She's the Girl: Part Headtrip. Part Roadtrip. a Gender-Bending Journey on the Road to Ruune

by Susan M. Brooks

Natalie loves love. Fairy tale endings; rose petals on the bed; a ring at the bottom of a champagne the mythological promises of love that women like Nat come to expect, to want and miss. It's an idea that has gestated for most of Nat's thirty-five years. But having never been surprised with a thousand daisies on her front door, or a proposal written among the clouds, Nat clings to the hope for love, the Possibility. It's this lure of Possibility that inspires her to drive nearly 2,000 miles to surprise her high school sweetheart. She starts out with a singular vision of what love What it looks like, tastes like, acts like -- what it simply must be. But her meticulously planned itinerary is almost immediately thrown off course by a collection of gender-bending characters (and experiences) that continually contradict, challenge, and compromise Nat's firm grasp of What Love Is. Through confessions of others, pasts revealed, and epiphanies about herself, Nat's belief system, her picture of the prize is completely deconstructed, leaving in its wake the terrible realization that Love, as she has believed it should be, is nothing more than a figment of her own imagination; just another Big Girl Lie; as tangible as the image of the Blessed Virgin on a garage door somewhere out in the Valley. "She's the Girl" is a funny tale of a woman who learns the hard way that love is never what it appears to be.

300 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2004

Reviews

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, what I didn't like: the ending. It seemed too out of the blue and not even the slightest believable. I couldn't find a strong foundation for it, even after going back over the events and interactions of the bulk of the book.

And that's about it really. I did find myself a little annoyed by the main character at times; she seemed a bit too slow when it came to certain realizations. But I love Susan Brooks' characters and writing, and this story definitely had some interesting scenes, both dramatic and (intentionally) comic. I'd recommend Brooks' "Collecting Candace" over this, but if the synopsis of this books sounds better to you, then go for it. You'll have a good read either way.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ended up really liking the book! Good good good stuff!