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.
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Community Reviews
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.
Ok, here it goes. I had a similar experience before and it was not lovely at all.
In a way, all of this should have been avoided if Rachel had spoken her truth. Literally. If Rachel would have given Dexter a chance in the beginning all of this crazy situation wouldn't have happened. And she would have been with Darcy as her maid of honor instead.
All for a guy.. God damn.. I do blame Dexter as well because he should have said no and ask Rachel instead, he as well should have spoken the truth all along but he carried all this stupid façade with Darcy..
In the end Darcy is practically the victim of it all. I don't think Rachel was a good friend whatsoever.. And she shouldn't have put her in a pedestal as well.. Rachel should have known her own worth and her way of thinking of Darcy is so toxic as well..
Is insane how everything "worked" Out.. Rachel and Darcy broke up after a long time friendship and Dexter broke the two apart.. Plus the Cheating part from Darcy could have been avoided if Dexter wasn't sleeping around with her friend. So basically it was Dexter's fault all together, the whole thing was his fault..
I do blame him.. He could have avoided if he had said no to Darcy on a date, and gone straight to Rachel.. Then he would have been friends still with Darcy and Marcus.. In which in the end.. They would or could have been a couple.. but damn.. Is so insane how everything broke off.. Both relationships broken by two people.. That's harsh..
I Still liked the writing of the book and the way how everything unfolded was good as well That's why I'm giving it 4 stars.
**My experience was that my bf moved in with me while having a roommate female and they slept together and she told me the next day crying because she didn't wanted to lose our friendship.. Well she did lost our friendship and I left him, did came back to him but did again with a co-worker from work, so for reals I left the bastard..
That's how it happened to me** :/
I love this book but this is a rare example of where the movie is much better. Maybe I'm biased though because I adore John Krasinski and the Ethan character.
This book was very well written and is always a wonderful read. I read this book at least once per year. It brings me comfort; I get a good laugh, shed a tear or two and always finish it with a smile. It’s not exactly the typical happy ending, but it’s a reminder that is usually how real life goes. 🥰
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.
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