two-dimensional characters. Others may rave about it, but this wasn’t for me. I get that it is a satire on female friendship and youth entitlement. But I hated how the main characters get involved in a love triangle, and once they leave college any interest I had in them largely disappeared.
Least favorite lines:
“Paulina. She’s like Cleopatra, but more squat.” / “She’s more like Humphrey Bogart.”
“She craved the zen-ness of being rammed.”
Full of blunt, faux-profound sentences and smutty, two-dimensional characters. Others may rave about it, but this wasn’t for me. I get that it is a satire on female friendship and youth entitlement. But I hated how the main characters get involved in a love triangle, and once they leave college any interest I had in them largely disappeared.
Least favorite lines:
“Paulina. She’s like Cleopatra, but more squat.” / “She’s more like Humphrey Bogart.”
“She craved the zen-ness of being rammed.”
May 19, 2017
Beautifully written, lots of amazing sentences, but so stylised and mannered and empty. I didn't hate the characters - I found them so unreal that I couldn't even think of them in terms of whether I liked them. I couldn't see Paulina and Fran as actual people, their friendships or relationships as something that would ever exist outside the pages of a novel. I didn't believe in their connection for one second. Paulina's success with her hair products brand felt like something a 12-year-old would make up about their future dream career. It all reminded me of a book version of Mistress America, about which I had similar reservations. The (ahem) climax of the protagonists' college relationship was just so lazy, too easy, but like everything in this story, it seemed more symbolic than anything else.
I did warm to Paulina at points like this (and wish there had been more of these moments of humour):
p102: The dance floor was barbaric and free. Mystic shined a flashlight over the dancers. Paulina closed her eyes and replayed the compliments she'd received about her hair. She opened her eyes and saw Sadie dancing with Fran. Sadie's hand caressed Fran's curls and they danced, flitting around each other like preteens. Paulina raged inside herself. Why couldn't people stay where she put them? They were always pairing up to destroy her!
"Babe, meet Darlene," Mystic said. "She's an art history major too." Paulina glanced at the slight redhead before her. She had the figure of a pencil.
"Art history is dead," Paulina said and stormed off to find drugs.
p114: As she approached campus, she passed huddled groups of her classmates and paid them no mind. What the fuck were they whispering about? Her? Art students are so dramatic, she thought, weaving around them. She wasn't like them. She was a scholar. God, no, scholar sounded so stuffy and tweed and blah. She was one of the great thinkers of her time.
I didn't much like the whole but I loved certain details. This was incidentally similar to the last book I read - Yelena Moskovich's The Natashas - in that it's filled with brilliant similes and creative descriptions of people and things (it's fittingly arty throughout), but the characters feel forgotten about in comparison, and lack depth. I just wish Glaser had applied her sparkling style to something more interesting than a bunch of students sleeping with each other. (Maybe you need to be the same age as Paulina and Fran, or younger and in awe of the type of lives they lead, to really enjoy their story. And to be fair, I'd heard a lot about this and never intended to read it - I only changed my mind because I found it at the library.)
I did warm to Paulina at points like this (and wish there had been more of these moments of humour):
p102: The dance floor was barbaric and free. Mystic shined a flashlight over the dancers. Paulina closed her eyes and replayed the compliments she'd received about her hair. She opened her eyes and saw Sadie dancing with Fran. Sadie's hand caressed Fran's curls and they danced, flitting around each other like preteens. Paulina raged inside herself. Why couldn't people stay where she put them? They were always pairing up to destroy her!
"Babe, meet Darlene," Mystic said. "She's an art history major too." Paulina glanced at the slight redhead before her. She had the figure of a pencil.
"Art history is dead," Paulina said and stormed off to find drugs.
p114: As she approached campus, she passed huddled groups of her classmates and paid them no mind. What the fuck were they whispering about? Her? Art students are so dramatic, she thought, weaving around them. She wasn't like them. She was a scholar. God, no, scholar sounded so stuffy and tweed and blah. She was one of the great thinkers of her time.
I didn't much like the whole but I loved certain details. This was incidentally similar to the last book I read - Yelena Moskovich's The Natashas - in that it's filled with brilliant similes and creative descriptions of people and things (it's fittingly arty throughout), but the characters feel forgotten about in comparison, and lack depth. I just wish Glaser had applied her sparkling style to something more interesting than a bunch of students sleeping with each other. (Maybe you need to be the same age as Paulina and Fran, or younger and in awe of the type of lives they lead, to really enjoy their story. And to be fair, I'd heard a lot about this and never intended to read it - I only changed my mind because I found it at the library.)
April 14, 2019
I had a really good time with this book! Everytime I opened the pages I looked forward to spending more time in the life of Paulina and Fran.
While I can see how this book is definitely not for everyone, I really enjoyed the over-exaggerated characters and their toxic, damaging behavior. I know some readers criticized the non-existing character growth...I actually liked this fact. It was a really interesting take on how often humans want the whole world to change, but even with best intentions fall back into old behavioral traps.
Definitely one of my favorites so far this year and hope to read more of hers.
While I can see how this book is definitely not for everyone, I really enjoyed the over-exaggerated characters and their toxic, damaging behavior. I know some readers criticized the non-existing character growth...I actually liked this fact. It was a really interesting take on how often humans want the whole world to change, but even with best intentions fall back into old behavioral traps.
Definitely one of my favorites so far this year and hope to read more of hers.
August 31, 2015
I loved this book because I often hated the main characters, yet I wanted everything good in the world to happen to them. They were real, and really flawed, yet I saw parts of much of myself in them. Rachel writes with biting, vivid prose and shines a light on the ugly and beautiful in each of her characters, especially Paulina. After reading her depictions of art school and life afterward, I feel as if I too have been part of that world, and I closed the book with a slight hangover.
September 11, 2015
I love Glaser and loved this book. Reminded me of Woolf and made me long for more of it--this book, youth, experience. Been thinking about it all day after reading. With writing so great the story can do whatever she wants. Great fury. Amazing observations and creation in fiction of the misery and joys of narcism in life in early 20's.
March 31, 2016
It's been a while since I rated a book 1 star, and I did wonder if I was being a little too harsh with this one. Ultimately though, I have to be honest, and although I didn't hate this book, I would not recommend it to anyone in any shape or form.
The book follows two characters, Paulina and Fran, who meet while studying at art school, and the book follows their tempestuous relationship and how it affects them in later life post-college. On paper this book should have been perfect for me - it had all the elements I love in a book: campus novels, art school with pretentious art students, sex, LGBT themes, self-discovery, etc. But this book just did not deliver on these things. What it did deliver were two of the most annoying characters known to man.
Paulina is a mess, and a terrible person, and normally I quite enjoy unlikeable characters but there were genuinely no redeeming qualities to Paulina whatsoever. She was the ultimate mean girl, and she was completely self-obsessed and inflated with her own sense of superiority to the extent that it was just embarrassing. Fran on the other hand was bland bland bland - she didn't ever stick up for herself, and hung on to a clearly toxic friendship which made me feel like shaking her to wake her up.
LGBT themes? Few and far between. There's one character who is a lesbian, and the two main characters dabble but it felt completely and utterly pointlessly inserted into the plot in order to spice things up.
I wasn't blown away by the writing particularly, and the story felt unrealistic and slow. Don't get me started on Paulina's future endeavours (read the book if you want to find out, but it's highly improbable and cheesy). And GOD don't get me started on how much the two characters go on and on about their curls. I don't care. End of.
This honestly makes me sound like I hated the book, and I don't. I didn't struggle to read this - I pretty much zipped through it, and it was a very easy, light read. However, the problem was that I just didn't really care about anything or anyone in this book, and if it hadn't been so easy to read I probably would have put it down. Would not recommend this at all.
The book follows two characters, Paulina and Fran, who meet while studying at art school, and the book follows their tempestuous relationship and how it affects them in later life post-college. On paper this book should have been perfect for me - it had all the elements I love in a book: campus novels, art school with pretentious art students, sex, LGBT themes, self-discovery, etc. But this book just did not deliver on these things. What it did deliver were two of the most annoying characters known to man.
Paulina is a mess, and a terrible person, and normally I quite enjoy unlikeable characters but there were genuinely no redeeming qualities to Paulina whatsoever. She was the ultimate mean girl, and she was completely self-obsessed and inflated with her own sense of superiority to the extent that it was just embarrassing. Fran on the other hand was bland bland bland - she didn't ever stick up for herself, and hung on to a clearly toxic friendship which made me feel like shaking her to wake her up.
LGBT themes? Few and far between. There's one character who is a lesbian, and the two main characters dabble but it felt completely and utterly pointlessly inserted into the plot in order to spice things up.
I wasn't blown away by the writing particularly, and the story felt unrealistic and slow. Don't get me started on Paulina's future endeavours (read the book if you want to find out, but it's highly improbable and cheesy). And GOD don't get me started on how much the two characters go on and on about their curls. I don't care. End of.
This honestly makes me sound like I hated the book, and I don't. I didn't struggle to read this - I pretty much zipped through it, and it was a very easy, light read. However, the problem was that I just didn't really care about anything or anyone in this book, and if it hadn't been so easy to read I probably would have put it down. Would not recommend this at all.
November 19, 2015
Whole book reads like it could be carved into the side of a mountain. Every sentence, every word, just totally perfectly cut. Only wish I hadn't had to spend the whole book wishing the main character might get hit by a bus.
February 20, 2018
Look, this book is so beautifully written, has poweful queer characters, tells A LOT of their relationships without having to show it all (which I find amazing)... but I'm so angry at that ending.
I kept telling my self all the time "yeah, there's only like 5 pages left, but I'm sure Rachel will fix it all there, right?".
Rachel didn't.
I closed the book and I was so sad because I hated how things worked out for them in the end.
In my head she takes the elevator, though.
I kept telling my self all the time "yeah, there's only like 5 pages left, but I'm sure Rachel will fix it all there, right?".
Rachel didn't.
I closed the book and I was so sad because I hated how things worked out for them in the end.
In my head she takes the elevator, though.
December 11, 2017
Fast paced and oddly compelling. Didn't really like the two main characters or their actions, but I couldn't stop reading. Was contemplating giving this 4 stars, but the ending really annoyed me so 3 stars it is.
October 15, 2016
There are so few women in literature who are amoral, who sail through life with the carelessness that Paulina does. The world seems eager to punish her for it, and I can imagine the blowback to her character she may inspire. But I loved her, and the romance she shares with Fran. It's sweet and obsessive and dark and calculating. A perfect millennial whirlwind of drama and overwrought emotion. I will say the ending is abrupt, but it's poetry and detail more than make up for it.
May 31, 2015
I inhaled this book - brilliant, sparkling jags on each page, sometimes every paragraph. All about women and the small terrible things we sometimes do to one another, condensed down into two bodies all young and immortal and fading and cruel.
December 28, 2015
Huh. OK. That was...weird. I liked the writing and was compelled to finish but...I don't know if I liked it. It was depressing in a Bret Easton Ellis way that makes me anxious. I don't like stories that make me anxious...
September 28, 2016
A party in paragraphs that socks you in the mouth when you least expect. I’d pay tuition to this book if it meant I could stay the whole year.
February 27, 2016
So playful, quotable, tragic, & fun! And brave for how gamely it takes young people self-obsession seriously without ever wagging a finger. Oh, and and and, the last third or so is probably the best part, and confirms that it's even more ambitious than we might've thought at first.
I read part of the book, lost it, found it, read the rest, on the day I finished on a trip to Boston it my sister's kid's babysitter already knew all about the book, said she'd read the first chapter and really wanted to read the rest. I was impressed because I live in Los Angeles and people don't read books here.
I read part of the book, lost it, found it, read the rest, on the day I finished on a trip to Boston it my sister's kid's babysitter already knew all about the book, said she'd read the first chapter and really wanted to read the rest. I was impressed because I live in Los Angeles and people don't read books here.
September 13, 2015
I was so excited to read this, especially after listening to the book riot review but Glaser makes it difficult Paulina, her lead character is horrible. I thought this was going to be a powerful story about female connection through love and friendship. I wanted to be rooting for the characters not feeling sorry for them or comp,lately despising them. Paulina is such a disgusting, unsympathetic human being.I kept on reading, waiting for something redeemable that never came.
September 7, 2015
Do you miss college melodrama? Then read this book.
August 26, 2016
viciously fun and absorbing. acerbic, mean, and delightful. final third sags a bit, but a terrific ending makes up for it.
May 25, 2017
now these were the party scenes i was looking for!
November 29, 2016
Probably more of a 1.5 stars. Only reason I gave this 2 stars is because while I hated basically every single thing about this book, it was a quick and easy read that I didn't wanna put down despite that.
This was just disappointing in so many different ways, I don't even know where to begin.
I hated the writing style. I guess it fit the story in a way but I just thought it was a mess and all over the place and often I didn't even recognize which character we were following.
The characters were unlikeable and stupid. There's book where an unlikeable character adds to the story but this was so character driven that I don't understand how there was not one likeable character in this story. It was just annoying to read. And this book had a time span of almost 10 years and there was no character development whatsoever. I didn't even notice that any of the characters grew up in any way. For all I know this could have taken place over just a few weeks, it would not have made any difference.
The representation of love and friendship and even sexual desire in this is just absolutely ridiculous to me. It didn't feel like a realistic representation. There's certainly people out there who think and feel that way but in this story it was basically EVERYONE. But also just the general storyline, especially after out main characters graduated was just super unrealistic and unbelivable.
I wouldn't recommend this book at all. I thought that maybe at the end of it I would be able to see something in it, to understand a message behind all of this but I just don't see a point.
This was just disappointing in so many different ways, I don't even know where to begin.
I hated the writing style. I guess it fit the story in a way but I just thought it was a mess and all over the place and often I didn't even recognize which character we were following.
The characters were unlikeable and stupid. There's book where an unlikeable character adds to the story but this was so character driven that I don't understand how there was not one likeable character in this story. It was just annoying to read. And this book had a time span of almost 10 years and there was no character development whatsoever. I didn't even notice that any of the characters grew up in any way. For all I know this could have taken place over just a few weeks, it would not have made any difference.
The representation of love and friendship and even sexual desire in this is just absolutely ridiculous to me. It didn't feel like a realistic representation. There's certainly people out there who think and feel that way but in this story it was basically EVERYONE. But also just the general storyline, especially after out main characters graduated was just super unrealistic and unbelivable.
I wouldn't recommend this book at all. I thought that maybe at the end of it I would be able to see something in it, to understand a message behind all of this but I just don't see a point.
February 24, 2016
I need to call Rachel B. Glaser right now and ask her so many things about this joyous book. Paulina is flighty, brilliant, cruel; Fran is lovely, curled, gentle. When Paulina decides to befriend Fran on a trip to Norway with their art school, so begins a friendship fill with honesty, romantic love and brutality. Paulina has possibly the sharpest tongue of any character and I regularly found myself shrieking at her barbed comments. Glaser's cutting humour leaves no corner of art school and young adult life untouched. My heart was all for them all the way through. The toxic friendship reminded me so so much of Lina and Elena from Ferrante's Neapolitan Saga!
Thanks to Harper/Granta for the review copy!
Thanks to Harper/Granta for the review copy!
September 26, 2015
This may be considered one of the best books this fall but not by me. I read the reviews and bought it but was very disappointed. While it is well written I doubt many over 50 will find it entertaining. It left me wondering if I was that self-centered and cruel when I was at college. Actually, I found this book sad not funny.
September 8, 2017
I was led to this by Ms. Glaser appearing on Granta's list of young American novelists. By sheer coincidence the book is published by Granta. There's definitely a voice in there and a tale told with wit and vigor, but it feels a little like a first novel or a doctoral submission. It's mannered and a tad overwritten, but more than occasionally charming and, sometimes, even a little surprising.
September 16, 2015
Funny and sad and filled with dancing. I probably shouldn't have read this book after quitting my job to write for awhile but I did, and I am quietly devastated. Thanks a lot, Rachel.
April 11, 2021
I have a lot of emotions about this book! it started off so simple and dramatic and inconsequential and then it made me feel so many things! I am upset!
October 25, 2015
I finished this in a day--couldn't put it down. Just plain fun to read. Can't wait for the next novel from this author.
May 14, 2018
There are unlikable characters, and then there’s Paulina.
I honestly think books like these just go over my head. I’m sure this book has real artistic and literary integrity, but I’ve realized that the stories I love reach out and touch me, or draw me into their world. I read this book from about twenty feet away, scared to get close.
The most I enjoyed this book was when Paulina and Fran were sensing and communicating with each other through Julian. And the lack of closure was obviously intentional but extremely disappointing for me.
I honestly think books like these just go over my head. I’m sure this book has real artistic and literary integrity, but I’ve realized that the stories I love reach out and touch me, or draw me into their world. I read this book from about twenty feet away, scared to get close.
The most I enjoyed this book was when Paulina and Fran were sensing and communicating with each other through Julian. And the lack of closure was obviously intentional but extremely disappointing for me.
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