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I Think I Love You
The new novel from the best-selling author of I Don’t Know How She Does It takes us on an unforgettable journey into first love, and—with the emotional intensity and penetrating wit that have made her beloved among readers all over the world—reminds us of how the ardor of our youth can ignite our adult lives.
Wales, 1974. Petra and Sharon, two thirteen-year-old girls, are obsessed with David Cassidy. His fan magazine is their Bible, and some days his letters are the only things that keep them going as they struggle through the humiliating daily rituals of adolescence—confronting their bewildering new bodies, fighting with mothers who don’t understand them at all. Together they tackle the Ultimate David Cassidy Quiz, a contest whose winners will be flown to America to meet Cassidy in person.
London, 1998. Petra is pushing forty, on the brink of divorce, and fighting with her own thirteen-year-old daughter when she discovers a dusty letter in her mother’s closet declaring her the winner of the contest she and Sharon had labored over with such hope and determination. More than twenty years later, twenty pounds heavier, bruised by grief and the disappointments of middle age, Petra reunites with Sharon for an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas to meet their teen idol at last, and finds her life utterly transformed.
Funny, moving, full of beautiful observations about the awakenings of both youth and middle age, Allison Pearson’s long-awaited new novel will speak across generations to mothers and daughters and women of all ages.
Wales, 1974. Petra and Sharon, two thirteen-year-old girls, are obsessed with David Cassidy. His fan magazine is their Bible, and some days his letters are the only things that keep them going as they struggle through the humiliating daily rituals of adolescence—confronting their bewildering new bodies, fighting with mothers who don’t understand them at all. Together they tackle the Ultimate David Cassidy Quiz, a contest whose winners will be flown to America to meet Cassidy in person.
London, 1998. Petra is pushing forty, on the brink of divorce, and fighting with her own thirteen-year-old daughter when she discovers a dusty letter in her mother’s closet declaring her the winner of the contest she and Sharon had labored over with such hope and determination. More than twenty years later, twenty pounds heavier, bruised by grief and the disappointments of middle age, Petra reunites with Sharon for an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas to meet their teen idol at last, and finds her life utterly transformed.
Funny, moving, full of beautiful observations about the awakenings of both youth and middle age, Allison Pearson’s long-awaited new novel will speak across generations to mothers and daughters and women of all ages.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
About the author
Allison Pearson
18 books397 followersAllison Pearson was born in South Wales. An award-winning journalist, she was named Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards for her first novel, I Don't Know How She Does It. Allison has written for many magazines and newspapers including the Daily Telegraph, the Independent, the Observer, the Sunday Times and the London Evening Standard. For four years she was the popular Wednesday columnist of the Daily Mail. Allison lives in Cambridge with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 823 reviews
August 1, 2011
I listened to this on audio CD, which provided the wonderful Welsh and British accents that really enriched the story.
The first half of the book describes the extreme crushes on then-teen-idol-David-Cassidy held by a 1970s Welsh teenage girl, Petra, and her friends. By turns humorous and bittersweet, it perfectly chronicles the social angst of trying to "be part of the crowd" as a teenager. The characterization of the manipulative and somewhat nasty leader, the "perfect" Jillian, is spot-on for that age group.
It also tells the story of a young college grad who finds himself in the embarrassing position of writing for a David Cassidy fan club magazine. The young man must pretend to be David Cassidy and write gushy essays to David's fans. He makes up a lot of it--even David's favorite color, which he says is brown!
The plot crescendos at the fateful (real-life) Cassidy concert in White City, at which the hysterical mobs caused dozens of injuries and the eventual death of one young girl.
The second half of the book, which is also witty and absorbing, follows Petra and the journalist into later life, when their paths cross again. The character of Sharon, Petra's childhood best friend who is now all grown-up, added just the touch of brightness and humor the story needed. I fell in love with Sharon's hilariously sweet and unpretentious observations.
One of my favorite parts of the book was the afterword, in which the author interviews the now middle-aged David Cassidy. He came across as very kind, candid, and above all, wise enough to get out of the teen-idol world before it consumed him.
I highly recommend this poignant, humorous and resonant novel.
The first half of the book describes the extreme crushes on then-teen-idol-David-Cassidy held by a 1970s Welsh teenage girl, Petra, and her friends. By turns humorous and bittersweet, it perfectly chronicles the social angst of trying to "be part of the crowd" as a teenager. The characterization of the manipulative and somewhat nasty leader, the "perfect" Jillian, is spot-on for that age group.
It also tells the story of a young college grad who finds himself in the embarrassing position of writing for a David Cassidy fan club magazine. The young man must pretend to be David Cassidy and write gushy essays to David's fans. He makes up a lot of it--even David's favorite color, which he says is brown!
The plot crescendos at the fateful (real-life) Cassidy concert in White City, at which the hysterical mobs caused dozens of injuries and the eventual death of one young girl.
The second half of the book, which is also witty and absorbing, follows Petra and the journalist into later life, when their paths cross again. The character of Sharon, Petra's childhood best friend who is now all grown-up, added just the touch of brightness and humor the story needed. I fell in love with Sharon's hilariously sweet and unpretentious observations.
One of my favorite parts of the book was the afterword, in which the author interviews the now middle-aged David Cassidy. He came across as very kind, candid, and above all, wise enough to get out of the teen-idol world before it consumed him.
I highly recommend this poignant, humorous and resonant novel.
March 14, 2011
Hello World, there's a book that I'm reading/ Come on it's Crappy!
Ugh- it started out well enough- very evocative of adolescence with an interesting Welsh setting. Though sometimes the dialog felt forced, as though some characters were just setting for a "spike." But everything went majorly pear-shaped in the second half. The author took a character I had cared about and made her deeply unappealing. She also fell into the "talking heads" trap where there's no real action- just people yammering at each other. Again there were characters that existed for no reason except to set up the main characters for obvious long-overdue revelations. It's like Pearson started writing a book and decided not to actually finish it.
"I'm reading
And right in the middle of an okay book
When all at once I wake up
From something that keeps knockin' at my brain.
Before I go insane
I hold my kindle to my head
And spring up in my bed
Screaming out the words I dread:
"I think I hate you!"
ONE STAR
Also I read that the author said some messed up stuff about princess beatrice in bikini- called her a Miss Piggy. So nuts to her- make that Zero stars. Burn.
Ugh- it started out well enough- very evocative of adolescence with an interesting Welsh setting. Though sometimes the dialog felt forced, as though some characters were just setting for a "spike." But everything went majorly pear-shaped in the second half. The author took a character I had cared about and made her deeply unappealing. She also fell into the "talking heads" trap where there's no real action- just people yammering at each other. Again there were characters that existed for no reason except to set up the main characters for obvious long-overdue revelations. It's like Pearson started writing a book and decided not to actually finish it.
"I'm reading
And right in the middle of an okay book
When all at once I wake up
From something that keeps knockin' at my brain.
Before I go insane
I hold my kindle to my head
And spring up in my bed
Screaming out the words I dread:
"I think I hate you!"
ONE STAR
Also I read that the author said some messed up stuff about princess beatrice in bikini- called her a Miss Piggy. So nuts to her- make that Zero stars. Burn.
September 23, 2017
I really liked this mainly because I could relate to Petra and Sharon. Like them, I had unhealthy infatuations with celebrities who have no idea I exist. In fact, I still have these obsessions (I’m still waiting for Tim Lincecum to marry me).
As for the storyline, I liked how it included the perspectives of both Petra and Bill. You got to see two different sides to the David Cassidy mania.
Overall, I enjoyed this novel and its insights into fangirl culture circa 1974.
As for the storyline, I liked how it included the perspectives of both Petra and Bill. You got to see two different sides to the David Cassidy mania.
Overall, I enjoyed this novel and its insights into fangirl culture circa 1974.
October 30, 2011
Before I talk about Allison Pearson’s delightful novel, I Think I Love You, I have to talk about David Cassidy. I think it’s important for you to understand my total predisposition to love this book based on my adolescent feelings about David. I LOVED HIM! Oh, I know I wasn’t alone – millions of girls my age loved him. It’s just that I loved him more. And to illustrate the deep personal connection we had, let me tell you about what happened to me in 1995 at the backstage door of the London production of Blood Brothers. For four weeks only, David Cassidy played the role of Mickey. As luck would have it I was living in England at the time, where I’d been teaching high school English in a little town outside of Birmingham. My husband and I were due to fly home for Christmas and so we arranged to go down to London early so I could see the play. I was 34.
Let me back up. My love for David Cassidy came on the heels of my love for Davy Jones (The Monkees). Call me fickle, but who hasn’t heard “Day Dream Believer” and fallen just a little bit in love with Davy’s accented voice?
Then The Partridge Family debuted on television and I was knocked off my feet. I joined the fan club (wish I still had that little plastic record they sent!) I bought TigerBeat magazines by the truckload; I still have have scrapbooks and pictures galore. I sent hundreds of friendship books and slams through the mail. (Anyone else remember those?) I bought all the records – still have them - and the puka shells and the Indian cotton shirts. I believe when I was 13, I even had David’s shag hair style. Trust me, it didn’t look nearly as good on me!
So to be sitting in a theatre where I would be hearing David sing live was slightly surreal. I have to admit, I was a little bit nervous. I was dreading that moment when I learned that my childhood memories of him were eclipsed by the reality. After all, he was 20 years older, too. And what if he couldn’t really sing? I shouldn’t have worried. While he didn’t sing enough, when I did hear that clear beautiful voice live for the first time it took me straight back to my childhood. I think I started to cry after the first note. I think I cried pretty much through the rest of the performance.
The musical was spectacular and so was David. After it was over, I said to my husband, “I need to meet him.” In my head, our eyes would lock, I would invite him for drinks and because I was from North America and so was he, he’d agree and it would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. I wasn’t counting on the fact that at least 75 other women of my vintage would also be waiting for their opportunity to have their moment with David. Even when I turned the corner of the theatre and saw them all standing there, I was still convinced that he’d pick me.
Finally the stage door opened and David appeared, with Petula Clark (the hussy!) on his arm. There was an audible intake of breath from all the ladies – and an amused chuckle from their long suffering husbands – and then David spoke: “Thanks for coming. I’m happy to sign autographs for everyone, but if I could just ask you to take a step back that would be great.”
I hung back and rehearsed what I would say to David. “Hi. I’m from Canada. I’ve loved you since I was 10. I have all your records. Do you want to go for a drink?” Something like that. Not very eloquent, I guess, but it was the best I could do considering the blood pounding in my head and my heart racing in my chest. David Cassidy! OMG!
The crowd didn’t exactly thin out, but as women got their autographs, they’d move aside and let others have their opportunity. The kind lady standing next to me offered me her pen when I realized I didn’t have one and then…
I was standing in front of him, playbill in hand, staring up into those soulful hazel eyes (he was standing on a step; height isn’t one of DC’s attributes, sadly!) I think David said “Hi. Thanks for coming.” I think I said, “Grdodvnlsnolrijosrivl.” He signed my programme and then I burst into tears and had to be led away by my husband.
Soon afterwards, David and Petula got into a fancy car of some sort and sped off into the London night. I wish I could say that this was the only time a celebrity has made me cry. I’ll save my story about David Boreanaz for another day though.
Here’s a great clip of David and his brother Shaun talking about performing in Blood Brothers on Broadway on the Regis and Kathy Lee Show. Near the end, they sing together. It never fails to make me teary.
http://youtu.be/BgQ3xxpedhc
All this brings me to Allison Pearson’s novel, I Think I Love You.
Petra is thirteen, Welsh and hopelessly devoted to David Cassidy. She remarks early on in the story:
Honest, it’s amazing the things you can know about someone you don’t know. I knew the date of his birth – April 12, 1950. He was the typical Aries, but without the Arian’s stubborness. I knew his height and his weight and his favourite drink, 7Up. I knew the names of his parents and his stepmother, the Broadway musical star. I knew all about his love of horses, which made perfect sense to me because when you’re that famous it must be comforting to be around someone who doesn’t know or care what famous is.
I Think I Love You captures – in glorious detail - that first giddy adolescent crush just about every girl has had on a celebrity. Petra is a very real creation. She’s smart and beautiful (but not in the right way for a 13 year old) and she plays the cello. She longs to be popular like her classmate, Gillian. Her one true friend, Sharon, shares her love of David and the two girls spend hours in Sharon’s bedroom, making scrapbooks and taking turns kissing David’s posters. (Petra’s stern German mother would never let her put posters of a pop star on her walls.)
Petra’s story is paralleled by Bill’s. Fresh out of college with a degree in English, Bill is hired to write for The Essential David Cassidy Magazine. Not just hired to write, hired to be David Cassidy – writing notes about his life and answering letters from fans. There’s a hysterical moment when he arrives for his interview and mistakes a picture of David on the cover of a magazine for a girl, exclaiming she’s not his type.
Petra and Bill’s lives coincide when they both attend David’s famous White City concert. At the height of his career, when David Cassidy was pretty much the biggest star on the planet, he played a show at this London venue and a young girl died. David retired from performing after that.
Pearson’s novel isn’t just a trip down memory lane, though. We revisit Petra as an adult just as her life begins to unravel – as lives sometimes do. Her mother has just died and her husband, Marcus, has recently announced that he is leaving her. Her daughter, Molly, is 13 and has her own celebrity crush on Leonardo Di caprio. Suddenly Petra is adrift. The life she thought she built is falling apart and she isn’t quite sure what to do about that. Her salvation comes, strangely enough, in a pink envelope addressed in her very own hand.
I Think I Love You was so much fun to read. I was that girl – totally in love with a pop star. I have also been adult Petra, trying desperately to hold onto the dangling ends of my fraying life. Lots of touchstones in this book for me.
And I don’t think you have to have been a David Cassidy fan to appreciate the references to those popstar magazines we all read religiously. Sure, being of a certain vintage allows certain references to resonate more strongly, but I Think I Love You has lots to say about first love, childhood friendships, dreams dashed and even more miraculously, realized.
Here's The Partridge Family singing "I Think I Love You."
http://youtu.be/wJYSu2OVCGM
Let me back up. My love for David Cassidy came on the heels of my love for Davy Jones (The Monkees). Call me fickle, but who hasn’t heard “Day Dream Believer” and fallen just a little bit in love with Davy’s accented voice?
Then The Partridge Family debuted on television and I was knocked off my feet. I joined the fan club (wish I still had that little plastic record they sent!) I bought TigerBeat magazines by the truckload; I still have have scrapbooks and pictures galore. I sent hundreds of friendship books and slams through the mail. (Anyone else remember those?) I bought all the records – still have them - and the puka shells and the Indian cotton shirts. I believe when I was 13, I even had David’s shag hair style. Trust me, it didn’t look nearly as good on me!
So to be sitting in a theatre where I would be hearing David sing live was slightly surreal. I have to admit, I was a little bit nervous. I was dreading that moment when I learned that my childhood memories of him were eclipsed by the reality. After all, he was 20 years older, too. And what if he couldn’t really sing? I shouldn’t have worried. While he didn’t sing enough, when I did hear that clear beautiful voice live for the first time it took me straight back to my childhood. I think I started to cry after the first note. I think I cried pretty much through the rest of the performance.
The musical was spectacular and so was David. After it was over, I said to my husband, “I need to meet him.” In my head, our eyes would lock, I would invite him for drinks and because I was from North America and so was he, he’d agree and it would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. I wasn’t counting on the fact that at least 75 other women of my vintage would also be waiting for their opportunity to have their moment with David. Even when I turned the corner of the theatre and saw them all standing there, I was still convinced that he’d pick me.
Finally the stage door opened and David appeared, with Petula Clark (the hussy!) on his arm. There was an audible intake of breath from all the ladies – and an amused chuckle from their long suffering husbands – and then David spoke: “Thanks for coming. I’m happy to sign autographs for everyone, but if I could just ask you to take a step back that would be great.”
I hung back and rehearsed what I would say to David. “Hi. I’m from Canada. I’ve loved you since I was 10. I have all your records. Do you want to go for a drink?” Something like that. Not very eloquent, I guess, but it was the best I could do considering the blood pounding in my head and my heart racing in my chest. David Cassidy! OMG!
The crowd didn’t exactly thin out, but as women got their autographs, they’d move aside and let others have their opportunity. The kind lady standing next to me offered me her pen when I realized I didn’t have one and then…
I was standing in front of him, playbill in hand, staring up into those soulful hazel eyes (he was standing on a step; height isn’t one of DC’s attributes, sadly!) I think David said “Hi. Thanks for coming.” I think I said, “Grdodvnlsnolrijosrivl.” He signed my programme and then I burst into tears and had to be led away by my husband.
Soon afterwards, David and Petula got into a fancy car of some sort and sped off into the London night. I wish I could say that this was the only time a celebrity has made me cry. I’ll save my story about David Boreanaz for another day though.
Here’s a great clip of David and his brother Shaun talking about performing in Blood Brothers on Broadway on the Regis and Kathy Lee Show. Near the end, they sing together. It never fails to make me teary.
http://youtu.be/BgQ3xxpedhc
All this brings me to Allison Pearson’s novel, I Think I Love You.
Petra is thirteen, Welsh and hopelessly devoted to David Cassidy. She remarks early on in the story:
Honest, it’s amazing the things you can know about someone you don’t know. I knew the date of his birth – April 12, 1950. He was the typical Aries, but without the Arian’s stubborness. I knew his height and his weight and his favourite drink, 7Up. I knew the names of his parents and his stepmother, the Broadway musical star. I knew all about his love of horses, which made perfect sense to me because when you’re that famous it must be comforting to be around someone who doesn’t know or care what famous is.
I Think I Love You captures – in glorious detail - that first giddy adolescent crush just about every girl has had on a celebrity. Petra is a very real creation. She’s smart and beautiful (but not in the right way for a 13 year old) and she plays the cello. She longs to be popular like her classmate, Gillian. Her one true friend, Sharon, shares her love of David and the two girls spend hours in Sharon’s bedroom, making scrapbooks and taking turns kissing David’s posters. (Petra’s stern German mother would never let her put posters of a pop star on her walls.)
Petra’s story is paralleled by Bill’s. Fresh out of college with a degree in English, Bill is hired to write for The Essential David Cassidy Magazine. Not just hired to write, hired to be David Cassidy – writing notes about his life and answering letters from fans. There’s a hysterical moment when he arrives for his interview and mistakes a picture of David on the cover of a magazine for a girl, exclaiming she’s not his type.
Petra and Bill’s lives coincide when they both attend David’s famous White City concert. At the height of his career, when David Cassidy was pretty much the biggest star on the planet, he played a show at this London venue and a young girl died. David retired from performing after that.
Pearson’s novel isn’t just a trip down memory lane, though. We revisit Petra as an adult just as her life begins to unravel – as lives sometimes do. Her mother has just died and her husband, Marcus, has recently announced that he is leaving her. Her daughter, Molly, is 13 and has her own celebrity crush on Leonardo Di caprio. Suddenly Petra is adrift. The life she thought she built is falling apart and she isn’t quite sure what to do about that. Her salvation comes, strangely enough, in a pink envelope addressed in her very own hand.
I Think I Love You was so much fun to read. I was that girl – totally in love with a pop star. I have also been adult Petra, trying desperately to hold onto the dangling ends of my fraying life. Lots of touchstones in this book for me.
And I don’t think you have to have been a David Cassidy fan to appreciate the references to those popstar magazines we all read religiously. Sure, being of a certain vintage allows certain references to resonate more strongly, but I Think I Love You has lots to say about first love, childhood friendships, dreams dashed and even more miraculously, realized.
Here's The Partridge Family singing "I Think I Love You."
http://youtu.be/wJYSu2OVCGM
March 6, 2011
I expected more from this book because I enjoyed I Don't Know How She Does It. Unfortunately, "I think I love You" was so bad that I only got to about page 100. At that point, I made the decision that there were too many good books out there to waste my time on this one.
The basic premise, in the first 100 pages, is that young Petra and her friends are obsessed with David Cassidy. They are also confronted by the mean girl, clique-ish behavior of young girls. Petra is trying desperately to fit in and win the alpha girl's attention and affection. At the same time, there is an alternate story of Bill who is writing the David Cassidy fan magazine that these girls are obsessed with. When I put the book down, the super quiz that apparently Petra wins but doesn't know about (not a spoiler, it's on the book jacket), is just happening.
In 100 pages, it felt like the same thoughts were being repeated over and over and I had yet to actually care about any of the characters. Each character was very one dimensional and rather pathetic. Other reviews say that it has a slow beginning and gets better, but I just don't have the energy.
The basic premise, in the first 100 pages, is that young Petra and her friends are obsessed with David Cassidy. They are also confronted by the mean girl, clique-ish behavior of young girls. Petra is trying desperately to fit in and win the alpha girl's attention and affection. At the same time, there is an alternate story of Bill who is writing the David Cassidy fan magazine that these girls are obsessed with. When I put the book down, the super quiz that apparently Petra wins but doesn't know about (not a spoiler, it's on the book jacket), is just happening.
In 100 pages, it felt like the same thoughts were being repeated over and over and I had yet to actually care about any of the characters. Each character was very one dimensional and rather pathetic. Other reviews say that it has a slow beginning and gets better, but I just don't have the energy.
May 15, 2011
They say, "write what you know." Personally, while I see why that's a good first step, I have cautioned my students against writing what they know too well - as you are likely to make your reader feel like a third wheel while you're on a date with yourself.
This is one of my main beefs with Pearson's much anticipated and very disappointing (read: LAME-OLA) new novel, I Think I Love You. Allow me to preface my review with the caveat that I have/had no idea who David Cassidy is/was and in fact spent the first twenty pages thinking she meant David Hasselhoff. The title certainly didn't tip me off; I didn't even know that was the name of a song. I also never suffered from teen idolatry; in fact I think that kind of went the way of lava lamps and avocado colored kitchens. Therefore perhaps a lot of what made this book relatable to people didn't work for me as a product of my own generation (and more on that later) but I think the book was bad, regardless, either way. I also want to say (and I will get to the review soon, I promise) that I did some research (ala wikipedia) on this Cassidy dude and girls, what is the deal?? He looks like a girl! And after hitting up Rhapsody for some of his tunes I gotta say, I get it even LESS.
So anyway, this all might contribute to why this book left me cold. ITILY centers around two parallel stories - that of Petra, young pubescent who is madly in love with Cassidy during his reign in the 70s (thank you, Wikipedia, for enlightening me as to why the concert featured in the novel would be so important - a girl actually died from a stampeded of hormone crazed teens) wants nothing more than to run off with him, and then there is the story of Bill, an older man whose first post BA job in "journalism" is posing as David to write letters to the fevered girls who read these letters like their Bible.
Obviously, the two will meet, at some point, and obviously, the real David versus the David of the pages will prove some sort of conflict that has some kind of cosmic and ontological significance.
The thing of it is is that Pearson very obviously drew from her own experiences as a screaming, weeping teen to write this novel and I kept feeling like this novel was a love letter to her former self - it was too real to be imaginative, too personal to be accessible. And while some might say it is accessible to those who were shrieking at Cassidy, I then ask, does writing only achieve its purpose to an intended audience or is writing meant to transcend our own experiences and be accessible to if not all, then most? When I reviewed that Marly and Me book, rather scathingly, I was told off by a number of people who said, if you hate dogs, then why bother reading/expecting to like a book about dogs? Maybe. But couldn't I expect a book to be so well done that the content and my relationship therein is somewhat irrelevant?
Aside from that, the book (while having the occasional funny line, though paling in comparison to the much funnier I Don;t Know How She Does It, and startling insight as to the ins and outs of teen cliques and how we would even sell out our best friend to earn a smile from the queen bee) followed every far fetched, cliched romantic comedy chick lit formulaic yuckiness and spun way out of the orbit of reality.
Readable? Yes. Good? No.
This is one of my main beefs with Pearson's much anticipated and very disappointing (read: LAME-OLA) new novel, I Think I Love You. Allow me to preface my review with the caveat that I have/had no idea who David Cassidy is/was and in fact spent the first twenty pages thinking she meant David Hasselhoff. The title certainly didn't tip me off; I didn't even know that was the name of a song. I also never suffered from teen idolatry; in fact I think that kind of went the way of lava lamps and avocado colored kitchens. Therefore perhaps a lot of what made this book relatable to people didn't work for me as a product of my own generation (and more on that later) but I think the book was bad, regardless, either way. I also want to say (and I will get to the review soon, I promise) that I did some research (ala wikipedia) on this Cassidy dude and girls, what is the deal?? He looks like a girl! And after hitting up Rhapsody for some of his tunes I gotta say, I get it even LESS.
So anyway, this all might contribute to why this book left me cold. ITILY centers around two parallel stories - that of Petra, young pubescent who is madly in love with Cassidy during his reign in the 70s (thank you, Wikipedia, for enlightening me as to why the concert featured in the novel would be so important - a girl actually died from a stampeded of hormone crazed teens) wants nothing more than to run off with him, and then there is the story of Bill, an older man whose first post BA job in "journalism" is posing as David to write letters to the fevered girls who read these letters like their Bible.
Obviously, the two will meet, at some point, and obviously, the real David versus the David of the pages will prove some sort of conflict that has some kind of cosmic and ontological significance.
The thing of it is is that Pearson very obviously drew from her own experiences as a screaming, weeping teen to write this novel and I kept feeling like this novel was a love letter to her former self - it was too real to be imaginative, too personal to be accessible. And while some might say it is accessible to those who were shrieking at Cassidy, I then ask, does writing only achieve its purpose to an intended audience or is writing meant to transcend our own experiences and be accessible to if not all, then most? When I reviewed that Marly and Me book, rather scathingly, I was told off by a number of people who said, if you hate dogs, then why bother reading/expecting to like a book about dogs? Maybe. But couldn't I expect a book to be so well done that the content and my relationship therein is somewhat irrelevant?
Aside from that, the book (while having the occasional funny line, though paling in comparison to the much funnier I Don;t Know How She Does It, and startling insight as to the ins and outs of teen cliques and how we would even sell out our best friend to earn a smile from the queen bee) followed every far fetched, cliched romantic comedy chick lit formulaic yuckiness and spun way out of the orbit of reality.
Readable? Yes. Good? No.
March 18, 2011
It's 1974 and Petra and her friends are all "in love" with singer David Cassidy. Petra is the ultimate Cassidy fan, making collages of pictures of the singer, subscribing to his fan magazine and knowing all there is to know about David. Petra hopes that someday all this knowledge may come in useful should she ever meet David and the two fall hopelessly in love.
One of the biggest sources of Petra's knowledge is a David Cassidy fan magazine. And while the letters from fans appear to be responded to by Cassidy, it's really Bill writing the responses. He's a college graduate, trying to break into the rock and roll journalism scene whose taken a detour to the Cassidy magazine to pay the bills.
Bill is tasked with coming up with a Cassidy questionnaire contest. The prize: a trip to L.A. to visit the set of the Partridge Family. And of all the people out there, Petra is most suited to win.
The first half of "I Think I Love You" is a coming of age story about Petra and her friends. The story contrasts Petra's love and obsessiveness about Cassidy with Bill's reaction to his job. The two both know more about Cassidy than most, but seeing how each reacts to having such a fount of knowledge is intriguing. (Bill hides what he does from his girlfriend for fear of her thinking less of him.)
Were it not for the hook of the Cassidy obsession, "I Think I Love You" might not be as entertaining as it is. Petra's relationship with her friends and family is intriguing, especially given that her mother doesn't really understand or support Petra's interest in the pop music star.
The second half of the story finds Petra in 1998, facing her mother's funeral and her husband walking out on her. Going through her mother's things she finds out that she actually won the contest in 1974 but that her mother hid this from her. Petra must come to terms with that as well as her own relationship with her mother and her husband.
As I said before, without the Cassidy hook, this novel wouldn't be nearly as entertaining as it is. Anyone who's ever had a youthful obsession with something or someone will identify with young Petra. And those who have looked back on our youthful loves will identify with the older Petra of the second half of the book.
One of the biggest sources of Petra's knowledge is a David Cassidy fan magazine. And while the letters from fans appear to be responded to by Cassidy, it's really Bill writing the responses. He's a college graduate, trying to break into the rock and roll journalism scene whose taken a detour to the Cassidy magazine to pay the bills.
Bill is tasked with coming up with a Cassidy questionnaire contest. The prize: a trip to L.A. to visit the set of the Partridge Family. And of all the people out there, Petra is most suited to win.
The first half of "I Think I Love You" is a coming of age story about Petra and her friends. The story contrasts Petra's love and obsessiveness about Cassidy with Bill's reaction to his job. The two both know more about Cassidy than most, but seeing how each reacts to having such a fount of knowledge is intriguing. (Bill hides what he does from his girlfriend for fear of her thinking less of him.)
Were it not for the hook of the Cassidy obsession, "I Think I Love You" might not be as entertaining as it is. Petra's relationship with her friends and family is intriguing, especially given that her mother doesn't really understand or support Petra's interest in the pop music star.
The second half of the story finds Petra in 1998, facing her mother's funeral and her husband walking out on her. Going through her mother's things she finds out that she actually won the contest in 1974 but that her mother hid this from her. Petra must come to terms with that as well as her own relationship with her mother and her husband.
As I said before, without the Cassidy hook, this novel wouldn't be nearly as entertaining as it is. Anyone who's ever had a youthful obsession with something or someone will identify with young Petra. And those who have looked back on our youthful loves will identify with the older Petra of the second half of the book.
March 25, 2011
Well, this book was a scream let me tell you!! I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish and it made me laugh out loud more than once. It hit on all those teenage angst moments - boys and puberty, mean girls at school and a demanding mother... self imposed expectations and limitations and how we see ourselves with all those insecurities clouding the mirror, all done to the music of the times to set the moods - and Allison Pearson made it all quite funny! Painfully funny at times - and down right hilarious at others, it makes you remember your past and the music that you listened to and loved.
This story starts with a not too long ago past - well, for some of us anyways - and the musical obsession of David Cassidy by two Welsh girls. The story follows them through those awful early teen years of trying to fit in with the cool girls group but never fully making it. But in the process, they find friendship together and their mutual love for teen pop star David Cassidy. They enter a teen pop quiz devoted entirely to him with the grand prize being an all expense paid trip to LA to see him perform live and then meet him after. A teen girls dream come true!
This story is about friendship - and how it can survive over time, even when neglected. And it's about how music can and does play such an important part in the growing up process. How it can bring back such incredibly vivid memories when you hear that song you loved when you were young! All the hurts and happiness... how they can be conjured out of thin air when you hear that tune from your past.
I'm not doing it justice, truth be told - the story is twofold and covers both the past and the present. But to talk about it would be to give it all away, and it's too much of a gem to spoil it for you. My advice is to give it a go and enjoy yourself!
This story starts with a not too long ago past - well, for some of us anyways - and the musical obsession of David Cassidy by two Welsh girls. The story follows them through those awful early teen years of trying to fit in with the cool girls group but never fully making it. But in the process, they find friendship together and their mutual love for teen pop star David Cassidy. They enter a teen pop quiz devoted entirely to him with the grand prize being an all expense paid trip to LA to see him perform live and then meet him after. A teen girls dream come true!
This story is about friendship - and how it can survive over time, even when neglected. And it's about how music can and does play such an important part in the growing up process. How it can bring back such incredibly vivid memories when you hear that song you loved when you were young! All the hurts and happiness... how they can be conjured out of thin air when you hear that tune from your past.
I'm not doing it justice, truth be told - the story is twofold and covers both the past and the present. But to talk about it would be to give it all away, and it's too much of a gem to spoil it for you. My advice is to give it a go and enjoy yourself!
December 4, 2017
Ketemu buku bagus lagi di iJakarta.
Saya pikir ini buku untuk remaja atau buku chicklit. Allison Pearson membawa topik-topik menarik dalam dua bagian cerita : cerita pertama masa remaja Petra dan bagian kedua adalah masa dewasa Petra. Ada kisah tentang relasi Ibu dan Anak, kontras relasi Greta dan Petra dibandingkan Petra dan Molly. Ada kepingan tentang musik dan menjadi fans fanatik. Pearson menggambarkan musik dengan indah, terlebih ketika dia mengajak pembaca menginterpretasikan satu frasa syair menjadi 4 pemaknaan yang berbeda. Awal cerita terasa lambat, ada sudut pandang Petra dan Bill secara terpisah. Pertemuan antara dua pribadi yang menjadi kunci di cerita ini baru terjadi setelah 60% berjalan.
Kutipan favorit :
Kami mencintai gagasan tentang cinta. Kami hanya sedang mencobanya untuk mencari ukuran yang tepat. Hanya untuk mengaguminya.
Terlalu banyak energi wanita tercurah pada usaha menjadi semakin kecil, bukannya semakin besar dan berani.
Saya pikir ini buku untuk remaja atau buku chicklit. Allison Pearson membawa topik-topik menarik dalam dua bagian cerita : cerita pertama masa remaja Petra dan bagian kedua adalah masa dewasa Petra. Ada kisah tentang relasi Ibu dan Anak, kontras relasi Greta dan Petra dibandingkan Petra dan Molly. Ada kepingan tentang musik dan menjadi fans fanatik. Pearson menggambarkan musik dengan indah, terlebih ketika dia mengajak pembaca menginterpretasikan satu frasa syair menjadi 4 pemaknaan yang berbeda. Awal cerita terasa lambat, ada sudut pandang Petra dan Bill secara terpisah. Pertemuan antara dua pribadi yang menjadi kunci di cerita ini baru terjadi setelah 60% berjalan.
Kutipan favorit :
Kami mencintai gagasan tentang cinta. Kami hanya sedang mencobanya untuk mencari ukuran yang tepat. Hanya untuk mengaguminya.
Terlalu banyak energi wanita tercurah pada usaha menjadi semakin kecil, bukannya semakin besar dan berani.
November 1, 2011
It took me a little while to get in to this story. I abandoned it earlier this summer when I couldn't connect with the mindset of the pre-teen Petra who narrates the first 1/3 of the book. After listening to a repeat of interview with Allison Pearson on Fresh Air a few weeks ago I picked it up again and stuck with it. I'm so glad I did, there is some really beautiful prose in this story. While the plot seeks to examine the phase of teenage obsession that so many girls go through, I found Pearson to be at her best when dealing with the complex territory of mother-loss and female group dynamics in the last 2/3 of the book that focuses on the adult Petra. A few favorite passages:
Page 172: "Surely you should be able to call come kind of emergency service and say, "Look, I'm terribly sorry, but I am unable to process these two appalling blows simultaneously. Can I arrange to have one of them taken away?"
Page 182: "It's not always easy to recognize the significant moments in your life as you're living them, but Petra understands this is one of them. To stand in the hall and to realize that neither of her parents will ever answer the phone again. Nor will she need to ever dial their number. Death itself is too big to take in, she already sees that; the loss comes at you in an infinite number of small installments that can never be paid off."
Page 202: "Extreme thinness has become yet another way to compete with one another. Trust girls to get into a contest to make themselves disappear."
Page 210: "Colluding with what other people thought about you felt easier than explaining who you really were."
Page 210: "Getting the emotionally unavailable public schoolboy to become available to her, the girl from Gower, that was what gave her the special jazzed-up feeling, the feeling she craved...where was the thrill in conquering those who wanted you?"
Page 289: "All of the Cassidy girls have entered the age of grief, that time when life's losses start to stack up. Few will have been spared. Count yourself lucky if you get to your mid-thirties without knowing death, divorce, or other species of grief."
Overall a great novel that reads almost like a self-help book. Likely to be most interesting to women who remember or can reconnect with their early teen years or for those parenting girls in this phase of life.
Page 172: "Surely you should be able to call come kind of emergency service and say, "Look, I'm terribly sorry, but I am unable to process these two appalling blows simultaneously. Can I arrange to have one of them taken away?"
Page 182: "It's not always easy to recognize the significant moments in your life as you're living them, but Petra understands this is one of them. To stand in the hall and to realize that neither of her parents will ever answer the phone again. Nor will she need to ever dial their number. Death itself is too big to take in, she already sees that; the loss comes at you in an infinite number of small installments that can never be paid off."
Page 202: "Extreme thinness has become yet another way to compete with one another. Trust girls to get into a contest to make themselves disappear."
Page 210: "Colluding with what other people thought about you felt easier than explaining who you really were."
Page 210: "Getting the emotionally unavailable public schoolboy to become available to her, the girl from Gower, that was what gave her the special jazzed-up feeling, the feeling she craved...where was the thrill in conquering those who wanted you?"
Page 289: "All of the Cassidy girls have entered the age of grief, that time when life's losses start to stack up. Few will have been spared. Count yourself lucky if you get to your mid-thirties without knowing death, divorce, or other species of grief."
Overall a great novel that reads almost like a self-help book. Likely to be most interesting to women who remember or can reconnect with their early teen years or for those parenting girls in this phase of life.
August 12, 2011
Delightful read. I really enjoyed how the book was divided in 2 parts. Who doesn't remember their crush :)
May 17, 2014
Oh dear Lord this was terrible.
July 11, 2011
I absolutely LOVED Allison Pearson's first book, I Don't Know How She Does it, so I figured I'd pretty much love anything she writes. Plus, having been a huge fan of the tv show "The Partridge Family" way back in the early '70s, I was sure I had a hit on my hands. Well..yes and no. Mostly YES. I was carried back to childhood reading about Petra and Sharon and their David Cassidy obsession. I could just feel myself back in Uncle Bob and Aunt Jeanie's basement rec room, sitting on my Grandmother's old couch, across from the dog couch, watching David Cassidy on the black and white portable, "coke-tails" in hand (the cherries eaten before the opening credits passed). I can remember (although I'm POSITIVE he's blocked the memory--it IS cringe-inducing) my brother, much too mature for the show as he was in JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL, debating with his best friend Ronny if Danny Bonaduce was or was not one of the best bass players in the country FOR HIS AGE. (They always emphasized that last part.) Pearson's story is of lost love, ships passing in the night and a stolen opportunity set right. To say more would spoil it for the true believers--the grown up "David girls" who WILL want to read this book.
However, like a lot of follow-up-to-a-blockbuster, this book needs better editing. The story gets away from Pearson in places. Not that this ruins it--it just makes it a chore in spots. I find myself hoping we'll get Sharon's story next. Sharon who enjoys her birthday spent eating rissoles and chips and "I get to pick the Blockbuster." Sharon who eschews art school saying "I can always paint at home, can't I?" and then shames us all by doing so and doing it well. Sharon who is perfectly content in an ordinary marriage in an ordinary town in South Wales. We can all learn so much, much more from her story. I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson.
Reading Notes:
Needed some big cuts near the end. Still, I liked it a lot. LOVED Sharon!
I'm now 1/2 way--still good, but I'm getting a little bored with Bill & Petra on the whole. Does bring back, WAY TOO WELL, the emotions of trying to fit in at school and of being 13 in general.
Disc one this morning. So far good. Great narrator.
June 2, 2011
This book earns as many as three stars only because its first half was so well done. The second half was, frankly, a mess. Pearson's writing provided a perfect example of how the failure to "show, don't tell" can torpedo what otherwise could have been a charming story. The dialog was sloppy, unconvincing, and most damning, flat. I noticed at least one anachronism. In 1974 we Yanks were not yet world-renowned for being lawsuit-happy. Our lawsuit-mad culture developed later than that--the McDonald's coffee scalding case happened in the early 90's, to cite the most notorious example. So when a twenty-something recent uni grad with a degree in poetry/literature refers to Yanks and litigiousness, sorry, but that was a false note. There were a couple of other examples but I don't remember the details off the top of my head. I would have thought that a woman who wrote for The Daily Telegraph might have been more diligent in doing her homework, but she must have been too busy reminiscing about her own infatuation with David Cassidy.
All in all, a disappointment, though the premise of the story was intriguing. And since I abhor spoilers, I'll let anyone interested in the premise to read it elsewhere.
All in all, a disappointment, though the premise of the story was intriguing. And since I abhor spoilers, I'll let anyone interested in the premise to read it elsewhere.
Read
February 21, 2011Readers follow 13-year-old Petra (obsessed with David Cassidy and suffering through the angst of challenging friendships) and 38-year-old Petra, whose husband has left her for a younger woman. We also follow 24-year-old Bill (a frustrated former literature student, now ghost writing David Cassidy letters for a magazine devoted to the teen idol) and Bill in his late 40s.
I liked Petra a good deal, and thought Pearson was painfully accurate in depicting Petra's adolescent hardships. (Who doesn't know a Gillian?) I also appreciated the way Pearson slowly divulged the story of Petra's relationship with her parents, and they with one another.
I liked Petra a good deal, and thought Pearson was painfully accurate in depicting Petra's adolescent hardships. (Who doesn't know a Gillian?) I also appreciated the way Pearson slowly divulged the story of Petra's relationship with her parents, and they with one another.
August 14, 2021
DNF
I remember when the Partridge Family was on TV. I liked the show for the music, and I thought it was funny. I wasn’t too young to have a crush on David Cassidy, but I never did. I was a Donnie Osmond girl - then, now and forever.
Nevertheless, I thought this was a great premise for a book and assumed it would be great fun to read. I was wrong. I’ve tried and gave it a chance to pick up steam, but it’s just really boring.
I remember when the Partridge Family was on TV. I liked the show for the music, and I thought it was funny. I wasn’t too young to have a crush on David Cassidy, but I never did. I was a Donnie Osmond girl - then, now and forever.
Nevertheless, I thought this was a great premise for a book and assumed it would be great fun to read. I was wrong. I’ve tried and gave it a chance to pick up steam, but it’s just really boring.
January 11, 2012
this book started off with some promise. it follows two primary characters, petra & bill. petra is a 13-year-old girl growing up in wales. it's 1974 & she is OBSESSED with david cassidy. she is striving to be integrated into the popular clique at school, which is headed by a queen bee named gillian. petra is not yet confident & popular enough to be gillian's BFF so she has become close to another girl in the group, sharon. all of the girls like david cassidy, but petra & sharon are bonded by their all-consuming obsession. petra is also a cellist & the daughter of a rather stern german mother who does not approve of pop music, so the whole david cassidy thing is kind of covert.
bill is in his early 20s & after graduating from university with a degree in english literature (specializing in the romantic poets), he is having trouble finding work. he finally lands a gig writing for "the ultimate david cassidy magazine". it's a bit fancier than all the other fan rags & its claim to fame is a new personal letter from david cassidy himself in each issue. bill's job is to write these letters. in a rather labored bit of plotting, bill's girlfriend, ruth, loathes david cassidy with an all-consuming passion, so bill "has" to lie to her about what he does for work. he leads her to believe that he writes for a regular rock magazine, interviewing non-embarrassing musicians like john lennon & led zeppelin, but that he writes under a pseudonym so she can never see what he writes. or something. this plotline didn't make a lot of sense to me because you'd think ruth would just be relieved that her boyfriend had a job--any job. & a gig at even an embarrassing teen rag focusing on david cassidy has potential to turn into something bigger & better. are we supposed to think she would have broken up with him if she knew the truth? would that have been so bad, considering that ruth wasn't really a very important character? was her hatred of david cassidy supposed to illustrate bill's shame about his job? i feel like pearson had a thousand other avenues to explore that rather than attaching this manufactured bit of trouble to the bill/ruth dynamic.
anyway, like i said, this first half of the book isn't too bad. i think pearson does a really good job exploring the phenomenon of teen girl celebrity crushes. it all builds up to a big climax in which petra enters "the ultimate david cassidy fan quiz," sponsored by the fan magazine for which bill writes. the grand prize is an all-expenses paid trip to california for the winner & a friend to actually meet david cassidy on the set of "the partridge family". bill's boss asks him to make the quiz really difficult, full of questions that only a real super-fan could answer correctly, to weed out the girls who are taking a time out from their obsession with donny osmond to try to score a free trip to california. petra & sharon spend every spare moment laboring over the quiz...& then gillian invites petra over for some one-on-one time, something that has never happened before. after gillian butters petra up by giving her clothes & inviting her to go to the beach with some boys, she asks to be listed as petra's friend on the quiz entry. petra has been dreaming of the day that gillian would cast her in the role of BFF, but she can't stand the thought of betraying sharon. she stammers & says that she will enter gillian's name instead...but she can't go through it. nonetheless, while the girls are on the train en route to actually see david cassidy live in concert in london, gillian tells everyone that petra said she'd enter gillian instead of sharon & sharon is very hurt.
the concert ends up being a disaster. one girl actually dies from a heart condition or being crushed by the crowd or something. sharon is trampled & breaks a rib. petra gets in ENORMOUS TROUBLE for lying to her mother about the concert. bill is at the concert as well, with a press pass. he even interacts with petra & sharon. he found a lost shoe, & noticed that petra is missing a shoe. it's not the same shoe. he encourages sharon to get medical attention, but the girls insist that they need to stay in case david cassidy resumes the concert.
fast forward 25 years. petra's mother dies on the same day that she finds out that her husband has a mistress. this is where the book begins to completely unravel, because the writing about the modern-day characters is far worse than the writing about the younger characters. when you first read that petra's husband is having an affair, & that she just found out when the mistress called & confessed, you're like, "oh my god, how awful." but through a series of extremely tedious flashbacks, you learn that petra's husband has in fact been cheating on her with all kinds of women for the last thirteen years. he started when their daughter was in the NICU after being born eleven weeks premature. & petra has known about it the whole time. given that, having a mistress call you up & confess wouldn't necessarily seem like THAT big of a deal. i mean, if you're going to tolerate bad behavior for thirteen years, don't expect me to clutch my pearls when it happens again, you know?
but of course we had to get the husband out of the picture for the romance to unfold. petra discovers the letter from "the ultimate david cassidy fan magazine" (they really couldn't have come up with a better title than that?) in her mother's closet. she won the contest all those years before, & her mother didn't tell her because i guess she didn't approve or something. seems like you should have had to get your parent's permission BEFORE entering the contest, but what do i know?
in a fit of despair, petra calls the publishing company that bought the company that had once published "the ultimate david cassidy fan magazine". a woman named marie answers, & the writing starts to get REALLY sloppy. we learn so much about marie. she's hungover. she's young. she's catholic. she's the editor of a lighthearted teen magazine for girls. she is in competition with another magazine for girls that writes about sex & blow jobs. marie prefers her magazine, which respects the youth & naivete of the readership. she has to get to the editorial meeting with "the boss" who runs the whole company & assigns stories & what-not. &...we can all see where this is going, right? amoebas everywhere are like, "oh, bill is totally the guy who runs the company, right? & this whole chapter with marie calling him 'the boss' non-stop is a really lame attempt to throw us off the scent by not using his name." it did not escape MY notice that the entire book is written in omniscient third-person but that we only ever really get inside the heads of petra & bill (save for one sentence that is inside ruth's head, but it was so jarring that i chalk it up to bad editing). so of course this whole chapter in marie's head is shitty writing building up to a climactic reveal that fell totally flat for anyone who actually knows anything about writing. dreadful.
yes, bill runs the company & when marie mentions petra's phone call, he decides that they should award petra the prize now. bring her in for a make-over, fly her & sharon to las vegas to see david cassidy perform one of his revival shows, & then arrange a meeting. write it up for one of the magazines as a kind of fin de siecle nostalgia piece.
&...we all see where THIS is going, right? raise your hand if you don't think bill & petra are going to fall in love. okay, you, that guy who raised his hand...you fail. get out of my classroom.
the writing falls apart completely with the introduction of adult sharon. as a teen, she was written as cheerful & confident. she seemed like a realistic, bubbly, optimistic teenage girl. pearson tries to write adult sharon in pretty much the same way & she comes across as suffering from some kind of brain damage. she routinely jumps up & down in glee, she has loud inappropriate conversations with strangers because she is just so damn lovable, she makes randy off-color jokes in front of people she doesn't know because of her irrepressible joie de vivre...she sounds like she needs some kind of full-time health aid to make sure she doesn't get into the van with the guy brandishing lollipops, seriously. it's ridiculous.
& i really wish pearson would have run the manuscript by an american. she has americans saying things like, "it's about 100 yards down the hallway." no. we don't do the metric system here. the only time americans talk about yards is when they're talking about football. she has an american refer to a "moving walkway". again, no. we call them "sidewalks". she has david cassidy say that he imagines his fame will eventually "pass on". again, not something an american would say. there are just a lot of little mistakes like this & they're jarring.
oh, & the whole bill & petra falling in love thing? just dreadful. i mean...why? just because they're both single? the timeline was fuzzy to me, but it seemed like only about a month had passed since petra's marriage dissolved. i guess we're supposed to think that bill created this false david cassidy character that petra fell in love with as a 13-year-old, so of course she would fall in love with bill as an adult...& there was also a weird belabored bit about petra feeling betrayed when she learns that bill wrote the david cassidy letters she loved so much as a child. um. did she really think they were real? i am reminded of my mom's grandfather telling her, when she was five years old, that if you pick up a newborn calf every day starting on the day that it's born, eventually you'll be able to pick up a full-grown cow. obviously that's not true. instead, there will just come a day that you can't life the calf anymore. but she believed it for over thirty years. realizing the truth & getting MAD about it is the equivalent of petra being informed that david cassidy didn't really write those letters & getting mad about that. it's just stupid.
okay. i'm done.
bill is in his early 20s & after graduating from university with a degree in english literature (specializing in the romantic poets), he is having trouble finding work. he finally lands a gig writing for "the ultimate david cassidy magazine". it's a bit fancier than all the other fan rags & its claim to fame is a new personal letter from david cassidy himself in each issue. bill's job is to write these letters. in a rather labored bit of plotting, bill's girlfriend, ruth, loathes david cassidy with an all-consuming passion, so bill "has" to lie to her about what he does for work. he leads her to believe that he writes for a regular rock magazine, interviewing non-embarrassing musicians like john lennon & led zeppelin, but that he writes under a pseudonym so she can never see what he writes. or something. this plotline didn't make a lot of sense to me because you'd think ruth would just be relieved that her boyfriend had a job--any job. & a gig at even an embarrassing teen rag focusing on david cassidy has potential to turn into something bigger & better. are we supposed to think she would have broken up with him if she knew the truth? would that have been so bad, considering that ruth wasn't really a very important character? was her hatred of david cassidy supposed to illustrate bill's shame about his job? i feel like pearson had a thousand other avenues to explore that rather than attaching this manufactured bit of trouble to the bill/ruth dynamic.
anyway, like i said, this first half of the book isn't too bad. i think pearson does a really good job exploring the phenomenon of teen girl celebrity crushes. it all builds up to a big climax in which petra enters "the ultimate david cassidy fan quiz," sponsored by the fan magazine for which bill writes. the grand prize is an all-expenses paid trip to california for the winner & a friend to actually meet david cassidy on the set of "the partridge family". bill's boss asks him to make the quiz really difficult, full of questions that only a real super-fan could answer correctly, to weed out the girls who are taking a time out from their obsession with donny osmond to try to score a free trip to california. petra & sharon spend every spare moment laboring over the quiz...& then gillian invites petra over for some one-on-one time, something that has never happened before. after gillian butters petra up by giving her clothes & inviting her to go to the beach with some boys, she asks to be listed as petra's friend on the quiz entry. petra has been dreaming of the day that gillian would cast her in the role of BFF, but she can't stand the thought of betraying sharon. she stammers & says that she will enter gillian's name instead...but she can't go through it. nonetheless, while the girls are on the train en route to actually see david cassidy live in concert in london, gillian tells everyone that petra said she'd enter gillian instead of sharon & sharon is very hurt.
the concert ends up being a disaster. one girl actually dies from a heart condition or being crushed by the crowd or something. sharon is trampled & breaks a rib. petra gets in ENORMOUS TROUBLE for lying to her mother about the concert. bill is at the concert as well, with a press pass. he even interacts with petra & sharon. he found a lost shoe, & noticed that petra is missing a shoe. it's not the same shoe. he encourages sharon to get medical attention, but the girls insist that they need to stay in case david cassidy resumes the concert.
fast forward 25 years. petra's mother dies on the same day that she finds out that her husband has a mistress. this is where the book begins to completely unravel, because the writing about the modern-day characters is far worse than the writing about the younger characters. when you first read that petra's husband is having an affair, & that she just found out when the mistress called & confessed, you're like, "oh my god, how awful." but through a series of extremely tedious flashbacks, you learn that petra's husband has in fact been cheating on her with all kinds of women for the last thirteen years. he started when their daughter was in the NICU after being born eleven weeks premature. & petra has known about it the whole time. given that, having a mistress call you up & confess wouldn't necessarily seem like THAT big of a deal. i mean, if you're going to tolerate bad behavior for thirteen years, don't expect me to clutch my pearls when it happens again, you know?
but of course we had to get the husband out of the picture for the romance to unfold. petra discovers the letter from "the ultimate david cassidy fan magazine" (they really couldn't have come up with a better title than that?) in her mother's closet. she won the contest all those years before, & her mother didn't tell her because i guess she didn't approve or something. seems like you should have had to get your parent's permission BEFORE entering the contest, but what do i know?
in a fit of despair, petra calls the publishing company that bought the company that had once published "the ultimate david cassidy fan magazine". a woman named marie answers, & the writing starts to get REALLY sloppy. we learn so much about marie. she's hungover. she's young. she's catholic. she's the editor of a lighthearted teen magazine for girls. she is in competition with another magazine for girls that writes about sex & blow jobs. marie prefers her magazine, which respects the youth & naivete of the readership. she has to get to the editorial meeting with "the boss" who runs the whole company & assigns stories & what-not. &...we can all see where this is going, right? amoebas everywhere are like, "oh, bill is totally the guy who runs the company, right? & this whole chapter with marie calling him 'the boss' non-stop is a really lame attempt to throw us off the scent by not using his name." it did not escape MY notice that the entire book is written in omniscient third-person but that we only ever really get inside the heads of petra & bill (save for one sentence that is inside ruth's head, but it was so jarring that i chalk it up to bad editing). so of course this whole chapter in marie's head is shitty writing building up to a climactic reveal that fell totally flat for anyone who actually knows anything about writing. dreadful.
yes, bill runs the company & when marie mentions petra's phone call, he decides that they should award petra the prize now. bring her in for a make-over, fly her & sharon to las vegas to see david cassidy perform one of his revival shows, & then arrange a meeting. write it up for one of the magazines as a kind of fin de siecle nostalgia piece.
&...we all see where THIS is going, right? raise your hand if you don't think bill & petra are going to fall in love. okay, you, that guy who raised his hand...you fail. get out of my classroom.
the writing falls apart completely with the introduction of adult sharon. as a teen, she was written as cheerful & confident. she seemed like a realistic, bubbly, optimistic teenage girl. pearson tries to write adult sharon in pretty much the same way & she comes across as suffering from some kind of brain damage. she routinely jumps up & down in glee, she has loud inappropriate conversations with strangers because she is just so damn lovable, she makes randy off-color jokes in front of people she doesn't know because of her irrepressible joie de vivre...she sounds like she needs some kind of full-time health aid to make sure she doesn't get into the van with the guy brandishing lollipops, seriously. it's ridiculous.
& i really wish pearson would have run the manuscript by an american. she has americans saying things like, "it's about 100 yards down the hallway." no. we don't do the metric system here. the only time americans talk about yards is when they're talking about football. she has an american refer to a "moving walkway". again, no. we call them "sidewalks". she has david cassidy say that he imagines his fame will eventually "pass on". again, not something an american would say. there are just a lot of little mistakes like this & they're jarring.
oh, & the whole bill & petra falling in love thing? just dreadful. i mean...why? just because they're both single? the timeline was fuzzy to me, but it seemed like only about a month had passed since petra's marriage dissolved. i guess we're supposed to think that bill created this false david cassidy character that petra fell in love with as a 13-year-old, so of course she would fall in love with bill as an adult...& there was also a weird belabored bit about petra feeling betrayed when she learns that bill wrote the david cassidy letters she loved so much as a child. um. did she really think they were real? i am reminded of my mom's grandfather telling her, when she was five years old, that if you pick up a newborn calf every day starting on the day that it's born, eventually you'll be able to pick up a full-grown cow. obviously that's not true. instead, there will just come a day that you can't life the calf anymore. but she believed it for over thirty years. realizing the truth & getting MAD about it is the equivalent of petra being informed that david cassidy didn't really write those letters & getting mad about that. it's just stupid.
okay. i'm done.
June 23, 2012
What I liked most about this book was Pearson's strong writing style that easily evoked a lot of emotions and memories within my own self. My own obsessions with musical stars when I was 13-15, the "safety" of loving them because they can never love you back, and so on. Pearson easily slipped into that voice of an uncertain teenager who wants so desperately to belong, whether its in the arms of David Cassidy or in a group of four other girls. Running like a thread alongside this story is one about the man "engineering" the stuff that Petra's dreams are made of - Bill, the writer for the David Cassidy fan magazine, who concocts stories and letters from Cassidy for fan fodder. While I found myself enjoying Petra's story more of course, Bill's gradually became a complementary, more 'adult' one - both I could relate to, having been in Petra's shoes but now being Bill's age.
The story fast forwards into the 1990s where Petra is a divorced mother of a teen herself and discovers something that her own mother, with whom she had a rocky relationship, hid from her. She won a contest to see Cassidy himself in Los Angeles back in the 70s. Could she still redeem her prize? She reconnects with a friend and they jet off to Las Vegas on an all expenses paid trip.
The second half of the story did lag, as some other readers have noted, but not horribly. It was interesting, but also sad in my opinion, to discover what had happened to the teen Petra. There was a line about how there was another Petra out there, one who had found out she had won the Cassidy competition, and had gone and met him back in the 70s. It made me think about the many paths our lives can take depending on our relationships with those around us, and how it is important to be careful and conscientious about those whom we sacrifice our time and selves to.
The story fast forwards into the 1990s where Petra is a divorced mother of a teen herself and discovers something that her own mother, with whom she had a rocky relationship, hid from her. She won a contest to see Cassidy himself in Los Angeles back in the 70s. Could she still redeem her prize? She reconnects with a friend and they jet off to Las Vegas on an all expenses paid trip.
The second half of the story did lag, as some other readers have noted, but not horribly. It was interesting, but also sad in my opinion, to discover what had happened to the teen Petra. There was a line about how there was another Petra out there, one who had found out she had won the Cassidy competition, and had gone and met him back in the 70s. It made me think about the many paths our lives can take depending on our relationships with those around us, and how it is important to be careful and conscientious about those whom we sacrifice our time and selves to.
May 30, 2011
The “inside flap” description of this book seems very light-hearted and frivolous, focusing on a group of teenaged girls and their desperate love for teen heart-throb David Cassidy in the mid 70’s. And yes there are very light moments in the book (and embarrassingly honest, if I remember the 70’s correctly). The book also includes some dark realities with regards to peer pressure, needing to fit in, real boys vs. teen idols, etc. The crescendo comes when the girls sneak away from their homes to attend the famous concert at White Castle.
In what I considered the “second half” of the book the reader is quietly taken into present day where our lead character Petra confronts truly adult issues such as an impending divorce and the death of her parents. While going through her mother’s things she finds an envelope that was never given to her back in the day … informing her that she had won the “Ultimate David Cassidy Fan Contest”. Despite the fact that it is 30 years later and the magazine sponsoring the contest is now defunct … Petra wants her prize. She does get her prize … in a very unexpected fashion.
Before I go on, let me just say that despite my closest friend’s infatuation with Donny Osmond I was always a David Cassidy girl myself. Allison Pearson admits to being the same, so this book is written with a tender take on all that teen angst. I loved this book, if only for the memories it evoked. . Do we ever truly outgrow our teenage crushes?
My one complaint … the book should have come with a soundtrack. I still have my 45’s, but alas … no record player to spin them on.
In what I considered the “second half” of the book the reader is quietly taken into present day where our lead character Petra confronts truly adult issues such as an impending divorce and the death of her parents. While going through her mother’s things she finds an envelope that was never given to her back in the day … informing her that she had won the “Ultimate David Cassidy Fan Contest”. Despite the fact that it is 30 years later and the magazine sponsoring the contest is now defunct … Petra wants her prize. She does get her prize … in a very unexpected fashion.
Before I go on, let me just say that despite my closest friend’s infatuation with Donny Osmond I was always a David Cassidy girl myself. Allison Pearson admits to being the same, so this book is written with a tender take on all that teen angst. I loved this book, if only for the memories it evoked. . Do we ever truly outgrow our teenage crushes?
My one complaint … the book should have come with a soundtrack. I still have my 45’s, but alas … no record player to spin them on.
January 27, 2011
Although David Cassidy was before my time, I do remember having major teen star crushes (most of the guys from Beverly Hills 90210 and NKOTB) as well as running to my nearest supermarket in desperate need for the latest edition of Tiger Beat. So obviously when I read the synopsis for this book I knew I would be able to relate to it in some way.
It's 1974, Petra and Sharon, two 13 year old Welsh girls, are head over heels in love with none other than David Cassidy. Ms. Pearson captures these girls so perfectly. The craziness of crushing over a teen idol, the make-up, the best friends forever, the magazines... although set in a time frame that I wasn't even born in, I can still remember the early 90's when I was going through the same thing. Fast forward 25 years, and now at 38, recently divorced and grieving for the loss of her mother, Petra discovers an old letter revealing that she had won a trip to meet her old heartthrob, David Cassidy. What is a girl to do? Claim her prize of course! Who cares if its decades later.
This is the epitome of a feel-good story. It will have you smiling, laughing out loud and even shedding a nostalgic tear or two. It highly revolves on love - first love, the love of parent and child, the love of a husband and wife, the love of friends and even the love of a fan for a teen idol. I found the beginning a bit slow, but I recommend you persevere. You will find this to be a sweet, charming and joyful story - it'll have you giggling like a school girl and basking in its glow.
It's 1974, Petra and Sharon, two 13 year old Welsh girls, are head over heels in love with none other than David Cassidy. Ms. Pearson captures these girls so perfectly. The craziness of crushing over a teen idol, the make-up, the best friends forever, the magazines... although set in a time frame that I wasn't even born in, I can still remember the early 90's when I was going through the same thing. Fast forward 25 years, and now at 38, recently divorced and grieving for the loss of her mother, Petra discovers an old letter revealing that she had won a trip to meet her old heartthrob, David Cassidy. What is a girl to do? Claim her prize of course! Who cares if its decades later.
This is the epitome of a feel-good story. It will have you smiling, laughing out loud and even shedding a nostalgic tear or two. It highly revolves on love - first love, the love of parent and child, the love of a husband and wife, the love of friends and even the love of a fan for a teen idol. I found the beginning a bit slow, but I recommend you persevere. You will find this to be a sweet, charming and joyful story - it'll have you giggling like a school girl and basking in its glow.
April 19, 2018
I Think I Love You is an ode to David Cassidy’s enormous stardom and his millions of adoring and obsessive fans. The story fell flat at times; however, it still made me giggle and kept me interested enough in the characters to keep me reading. Although this may not have been her best work, Pearson is a beautiful writer and will assuredly craft more engaging stories for her adoring fans to devour.
August 26, 2019
Fyuuh....akhirnya...aku telah selesai baca buku ini. Entahlah...apakah bukunya aku menikmati atau tidak. Well,sejujurnya aku agak sedikit menikmati karena begitu banyak kutipan yang begitu ngena aku bgt! dan ohya bukunya terlalu banyak deskripsi yang mnrutku membosankan dan alurnya agak lambat sehingga aku membacanya begitu pelan sekali tapi tetap saja aku menikmatinya loh!
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Sebelum kubuat ulasan kecil nih!
Uhmmmm ... wait a minute. I want to say that I don't know that David Cassidy. Why? because I was born in the 80s and I think I know he's a music singer who was really famous in the 70s.
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Buku ini berisi Remaja Welsh yang terobsesi dengan bintang pop David Cassidy akhirnya mendapat kesempatan untuk bertemu idolanya, 24 tahun lebih lambat dari yang diperkirakan.
Pada tahun 1974, dengan pakaian lonceng bawahnya, rambut lebat dan mata hijau, bintang Keluarga Partridge David Cassidy adalah segalanya bagi Petra Williams yang berusia 13 tahun yang canggung. Dia mencintainya dengan histeris pengabdian yang dibagikan oleh banyak orang sezamannya. Seorang gadis yang cerdas, Petra mendapat sedikit dukungan emosional dari ibunya yang ketat, Greta. Dia lebih suka rumah sahabatnya Sharon, teman sekelas yang penuh semangat dan manis yang hampir sama tergila-gila dengan David. Dunia mereka, dengan suka dan duka emosionalnya.
Dan Bill Finn adalah editor muda di The Essential David Cassidy Magazine. Bukan hanya karyanya yang membuatnya mengenal dunia rahasia gadis-gadis remaja, dia sebenarnya adalah David, setidaknya dalam bentuk cetakan.
.
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.
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Sebelum kubuat ulasan kecil nih!
Uhmmmm ... wait a minute. I want to say that I don't know that David Cassidy. Why? because I was born in the 80s and I think I know he's a music singer who was really famous in the 70s.
.
.
.
.
Buku ini berisi Remaja Welsh yang terobsesi dengan bintang pop David Cassidy akhirnya mendapat kesempatan untuk bertemu idolanya, 24 tahun lebih lambat dari yang diperkirakan.
Pada tahun 1974, dengan pakaian lonceng bawahnya, rambut lebat dan mata hijau, bintang Keluarga Partridge David Cassidy adalah segalanya bagi Petra Williams yang berusia 13 tahun yang canggung. Dia mencintainya dengan histeris pengabdian yang dibagikan oleh banyak orang sezamannya. Seorang gadis yang cerdas, Petra mendapat sedikit dukungan emosional dari ibunya yang ketat, Greta. Dia lebih suka rumah sahabatnya Sharon, teman sekelas yang penuh semangat dan manis yang hampir sama tergila-gila dengan David. Dunia mereka, dengan suka dan duka emosionalnya.
Dan Bill Finn adalah editor muda di The Essential David Cassidy Magazine. Bukan hanya karyanya yang membuatnya mengenal dunia rahasia gadis-gadis remaja, dia sebenarnya adalah David, setidaknya dalam bentuk cetakan.
December 4, 2017
Like many women of a certain age, I found myself with tears streaming down my face when I heard of the death of David Cassidy recently. Allison Pearson was interviewed on the radio that morning, and the things she said about David resonated with me, so I decided to read this book. It is the story of 2 young girls and their crush on the teen idol, but I found it to be so much more. The author managed to convey all that young girl angst about friendship groups, family, and trying to find where you fit in to the adult world. In the story the 2 girls eventually meet David when they are adults. I liked the transcript of the interview that Allison did with David in 2010 - that was a great way to end the book. Really recommend this, even if you preferred Donny Osmond!!
March 4, 2020
Five stars for the first half and Three stars for the second half. If you loved an Elvis, Ringo Star, David Cassidy, or Donny Osmond etc. as a preteen and was an insecure but hopeful adolescent, the first half sparkles.
November 14, 2017
RIP David 11/21/2017
July 14, 2011
This book did not start out well for me. If I hadn't been reading it for book club, I would not have continued past the first third or so.
The first half of the book takes place when Petra and her friends are young teens, obsessed with David Cassidy, and having the sort of problems that girls in books (and real life) often seem to have-- Bullying, friendship issues, parental problems...
Since the David Cassidy connection didn't speak to me, it just felt like a book I'd read before, with characters that I didn't particularly want to spend time with.
I think this is a book where listening to the audio really got in the way for me.
First, the narrators voice was not that of a young teen (the Petra sections were first person), which isn't a showstopper, but it didn't help, either.
Second, the book moves between Petra's story and that of Bill (a young journalist writing for the David Cassidy magazine that Petra and her friends pour over), and excerpts from the David Cassidy magazine. Looking at the printed book, I think this would have broken up the experience more-- I would have felt the "Bill" sections gave me more of a break if I hadn't still been hearing Petra's voice. The magazine excerpts had a completely different look, which also would have served as a chance to take a breath, away from Petra and her friends.
I don't think I would have loved this first part in print, but I also don't think I would have been longing to stop reading.
Luckily, the second half worked much better for me. I found it a pleasant enough read, and the narrator's voice fit the adult Petra much better (although since it is no longer first person, it isn't such an issue).
I enjoyed Petra's escape from her life as she gets a chance to meet her childhood crush, reconnects with her childhood friend, and gets a chance to move on from her more recent hurts in her life.
Bill was actually my favorite character in both halves of the book, but even he isn't particularly memorable.
I'm glad it improved for me, but it still won't be one of my favorite books of the year.
The first half of the book takes place when Petra and her friends are young teens, obsessed with David Cassidy, and having the sort of problems that girls in books (and real life) often seem to have-- Bullying, friendship issues, parental problems...
Since the David Cassidy connection didn't speak to me, it just felt like a book I'd read before, with characters that I didn't particularly want to spend time with.
I think this is a book where listening to the audio really got in the way for me.
First, the narrators voice was not that of a young teen (the Petra sections were first person), which isn't a showstopper, but it didn't help, either.
Second, the book moves between Petra's story and that of Bill (a young journalist writing for the David Cassidy magazine that Petra and her friends pour over), and excerpts from the David Cassidy magazine. Looking at the printed book, I think this would have broken up the experience more-- I would have felt the "Bill" sections gave me more of a break if I hadn't still been hearing Petra's voice. The magazine excerpts had a completely different look, which also would have served as a chance to take a breath, away from Petra and her friends.
I don't think I would have loved this first part in print, but I also don't think I would have been longing to stop reading.
Luckily, the second half worked much better for me. I found it a pleasant enough read, and the narrator's voice fit the adult Petra much better (although since it is no longer first person, it isn't such an issue).
I enjoyed Petra's escape from her life as she gets a chance to meet her childhood crush, reconnects with her childhood friend, and gets a chance to move on from her more recent hurts in her life.
Bill was actually my favorite character in both halves of the book, but even he isn't particularly memorable.
I'm glad it improved for me, but it still won't be one of my favorite books of the year.
April 3, 2011
I think it's too bad that this book is probably going to get overlooked by a lot of people just because the cover is just so gosh-darned
pink
-- it looks like a tosser, easily dismissible as frothy, feel-good chick-lit, more fluff than depth, more cheese than ...urm... meat? I know I was on the verge of dismissing it for all these reasons and more; I mean, c'mon!?! David Cassidy? Really people? But thanks to a contagious review here on goodreads, I took a chance and am I glad that I ever did.
I don't just think I love this book, I know it with complete and utter certainty. Why? Because it is filled with bittersweet insights on life and love and laced with a quick and sassy humor that had me laughing out loud. This book has heart -- a real, beating, bloody, muscle that pumps and lives and breathes in the pages. So okay, there's that David Cassidy thing, but really, he's just the point of entry to a book that explores so well, with such empathy and truth, the bumpy and perilous terrain of our first crushes and those critical bonds of first real friendships that will define the women we become.
And speaking of those first crushes? Remember those? How much we threw every single piece of ourselves into them, right down to our protons and neutrons? I'm thinking a magic part of that intoxicating buzz never truly leaves us if we're lucky. I remember seeing Eddie Vedder on stage when I was 19 and it was as close to a "religious" experience as I'll ever get. Can I get a Hallelujah? I really did almost implode at the molecular level.
I love books that can write about friendships among women, convincingly and with genuine feeling. Petra and Sharon are wonderful as adult friends, and as children they are charming and unforgettable. This book has a high nostalgia factor that resonates. It's a beautiful read and I loved every minute of it. Highly recommended.
I don't just think I love this book, I know it with complete and utter certainty. Why? Because it is filled with bittersweet insights on life and love and laced with a quick and sassy humor that had me laughing out loud. This book has heart -- a real, beating, bloody, muscle that pumps and lives and breathes in the pages. So okay, there's that David Cassidy thing, but really, he's just the point of entry to a book that explores so well, with such empathy and truth, the bumpy and perilous terrain of our first crushes and those critical bonds of first real friendships that will define the women we become.
And speaking of those first crushes? Remember those? How much we threw every single piece of ourselves into them, right down to our protons and neutrons? I'm thinking a magic part of that intoxicating buzz never truly leaves us if we're lucky. I remember seeing Eddie Vedder on stage when I was 19 and it was as close to a "religious" experience as I'll ever get. Can I get a Hallelujah? I really did almost implode at the molecular level.
I love books that can write about friendships among women, convincingly and with genuine feeling. Petra and Sharon are wonderful as adult friends, and as children they are charming and unforgettable. This book has a high nostalgia factor that resonates. It's a beautiful read and I loved every minute of it. Highly recommended.
February 2, 2011
There were some parts about this book that I enjoyed and some things that went on and on and didn't seem to connect to anything else. Otherwise I would have ranked it higher. I did love all the Welsh terms and the English slang. Because my grandmother's father was from Wales I found that particularly endearing. I also remember the girlhood crushes and Teen Beat magazine (or was it Tiger Beat?) Anyway, we all had crushes on Leif Garrett, Scott Baio, Ralph Macchio, etc, in my generation. Those were the hairless cuties. Funny how pre-pubescent girls all thing the sort-of feminine looking guys were hot, right?
There were some good thoughts in this book about that type of romanticism and how unrealistic it is, but how real it feels to the devotee. David Cassidy was a tad before my time. But not by much. I was raised on The Brady Bunch. I remember sighing over Greg Brady, too. Anyway, that's not all that this book is about. It's also about people finding themselves and who they are. If you read it for mere entertainment, you might miss that part. I always read a book looking for a message. I found the message tucked in the pages, but it wasn't as easy to find as I'd hoped. This book could have been tighter if it had been about a hundred pages shorter. Then I may have read it faster and not gotten so lost in the many details.
I liked how the story ended, but it's still a bit sad to me because of a few loose ends. Not a bad read, though. Just not exceptional. Oh, and the buggers and the blimmin were not so bad, but the f bombs were a bit more frequent than I care to read. I really hate that word.
There were some good thoughts in this book about that type of romanticism and how unrealistic it is, but how real it feels to the devotee. David Cassidy was a tad before my time. But not by much. I was raised on The Brady Bunch. I remember sighing over Greg Brady, too. Anyway, that's not all that this book is about. It's also about people finding themselves and who they are. If you read it for mere entertainment, you might miss that part. I always read a book looking for a message. I found the message tucked in the pages, but it wasn't as easy to find as I'd hoped. This book could have been tighter if it had been about a hundred pages shorter. Then I may have read it faster and not gotten so lost in the many details.
I liked how the story ended, but it's still a bit sad to me because of a few loose ends. Not a bad read, though. Just not exceptional. Oh, and the buggers and the blimmin were not so bad, but the f bombs were a bit more frequent than I care to read. I really hate that word.
March 14, 2013
The four stars is for the first half of the book. I just loved teen Petra and her tale of obsession with the pop star! Got to say, David is a little before my own time, and I know the title song "I think I love you" from the Voice of the Beehive's cover which came out when I was a teen. It didn't really matter - you could insert any star you had a crush on and relate to this. Mine at this age was Ben Volpeliere Pierrot (did I even spell that right?! Horrors! 13 year old me would know). Allison Pearson did a great job at capturing this period in a young girls life. Some good supporting characters too in Sharon and the strict German mother.
As others have commented, it does lose it a bit in the second half. I give this section two and a half stars. Petra is a real sad sack, and her life hasn't turned out too well, having given up a promising career as a musician to stay in the shadows of a husband she knows cheats on her. Petra here has just been left for a younger woman and is a single mum to a teenage daughter, Molly.
It was obvious to me early on that Petra and Bill would eventually get together. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Bill meant to be married to Claire at this point? I found Bill's character not too riveting and the whole set up unconvincing.
I really disliked Alison's previous book, "I don't know how she does it", so this was a pleasant surprise, or the first half of it was, anyhow. Shame it didn't end in Petra's teens!!!
As others have commented, it does lose it a bit in the second half. I give this section two and a half stars. Petra is a real sad sack, and her life hasn't turned out too well, having given up a promising career as a musician to stay in the shadows of a husband she knows cheats on her. Petra here has just been left for a younger woman and is a single mum to a teenage daughter, Molly.
It was obvious to me early on that Petra and Bill would eventually get together. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Bill meant to be married to Claire at this point? I found Bill's character not too riveting and the whole set up unconvincing.
I really disliked Alison's previous book, "I don't know how she does it", so this was a pleasant surprise, or the first half of it was, anyhow. Shame it didn't end in Petra's teens!!!
March 9, 2022
1 stella ⭐
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