This is chicklit with a Capital "C" no question. Froth of no redeeming value or character development and definitely not to be taken seriously. Chicklit is a genre I've been sampling by reading from a recommendation list and finding by and large I don't like. This one though, which happened to be on the list, was actually listed by a friend as one of three chicklit books that didn't "suck" and was "fun." (For the record, her other two picks were Carol Wolper's The Cigarette Girl and Leanne Shear's The Perfect Manhattan) I wasn't sure I'd find this one fun in the first few dozen pages.

This is set in a New York City I've never known--and I'm a native. One where "all anyone...ever says is everything's fabulous" and "everyone...takes calls from their beauty experts at social occasions" and waxes the inside of their noses and where "PJ is the quick NY way" of saying private jet. Who knew that a crosstown bus to the East Side could take me into a land more foreign than any overseas? One in which I doubt I have the right passport, but that's OK, because I have Plum Sykes, described as a "contributing editor of Vogue where she writes on fashion, society, and Hollywood" to take me into the exotic country of Park Avenue Princesses and Bergdorf Blondes.

The blonde not being the unnamed first person narrator but her best friend Julie Bergdorf, an heiress who makes me think more of Paris Hilton than Grace Kelly. Indeed, our heroine is actually a brunette and someone who seems rather ditzy for a supposedly Princeton University graduate and who breezily tells of her adventures with men she dates who turn into brutes as soon as they are engaged, are secretly married, or always-soon-to-be divorced Lotharios. There are even some nice guys--but even if their manner is informal or their shirts frayed they all turn out to be heirs underneath. Ah, East Siders. Their ways are not our ways....

However, I admit it--I was widely smiling by page 30 when the topic turned to "Brazilians" (note, not referring to natives of a certain Latin American country) and the book induced in me hysterical laughter (as in hard-to-stop tears-from-my-eyes kind) over a certain book club scene. Any book that can make me smile so often and even laugh out loud I have to give at least three stars. I would have given it at least a four, if the "advil incident" wasn't so eye-rollingly stupid.

The WORST book I have attempted to read. Ever. And I own the entire Sex & the City series on DVD, and can quote Clueless line by line. The vapid characters were neither funny nor charming, but boring and oh-so-annoying. Sykes' attempts at humor made me cringe, and fashion name-dropping was incessant and awkward. This book was so bad it actually made me angry.

Glad to have borrowed this from the library instead of spending money on it. Writing was okay, but hated the shallow characters.

This book is a literary equivalent of a shot in the head. It may hurt as hell for a short time, but you get conveniently stupefied right away & can't care about anything afterwards. Read this at your peril.

The cover and blurb had me expecting a fluffy read, so I wish I would’ve had a content warning in advance for suicide & EDs, honestly, because this took a much darker turn in the middle. It could’ve been a really interesting plot point to explore, but then the book transitioned right back into fluff; the way the whole thing was handled was kind of jarring.

I was actually enjoying the book at first, but the last third or so was really a slog to get through. The protagonist’s poor decisions stopped being cute & quirky and just got really tiresome & frustrating. The plot twist at the end, which was supposed to be a big reveal, could be seen from MILES away— literally as soon as the character mentioned his backstory, I knew where it was going.

It was cute at first, but the miscommunication trope at the end got really annoying and felt needlessly drawn out. I don’t hate the protagonist, but she needed serious psychiatric help and outright refused to get it, and then there was no lesson there. Everything worked out fine for her! I think that’s a dangerous message.

(Also, if she had mentioned “Brazil” one more time, I think I would’ve lost it)

Loved this book and the New York world of Park Avenue gals it spotlighted.

The book was fun, whimsical, and knew well enough not to take itself seriously more than skin deep!

The twist at the end was a good one and the author seemed to understand the need for a beginning, middle, and end of a book. Nothing was too rushed (but again it was her first book!) but it was just sweet enough to make me smile and want to pass a good review of it on.

I don't think that Ms. Sykes has or probably will create another book that tops this one, but that is okay by me. I have been loaning out my copy since I first read it and can't wait to reread it sometime when I just need to remember that reading is fun...

[Plane read]

I wanted to jump out of the plane. It delivered on what was promised in the blurb but jesus I felt like my brain went numb reading it I’ve never read such an out of touch DUMB oblivious character in my life

Was debating with myself whether it's 2 or 1 star book, seeing as I decided to stop reading it halfway through.

It was not enjoyable, not funny and ..not worth my time.

I'm not sure why I even read this in the first place. I think it may have been because my sister lent it to me when I asked her if I could borrow a book on my trip to Milwaukee last summer. She specifically warned me in advance that it was really stupid, but secretly a fun read in a guilty pleasure sort of way. Most people would probably say at this point, "What were you expecting, Camus?" I don't know, I don't care, I HATED this book. It was basically like Sex and the City but 10,000 times more vapid and pointless. I know it was meant to be breezy and whimsical and fun but all it succeeded in doing was making me want to puke all over Plum Sykes and her $5000 handbags and all her spoiled NYC trust fund brat friends, and then throw the book across the room in disgust. Instead I finished it. What is wrong with me? I think I still have this book laying around somewhere in my house, sorry Addie, I honestly have no problem returning it to you the next time I see you again.

Cute, fun beach reading. Only you'll feel fat and poor while having a glimpse into this world!

DNF on page 147 (out of 310 pages total)

I bought a hardback copy of "Bergdorf Blondes," by Plum Sykes (first published in 2004) at a Goodwill store outside of Portland in 2016, and decided to reread the book in March 2020. What a surprise to me that I couldn't even finish it.

I'll leave my original review for this book pasted below. I have some thoughts to share about my reaction, and why I must have enjoyed this book so much when I first read it in 2007.

The main character, who only ever calls herself "Moi" in the text, is severely anorexic, along with several other female characters named in the story. This condition is slyly introduced, and then features more and more prominently in the story. The novel treats all eating disorders like a joke. Every woman in this book is intent to get married and stay married, and every woman in the story is superficial and obsessed with money.

A little less than halfway through the book, Moi tries to commit suicide by overdosing on Advil. A young man named Charlie (Moi's future love interest) finds her unconscious, naked, and with her suicide note lying beside her. Charlie is shocked and tries to help Moi. A few hours later (which is only a couple of sentences later on the page), Moi ditches Charlie for a "hot guy" in a restaurant. The wealthy man takes Moi from Paris to Italy without her consent. After a few days of sex with this stranger, Moi no longer wants to kill herself. She returns to New York City and resumes her day-to-day life.

That was the point at which I DNF'd.

In the years since I first read this book (in 2007), I have read a lot of nonfiction about eating disorders, body image, and feminism. I must be 100% honest and say that I originally found this book so funny because I lacked awareness, and I also lacked empathy. What I originally considered to be "hyperbole" and "satire" in this novel is actually the stark, brutal truth: the young women Sykes is satirizing in this story really do suffer from severe eating disorders, problems with body image and body acceptance, and internalized misogyny. Moi suffers from severely low self-esteem, and constantly allows men to treat her like garbage. The entire book exists in an echo chamber of the patriarchy. The relentless misogyny on display in the story is embedded in the narrative, unchecked.

I'm shocked that I ever found this book so "hilarious." I'm definitely not laughing now.

A few days ago, I watched an interview Victoria (Plum) Sykes gave about her novel, "Party Girls Die in Pearls: An Oxford Girl Mystery," published in 2017, and I could see for myself that Sykes is very pretty, extremely thin, and glamorously dressed. She attended Oxford in the late 1980s, and states that she never thought of herself as a "feminist," since feminists were demonized at Oxford and in the fashion world of New York City, where Sykes worked after college. It was only after President Trump's election that Sykes began to see herself as a feminist, and began to believe in feminist causes.

I realized: "That explains so, so much about the misogyny embedded in the narrative of her first book."

"Bergdorf Blondes" is both wish fulfillment for Sykes (a brunette, just like Moi) and a narrative that runs on the societal hatred and condemnation of "the dumb blonde." The story relentlessly mocks "rich girls" as "stupid and fake." The book's moments of satire are completely undercut by the patriarchal cluelessness of the narrative. It's an overall ugly novel, full of romanticized misogyny, classism, and cruel barbs against women.

I could really beat myself up over how much this book made me laugh 13 years ago. I could definitely get a "Shame Attack" like those that the characters suffer in this story. But reading 147 pages of this novel has already made me suffer enough. I don't feel like I need any more shame, so I'm being honest about my reaction instead.

I've cancelled my original 5-star rating for this book. I'm going to leave it unrated. I do not recommend this book. I definitely would not recommend this book to anyone who has suffered from an eating disorder, depression, or struggled with suicide. There are certainly ways to handle these topics with comedic insight and wit. But I don't think "Bergdorf Blondes" does it well.

This book became more excruciating with each page I turned. I cannot imagine ever reading all the way to the end. My paperback copy is already gone, and I won't be keeping my hardback copy, either. This just isn't a book I want to have in my house.


*****

Original thoughts on this book:

I read this novel in the summer of 2007, and laughed so hard in the airport that I almost missed my flight and tears ran down my eyes. I've never laughed so hard reading a book as I did reading "Bergdorf Blondes." I smile every time I think of this novel. I found a first edition hardback today at a Goodwill store in Oregon, in perfect condition. I've always owned this book as a paperback, but now I have it in hardcover too. WIN.

Kind of embarrassed to admit I read the whole thing. I received this as a gift and it looked so awful I didn't expect to get past chapter one.
It actually was quite amusing, though awfully shallow and the whole neighbor thing at the end was very convenient. Dumb blondes with not a lot of redeeming qualities. Okay for a bit of light entertainment.