The Subway Girls: A Novel
From the author of The Balance Project comes a dual-timeline narrative featuring a 1949 Miss Subways contestant and a modern-day advertising executive whose careers and lives intersect.
"Schnall has written a book that is smart and timely...Feels perfect for fans of Beatriz Williams and Liza Klaussmann." —Taylor Jenkins Reid, acclaimed author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
"A fast-paced, clever novel filled with romantic possibilities, high-stakes decisions, and harsh realities. Perfect for fans of Fiona Davis’s The Dollhouse, this engrossing tale highlights the role that ambition, sexism, and true love will forever play in women’s lives." —Amy Poeppel, author of Small Admissions
In 1949, dutiful and ambitious Charlotte's dream of a career in advertising is shattered when her father demands she help out with the family business. Meanwhile, Charlotte is swept into the glamorous world of the Miss Subways beauty contest, which promises irresistible opportunities with its Park Avenue luster and local fame status. But when her new friend—the intriguing and gorgeous fellow-participant Rose—does something unforgivable, Charlotte must make a heart-wrenching decision that will change the lives of those around her forever.
Nearly 70 years later, outspoken advertising executive Olivia is pitching the NYC subways account in a last ditch effort to save her job at an advertising agency. When the charismatic boss she’s secretly in love with pits her against her misogynistic nemesis, Olivia’s urgent search for the winning strategy leads her to the historic Miss Subways campaign. As the pitch date closes in on her, Olivia finds herself dealing with a broken heart, an unlikely new love interest, and an unexpected personal connection to Miss Subways that could save her job—and her future.
The Subway Girls is the charming story of two strong women, a generation apart, who find themselves up against the same eternal struggle to find an impossible balance between love, happiness, and ambition.
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Community Reviews
1949 - we meet Claire; a woman attempting to earn a career in the male dominated advertising industry. She meets with rejection after rejection, even to simply enter the typing pool, and finds herself discouraged. She has a doting boyfriend who wants to marry her, but honestly she's not quite sure about the seriousness of his proposal. On a whim, a friend enters her into the Miss Subway contest and she finds herself a finalist. Shocked by this, Claire enters a world of beauty pageant life that she'd never found interesting and it changes her is ways she didn't expect.
2018 - we meet Olivia; a brash and egotistical woman that works in advertising. She consistently pits herself against the men around her and volleys between love interest and arch nemesis. After losing a huge pitch campaign she's down in the dumps drowning her sorrows at the local bar with her gay pal James (this felt a bit contrived) and...wait for it...shockingly meets Jack who happens to be a big whig in transportation and just happens to be seeking a new advertising campaign. Of course he doesn't tell Claire this as he listen attentively to her saga and the NEXT DAY the company she works for is offered a chance to pitch. Hmmmm....
Claire later decides to revive the Miss Subway pageant as a last ditch effort to save face in this industry at which she's failing. Her neighbor just happens to be a former contestant.
So...my thoughts.
I didn't like this book. I wanted to - the premise is sound but the execution is flawed. I found the dialogue clunky, Claire desperate, and Olivia ridiculous and unnecessarily foul at times. The love stories didn't quite add up either and the side story about James felt like it existed for the sole purpose of being able to say "look...I have a gay character in my novel." It wasn't organic and this detracted from the novel.
The writing surprised me for being professionally edited. A lot of trite imagery in the form of unneeded adjectives, adverbs, and similes that often didn't make sense. I understand creating a world for the reader, but this was a world I couldn't get into because it felt false. There was an inauthenticity to this novel I couldn't get past.
I think the juxtaposition between time periods decades apart is a solid idea and I've seen it work - most recently with Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton, but this just didn't connect for me. Claire and Olivia's paths don't merge in the seamless way a "time-hop" novel should and this causes the story to be lost.
I wanted to like this book because I love historical fiction. I wish I had, but I cannot recommend. I give it ☕☕ because the idea is good and the cover is lovely - I just didn't care for the writing or characters.
I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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