Wow! What can I say? I opened this book and was instantly sucked in. I seriously couldn’t put it down! *much to my husband’s amusement!* I first was slightly annoyed at the format of the book but that quickly vanished. Katie’s story is told via blog entry. Each entry progresses the story of her life. I really liked Katie. She was both interesting and relate-able. The story reads fast, most likely because of the blog format but you don’t feel like you are missing anything. Like she says, she only “posts” the important stuff that people need to know. There’s not unnecessary chatter just the straight facts. This one kept me flipping the pages! The ending is..well you need to get your hands on this book. It’s got a release date of August 11, 2009. You won’t be disappointed!
By Thomas on 7/7/09
I came into reading Undiscovered Gyrl, expecting a chick-lit book. And I was duly rewarded. However, under the veneer of a slick, techno-hip premise, and occasionally shocking language is a tragic, enthralling book. As others have mentioned the ending tends to stick with you. Yet it is the tragic and hypnotic way that the main character describes her life that gives the narrative added depth. I highly recommend it to both genders.
By Aerin Bender-Stone, InSearchofGiants.com on 7/4/09
(From the Publisher: Spoiler Alert)
posted at InSearchofGiants.com and Goodreads.com:
From the publisher:
Beautiful, wild, funny, and lost, Katie Kampenfelt is taking a year off before college to find her passion. Ambitious in her own way, Katie intends to do more than just smoke weed with her boyfriend, Rory, and work at the bookstore. She plans to seduce Dan, a thirty-two-year-old film professor.
It seems like a great idea, an awesome book along the lines of If I Stay or Wintergirls. Just watch the trailer:
The publisher continues:
Katie chronicles her adventures in an anonymous blog, telling strangers her innermost desires, shames, and thrills. But when Dan stops taking her calls, when her alcoholic father suffers a terrible fall, and when she finds herself drawn into a dangerous new relationship, Katie’s fearless narrative begins to crack, and dark pieces of her past emerge.
Sexually frank, often heartbreaking, and bursting with devilish humor, Undiscovered Gyrl is an extraordinarily accomplished novel of identity, voyeurism, and deceit.
Vintage itself has mounted a “huge, strange online campaign” fueled by social networking as its marketing strategy, complete with its own little army of grassroots publicists.
The biggest problem I have with this whole hoopla is that, while undiscovered gyrl is being marketed as a YA book, it’s really an exercise in postmodern reflection that should only be undertaken with discussion and analysis.
In a book group or an English class or with a friend over coffee.
If you like (and understand) J.D. Salinger, this is the book for you. Allison Burnett definitely seems to be the next Salinger.
I do not at all care for Salinger.
Though it will not be released until August 11, undiscovered gyrl has already caused a buzz in entertainment news because of the alleged reports last summer that Miley Cyrus will play the protagonist – even in the nude (Cyrus denies it as an internet rumor) in the movie version (something I’ve difficulty conceptualizing. The movie, not Miley.)
Some bloggers (like Melissa) love undiscovered gyrl, some hate it (Holly is one), some find it disturbing (like Kelly does). Some aren’t sure. Reviews can be submitted by site users at the original undiscovered gyrl site.
However, I can find few who have really analyzed it. I’m not ready to do so here because so few people have read it yet. But I will say that if you need a topic for a paper, the societal perceptions Burnett invokes by using the word “gyrl” is a good place to start. And that I’m absolutely astonished at the number of people who say they can “relate to Katie.”
So much more about the novel makes sense, knowing that. It shouldn’t, I understand. An author’s genitalia have nothing to do with plot and structure and style. But what I perceived as poor characterization instead is explained by gyrl’s publicist, as intentional to a
novel [that] keeps readers guessing as to the identity of its narrator by “putting traditional point of view on its head and playing around with the major identity issues of our age.”
It’s the whole point. Burnett is a precipient interpreter of postmodern life. To stop at the surface story is to miss the entire point of undiscovered gyrl.
Bottom line? I didn’t care for this book, and I can’t get it out of my head. I can’t even say that about Catcher in the Rye, which so failed to elicit response from me that I forgot it pretty quickly. I might decide I like undiscovered gyrl (though I doubt it.) I need someone with whom I can marinate on it.
Wow! What can I say? I opened this book and was instantly sucked in. I seriously couldn’t put it down! *much to my husband’s amusement!* I first was slightly annoyed at the format of the book but that quickly vanished. Katie’s story is told via blog entry. Each entry progresses the story of her life. I really liked Katie. She was both interesting and relate-able. The story reads fast, most likely because of the blog format but you don’t feel like you are missing anything. Like she says, she only “posts” the important stuff that people need to know. There’s not unnecessary chatter just the straight facts. This one kept me flipping the pages! The ending is..well you need to get your hands on this book. It’s got a release date of August 11, 2009. You won’t be disappointed!
I came into reading Undiscovered Gyrl, expecting a chick-lit book. And I was duly rewarded. However, under the veneer of a slick, techno-hip premise, and occasionally shocking language is a tragic, enthralling book. As others have mentioned the ending tends to stick with you. Yet it is the tragic and hypnotic way that the main character describes her life that gives the narrative added depth. I highly recommend it to both genders.
(From the Publisher: Spoiler Alert)
posted at InSearchofGiants.com and Goodreads.com:
From the publisher:
Beautiful, wild, funny, and lost, Katie Kampenfelt is taking a year off before college to find her passion. Ambitious in her own way, Katie intends to do more than just smoke weed with her boyfriend, Rory, and work at the bookstore. She plans to seduce Dan, a thirty-two-year-old film professor.
It seems like a great idea, an awesome book along the lines of If I Stay or Wintergirls. Just watch the trailer:
The publisher continues:
Katie chronicles her adventures in an anonymous blog, telling strangers her innermost desires, shames, and thrills. But when Dan stops taking her calls, when her alcoholic father suffers a terrible fall, and when she finds herself drawn into a dangerous new relationship, Katie’s fearless narrative begins to crack, and dark pieces of her past emerge.
Sexually frank, often heartbreaking, and bursting with devilish humor, Undiscovered Gyrl is an extraordinarily accomplished novel of identity, voyeurism, and deceit.
Vintage itself has mounted a “huge, strange online campaign” fueled by social networking as its marketing strategy, complete with its own little army of grassroots publicists.
The biggest problem I have with this whole hoopla is that, while undiscovered gyrl is being marketed as a YA book, it’s really an exercise in postmodern reflection that should only be undertaken with discussion and analysis.
In a book group or an English class or with a friend over coffee.
If you like (and understand) J.D. Salinger, this is the book for you. Allison Burnett definitely seems to be the next Salinger.
I do not at all care for Salinger.
Though it will not be released until August 11, undiscovered gyrl has already caused a buzz in entertainment news because of the alleged reports last summer that Miley Cyrus will play the protagonist – even in the nude (Cyrus denies it as an internet rumor) in the movie version (something I’ve difficulty conceptualizing. The movie, not Miley.)
Some bloggers (like Melissa) love undiscovered gyrl, some hate it (Holly is one), some find it disturbing (like Kelly does). Some aren’t sure. Reviews can be submitted by site users at the original undiscovered gyrl site.
However, I can find few who have really analyzed it. I’m not ready to do so here because so few people have read it yet. But I will say that if you need a topic for a paper, the societal perceptions Burnett invokes by using the word “gyrl” is a good place to start. And that I’m absolutely astonished at the number of people who say they can “relate to Katie.”
You may remember that I questioned the validity of a white man writing a black point of view. Well, how about a middle-aged man writing as a teenage girl? Yes, that’s right. Allison Burnett is a man.
So much more about the novel makes sense, knowing that. It shouldn’t, I understand. An author’s genitalia have nothing to do with plot and structure and style. But what I perceived as poor characterization instead is explained by gyrl’s publicist, as intentional to a
It’s the whole point. Burnett is a precipient interpreter of postmodern life. To stop at the surface story is to miss the entire point of undiscovered gyrl.
Bottom line? I didn’t care for this book, and I can’t get it out of my head. I can’t even say that about Catcher in the Rye, which so failed to elicit response from me that I forgot it pretty quickly. I might decide I like undiscovered gyrl (though I doubt it.) I need someone with whom I can marinate on it.