Certain Girls [ペーパーバック]

I was very excited to read "Certain Girls," the sequel to Jennifer Weiner's bestselling novel "Good in Bed," which I liked very much. Although most of the book was a lot of fun to read, the ending left me very disappointed.

"Certain Girls" takes place more than a decade after "Good in Bed." Cannie and Peter are now married and raising Cannie's daughter, Joy, who is now 13 years old. Cannie and Joy alternate chapters as narrators, and they have the kind of relationship that's pretty typical between teenage girls and their mothers. Joy thinks that her mom is an overprotective pain in the butt, and Cannie worries constantly about her daughter, especially when she notices changes in Joy's behavior. Meanwhile, Cannie struggles with the notion that her husband wants to have another baby with the help of a surrogate, and Joy eventally breaks down and reads the popular book her mother wrote 10 years ago. "Big Girls Don't Cry" is a sensationalized version of the events that led up to Joy's birth, and after reading it, Joy is so traumatized that she begins to question every aspect of her life. Eventually Joy embarks on a quest to discover the truth about her mother and herself.

At first I wasn't sure what to make of "Certain Girls." I enjoyed the first few chapters, but everything about the novel seemed so predictable and obvious. However, Weiner is a pretty fantastic storyteller, and despite the fact that I had most of the story figured out right away, I was completely drawn in by the book's characters and the emotions that they experienced, which are all unbelievably honest and relatable. As I continued reading, I thought that "Certain Girls" may end up being Weiner's best book to date...until I got to page 344!

The last 40 pages of this book SUCK! The events that unfold are so depressing and completely unnecessary. I think Weiner was trying to recreate the exact same chain of events depicted at the end of "Good in Bed," when baby Joy arrives prematurely and Cannie is unsure if her daughter will survive. I was so disappointed with the way Weiner regurgitated all those emotions at the end of this book, which was so stupid! I'm telling you, the ending of this book is what prevented me from giving "Certain Girls" a five-star rating. To be perfectly honest, a four-star rating is probably too generous of me.

I'm sure many fans of "Good in Bed" will be eager to dive into this much-anticipated sequel, and for the most part, "Certain Girls" is a very enjoyable read. However, if you want to get the most out of this book, take my advice and stop reading after Chapter 36. Trust me!

Jennifer Weiner first appeared on the fiction market with her novel, Good In Bed, a funny, smart look at modern life as viewed by a woman who's coping with stuff that the majority of women live with -- treacherous boyfriends, the constant battle with our weight, and a refreshing attitude that most of us could sympathize with.

Now with Certain Girls, more than a dozen years have passed since the events in Good In Bed. Cannie Shapiro is happily married to Dr. Peter K, and the very proud mother of her daughter, Joy. After her novel -- a thinly disguised memoir of her life -- turned into a runaway best-seller, Cannie has settled into a routine of being a mom and wife, and writing science fiction novels for teenagers under a pseudonym. Everything is going good, and that?s when the problems start.

Joy, the darling of her parents, is hovering on the brink of puberty, and worse still, her bat mitzvah the dreaded rite of passage in every Jewish girl's life when she makes that transition between being a child and an adult at the age of thirteen. But she has other things to worry about - such as not being one of the 'popular girls' such as Amber, the perfect girl at her school. She?s also at that stage where her parents embarrass her mightily, especially her mother. Toss in the fact that she also hates wearing her hearing aids, and her grades are slipping, and Joy is heading for trouble.

Especially when her Aunt Lucy - now calling herself Elle - comes to visit, intending to find Joy the perfect dress, Joy starts finding herself in a conflicting time. Now that suddenly she's being noticed by Amber and her crowd, she's losing her best friends, the twins Todd and Tamsin, and she is also reading her mother's best selling novel on the sly. Unfortunately for Cannie, Joy takes the events in the story entirely wrong, and things are starting to spiral out of control.

If all of this isn't enough, Weiner throws in other plot conflicts, such as Peter and Cannie deciding to hire a surrogate mother to have another child (those who have read Good in Bed will understand why); Bruce, Joy's no-good-nik father is back; and there are a host of other problems, including the current overindulgence in party throwing as each parent tries to outdo the rest for the bar and bat mitzvah events.

Finally, Weiner throws in one last twist that had me howling and throwing the book at the wall. Seriously. It was one of the meanest tricks to lay on a reader, and it left the rest of the story a severe disappointment for me.

Too, there are several style problems with the story. One is the use of alternating first-person voices in each chapter, switching between Cannie and Joy. This tends to get very confusing, as it gets hard to follow as to just whom is speaking. While Weiner is able to keep the writing style frisky and full of verbal barbs and insights, her use of modern culture is going to make this a rather stale novel in about ten years or so.

Overall, I was left feeling that this was just so coincidence heavy, and contrived, that I could not really enjoy it. At best it is a three star read, and that?s rather unfortunate, as Weiner can certainly write much better than this drivel, and I have a hunch that she was being pushed into writing a sequel to her first novel. That's too bad, as with a bit more care, and some trimming could have saved this story and turned it into a truly interesting tale.

Unfortunately, this novel fits into that nebulous area that I reserve for books as a ?maybe? recommend. There is so much going on here, that when Weiner starts to wind up the story, the improbability factor starts to soar. It all comes down to how much you enjoy this author's work -- die-hard fans will read it anyway. But I would not recommend this for a first-time reader of Ms. Weiner's work.

Somewhat recommended.

I believe the biggest problem with Certain Girls is that Weiner, who created Cannie with a terrific, believable voice, did not succeed in maintaining Cannie's voice and adding an equally believable voice in her daughter Joy. Many authors of late have written novels in a multiple voice point of view. Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible comes to mind as an extraordinary novel written in this fashion. But Cannie's voice is diluted and Joy's voice is, well, certainly not that of an almost-teen. Sure, Weiner has made her whiny, cruel, self-centered, and self-possessed, but the voice just isn't right. She uses language that doesn't ring true. I can't "see" Joy as a character and the Cannie that we loved in Good in Bed does not continue to develop and grow.
And I agree with the comments about the contrived plot "twist" at the end. By trying to convince her readers that Cannie is a strong woman capable of withstanding the worst that life can throw at her, she has succeeded only in highlighting the stereotype that we're all becoming rather tired of. Yeah, we're tough and we can "take it" [sigh]. But when we read a Jennifer Weiner book, we'd rather not.