Stephanie L. (Mokona) reviewed Whores on the Hill : A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries) on + 55 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
I enjoyed this book. It's definately not a "fluffy" story about teenage girls... these characters are very real but they are out of control, just trying to feel like they are in control of something. It's not an inspiring story, but it was sad and believable.
AJ L. (pyrajane) reviewed Whores on the Hill : A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries) on + 69 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
The book is about three friends: Astrid, Juli, and our protagonist, Thisbe, aka Jellybean. They go to the only all girl's high school in Milwaukee. It's the late 80s and the girls do all that they can to live up to their whores on the hill rep.
At first I thought this book was going to capture that out of control, on top of the world feeling you had at 15. That feeling that you are in complete control of everything and everyone, but at the same time you have no control over anything. (Or maybe that was just me.)
Over all, this book was really disappointing. It wasn't a shocking peek into the teenage world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, because that's been done a million times, and in much better ways. None of the characters develop into anyone or anything.
The one thing I really did like was a totally unexpected character revelation at the end that had nothing (well, almost nothing) to do with the three girls. It came out of the blue and I thought it was clever.
The ending felt silly; almost like Curran couldn't figure out how to get Thisbe out of her situation, so she fell back on a cliched plot twist. But then she did rescue it a bit with the very last sentence in the book, which made me wonder if Thisbe was going to become Astrid, only a good version. And then that felt like a total rip off of the movie Heathers.
At first I thought this book was going to capture that out of control, on top of the world feeling you had at 15. That feeling that you are in complete control of everything and everyone, but at the same time you have no control over anything. (Or maybe that was just me.)
Over all, this book was really disappointing. It wasn't a shocking peek into the teenage world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, because that's been done a million times, and in much better ways. None of the characters develop into anyone or anything.
The one thing I really did like was a totally unexpected character revelation at the end that had nothing (well, almost nothing) to do with the three girls. It came out of the blue and I thought it was clever.
The ending felt silly; almost like Curran couldn't figure out how to get Thisbe out of her situation, so she fell back on a cliched plot twist. But then she did rescue it a bit with the very last sentence in the book, which made me wonder if Thisbe was going to become Astrid, only a good version. And then that felt like a total rip off of the movie Heathers.
Helpful Score: 1
very different. Interesting and in many ways sad.
Marta J. (booksnob) reviewed Whores on the Hill : A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries) on + 412 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Made me remember my tumultuous teen years and what was important at that age... Man, am I glad that's way in the past!
Haley Joy F. (Joynessdotcom) reviewed Whores on the Hill : A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries) on + 53 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
A sad, well written book, about being a teenager, and remembering that it doesn't last forever.
Helpful Score: 1
Fun, fast, read about a fifteen-year-old girl and her friends raising hell in Milwaukee in the 80's.
It brought me back to that time in my early teens when I was discovering my sexuality and the power it gave me. I'm glad those exciting and frightening days are gone, but it was fun to revisit them for a few hours.
The characters felt real and the writing was done well. I liked the style in which she wrote the exposition. The clipped sentences set the scenes well, but still felt true to the view point character.
The only place where I felt this novel fell short was in the story structure. I think that if the author could have spent a little more time fleshing out the plot and working on a better ending, this book could have gone from good to great.
I look forward to reading whatever Curran writes next.
It brought me back to that time in my early teens when I was discovering my sexuality and the power it gave me. I'm glad those exciting and frightening days are gone, but it was fun to revisit them for a few hours.
The characters felt real and the writing was done well. I liked the style in which she wrote the exposition. The clipped sentences set the scenes well, but still felt true to the view point character.
The only place where I felt this novel fell short was in the story structure. I think that if the author could have spent a little more time fleshing out the plot and working on a better ending, this book could have gone from good to great.
I look forward to reading whatever Curran writes next.
Carrie N. (clnelson) reviewed Whores on the Hill : A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries) on + 45 more book reviews
I thought a book with a title like this would be less boring.
