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Something Borrowed: A Novel
Something Borrowed is the smash-hit debut novel from Emily Giffin for every woman who has ever had a complicated love-hate friendship. The basis for the blockbuster movie starring Kate Hudson, Ginnifer Goodwin, and John Krasinski!
Rachel White is the consummate good girl. A hard-working attorney at a large Manhattan law firm and a diligent maid of honor to her charmed best friend Darcy, Rachel has always played by all the rules. Since grade school, she has watched Darcy shine, quietly accepting the sidekick role in their lopsided friendship. But that suddenly changes the night of her thirtieth birthday when Rachel finally confesses her feelings to Darcy's fiance, and is both horrified and thrilled to discover that he feels the same way. As the wedding date draws near, events spiral out of control, and Rachel knows she must make a choice between her heart and conscience. In so doing, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk everything to be true to yourself.BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
I read this book to give myself a break after reading "Gone With the Wind." Obviously, nothing could possibly ever follow that one up. But I gave this book four stars simply for the fact that I enjoyed reading it. It was a fun, easy read that captured and held my attention consistently through to the end. And, I personally felt the moral dilemma being presented throughout the book, and even felt strongly about it at times to the point where I had to vent about it. That, in my mind, accounts for good writing, since it got me worked up enough to care. I will probably read other books by this author, but not right away since I now need a break from chick-lit.
It was an easy read although the characters could definitely use some more depth I liked the descriptive nature of the background and details.
I read this book after being lucky enough to receive a copy from goodreads. I'd been curious about Emily Giffin ever since I had seen Something Blue and Baby Proof on the shelves at Borders. Was it the cute pastel covers that appealed to me? Or the idea of uniting with other women over stories that all seemed to have some universally feminine quality to them? At any rate, I was excited when I first held this book in my hands.
The excitement soon waned to a somewhere between pleasantness and time-passing. The book is a smooth read with a story for one of those days when you just don't feel like letting the rules of your life squash you any more. However, as a member of the LDS church, I hold values that aren't reflected in this book. The plot is based on infidelity and seeks to add dimension to the idea of a taboo relationship, and right and wrong in general. I respect the idea and the point of view, but all in all, it doesn't quite speak to my soul. Maybe I'm just not cut out for universal femininity.
It's like TV. Or Twinkies. Fun, friendly, and super-palatable to the average modern woman on an average day, but when you want something deeper or truer than the average modern woman wants on the average day, I might pick up something else.
The excitement soon waned to a somewhere between pleasantness and time-passing. The book is a smooth read with a story for one of those days when you just don't feel like letting the rules of your life squash you any more. However, as a member of the LDS church, I hold values that aren't reflected in this book. The plot is based on infidelity and seeks to add dimension to the idea of a taboo relationship, and right and wrong in general. I respect the idea and the point of view, but all in all, it doesn't quite speak to my soul. Maybe I'm just not cut out for universal femininity.
It's like TV. Or Twinkies. Fun, friendly, and super-palatable to the average modern woman on an average day, but when you want something deeper or truer than the average modern woman wants on the average day, I might pick up something else.
SOMETHING BORROWED was recommended to me by a number of friends, and I had bought it long ago though I did not read it until now. This was a challenging book for me to get through. It's not the writing, it's not the story or the situation the characters are in, and it's not even the fact that's it's part of the early class of chick lit that swamped the market a few years ago.
It's the characters.
I simply could not root for anyone in the book. And before I get carried away with my review, let me recap.
In SOMETHING BORROWED, Rachel and Darcy have been best friends since their childhood years in the Midwest. Now that they're all grown up and Rachel is on the verge of turning 30, they're living it up in the Big City (NYC, naturally). Darcy is described as a self-centered, whiny girl who is accustomed to winning at life. She gets the bomb job, the hot guy, the easiest kicks. She is a consummate Miss Popularity with a little bit (or a lot) of Mean Girl thrown in. Rachel, the drab sidekick-slash-best friend who is not nearly is pretty and who is stuck slaving away for a law firm in the City is usually relegated to cleaning up after Darcy, fixing stuff up for Darcy, and basically coming in 2nd to Darcy's dazzling wins.
On the night of her 30th birthday, Rachel gets drunk and sleeps with Dex, Darcy's fiance... and thus begins the tale.
As the story develops, I find more and more things to dislike about every character in the book. Rachel and Dex begin an affair, willingly, eyes wide open. Rachel falls in love with Dex, Dex supposedly loves Darcy, and both continue their deceit even as the September wedding draws ever nearer.
Two of their friends are told/find out about the affair, and NO ONE tells them (or Rachel, since this is in first person) that what she is doing is wrong, disrespectful, hateful, and quite frankly, despicable. More than once, I had to ask myself "What's wrong with these people?". Flawed characters are one thing, but to consistently and willingly do something such as this to one's lifelong friend -- regardless of how self-centered and crappy that friend might be -- makes me think less of Rachel herself (and Dex, for that matter).
So, I found that I could not root for any of these characters to win, and when I reached the novel's end (because, as I said, this is not about bad writing or even bad plot or bad story... this is about characters I cannot respect, love, or cheer for), I was sorely disappointed.
(SPOILER ALERT).
Ultimately, Rachel "wins". (Truthfully, that seems to be a big part of what's going on internally for her - a competition with Darcy that she's been in her entire life.) She gets her man at the expense of her best friend.
I've struggled with this the last few days because on one hand: maybe Rachel and Dex deserve each other. And maybe that's their just desserts, and perhaps theres a kind of justice in Darcy getting stung for the first time. But I can't condone what Rachel's done. Even if Darcy is a crappy friend who's consistently selfish and whiny, she didn't deserve that kind of treatment from two people she trusted. Their betrayal, in my opinion, is so great that I cannot be satisfied with the novel's end. I do not feel that these two characters deserve each other unless they make one another miserable -- because they don't, in my opinion, deserve happiness. Especially with one another.
Now. That being said, does this sort of thing happen in real life? Yes, I'm sure it does. And it sucks. But I like justice in my books. I like characters I can admire, aspire to be, or -- at the very least -- LIKE. And I didn't get any of that in SOMETHING BORROWED.
Nevertheless, I admit that my impassioned outrage is the result of good writing on Giffin's part. If she was a terrible writer, I wouldn't care one bit about these characters. But she managed to elicit an emotion from me - albeit negative. I may have had a hard time getting through the book initially, but it was not due to her writing or the storyline, it was simply because I did not like the characters. I would never want to be friends with them in real life. It is a testament to Giffin's ability to craft a story that would urge me to read on despite featuring characters that are largely unlikeable.
I plan on reading SOMETHING BLUE [the follow-up novel from Darcy's POV:] sometime, but I am in no rush to hurry back to these characters. I trust Giffin enough to take me on another journey and make me feel something for these characters -- regardless of whether or not I like the end result.
It's the characters.
I simply could not root for anyone in the book. And before I get carried away with my review, let me recap.
In SOMETHING BORROWED, Rachel and Darcy have been best friends since their childhood years in the Midwest. Now that they're all grown up and Rachel is on the verge of turning 30, they're living it up in the Big City (NYC, naturally). Darcy is described as a self-centered, whiny girl who is accustomed to winning at life. She gets the bomb job, the hot guy, the easiest kicks. She is a consummate Miss Popularity with a little bit (or a lot) of Mean Girl thrown in. Rachel, the drab sidekick-slash-best friend who is not nearly is pretty and who is stuck slaving away for a law firm in the City is usually relegated to cleaning up after Darcy, fixing stuff up for Darcy, and basically coming in 2nd to Darcy's dazzling wins.
On the night of her 30th birthday, Rachel gets drunk and sleeps with Dex, Darcy's fiance... and thus begins the tale.
As the story develops, I find more and more things to dislike about every character in the book. Rachel and Dex begin an affair, willingly, eyes wide open. Rachel falls in love with Dex, Dex supposedly loves Darcy, and both continue their deceit even as the September wedding draws ever nearer.
Two of their friends are told/find out about the affair, and NO ONE tells them (or Rachel, since this is in first person) that what she is doing is wrong, disrespectful, hateful, and quite frankly, despicable. More than once, I had to ask myself "What's wrong with these people?". Flawed characters are one thing, but to consistently and willingly do something such as this to one's lifelong friend -- regardless of how self-centered and crappy that friend might be -- makes me think less of Rachel herself (and Dex, for that matter).
So, I found that I could not root for any of these characters to win, and when I reached the novel's end (because, as I said, this is not about bad writing or even bad plot or bad story... this is about characters I cannot respect, love, or cheer for), I was sorely disappointed.
(SPOILER ALERT).
Ultimately, Rachel "wins". (Truthfully, that seems to be a big part of what's going on internally for her - a competition with Darcy that she's been in her entire life.) She gets her man at the expense of her best friend.
I've struggled with this the last few days because on one hand: maybe Rachel and Dex deserve each other. And maybe that's their just desserts, and perhaps theres a kind of justice in Darcy getting stung for the first time. But I can't condone what Rachel's done. Even if Darcy is a crappy friend who's consistently selfish and whiny, she didn't deserve that kind of treatment from two people she trusted. Their betrayal, in my opinion, is so great that I cannot be satisfied with the novel's end. I do not feel that these two characters deserve each other unless they make one another miserable -- because they don't, in my opinion, deserve happiness. Especially with one another.
Now. That being said, does this sort of thing happen in real life? Yes, I'm sure it does. And it sucks. But I like justice in my books. I like characters I can admire, aspire to be, or -- at the very least -- LIKE. And I didn't get any of that in SOMETHING BORROWED.
Nevertheless, I admit that my impassioned outrage is the result of good writing on Giffin's part. If she was a terrible writer, I wouldn't care one bit about these characters. But she managed to elicit an emotion from me - albeit negative. I may have had a hard time getting through the book initially, but it was not due to her writing or the storyline, it was simply because I did not like the characters. I would never want to be friends with them in real life. It is a testament to Giffin's ability to craft a story that would urge me to read on despite featuring characters that are largely unlikeable.
I plan on reading SOMETHING BLUE [the follow-up novel from Darcy's POV:] sometime, but I am in no rush to hurry back to these characters. I trust Giffin enough to take me on another journey and make me feel something for these characters -- regardless of whether or not I like the end result.
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