Killing Monica

Up until the last chapter or so of this book, I was on board with it. The idea intrigued me - how to kill Monica, the creation that made the main character into a celebrated author. The entire time I was wondering if Ms. Bushnell would want to kill Carrie Bradshaw if she could. Is it understandable or biting the hand that feeds? The supporting characters were cute and I enjoyed that it was set up into the present and two separate flashbacks (the history and demise of her best friendship and the history and demise of her marriage). I was completely ready to write a three star review and suggest it be read with a glass of champagne, but then......Ms. Bushnell insulted the entire transgender community by allowing the "missing" sister to end up being Henry, the very present manager-agent. Pandy/PJ kept hinting at her sister's disappearance, allowing me to think that the sister died or cut off communication or never even existed! In reality, her sister identifies as a male and goes by the name Henry. Henry and Pandy have a great relationship except for the fact that Pandy seems to act like her sister is dead! If Ms. Bushnell wants to utilize a transgender character, that is fine, but she should've done her homework and either a) had Henry living openly and maybe even described any backlash Henry felt from living as a male or b) had Henry not telling others that he was assigned female at birth, but describing how this made Henry and/or Pandy feel. It is not appropriate to make Henry's gender orientation a "big secret" from the readers - the "reveal" was not appreciated.

This book is so different- yet tracks a story that we *sort of* know about Bushnell herself- that it is really a triumph for the author. As Bushnell's recent article in Elle magazine tells us- don't read too much into it, but I wonder if she really hand-picked Sarah Jessica Parker to play Carrie?? Did they become friends? I did not grasp onto the characters or the plot like I have in her other decidedly chick-lit books, rather, I felt like something throughout the story was a little off. Some parts were so bizarre that I couldn't picture them in my imagination, others were very obvious and left little surprise, and then parts of the novel had me wondering if Ms. Bushnell had a fling with Brad Pitt (handsome actor Doug Stone?) along the way?!In all, there's a final twist that was totally unexpected and I think this book does a fun spin off of the dream-like, bizarre state that it must have been to have had the concept for Carrie Bradshaw and seeing it into maturity. And if anything, this novel shows the range of a very talented author!

I think this is Candace trying to get from out of the Carrie shadow and it was awesome. Tried to find it but it was never published and now I'm sad I would've loved to read more

3.5. My review is as unbiased as I can muster. Candy Bushnell created Sex & The City. She's a chick lit Goddess, IMO. Right up there with Kinsella, Fielding, and Weiner - aka The Greats.I've also been thirsty for a new release from her and KM hit the spot. Bushnell's writing voice is still as sassy and stinging as ever, pulling us into the life of Pandy with a drink in one hand and a cig in the other. We learn about her friendships and relationships before she enters an alternate world, which was an unexpected twist for Bushnell readers. I quite liked it!I enjoyed the book so much that I'm starts SATC again for probably the tenth time (that book's one of my faves of all time). Already thirsty for another CB read!

Loved the story! Great characters and kept me engrossed the entire time. One thing I can't stand with Candace Bushnell is she can't properly wrap up a story. You're always feeling like there should be another chapter to tidy things up.

I read the first three chapter preview of this book and will probably not bother buying the rest of the book. It was slow and difficult to get interested in any of the characters, and I had a hard time staying interested enough to even get through three chapters. I was disappointed because I had read Lipstick Jungle and One Fifth Avenue and enjoyed them. I also read Sex and the City and found it to be mediocre and far less enjoyable than the HBO series.

I've never written a bad review but I'm so incensed that this was such a HUGE waste of my time and money that here it is!!! it's the worst book I've read in years!! I'm shocked because I love Bushnell's writing. There's no real plot and the book rambles all over the place. Many simple things that you'd logically do, make no sense or are fantastically implausible. As if writing the details needed were too much work. I kept reading hoping something would happen. The"big twist" at the end makes NOOOO sense AT ALL since there was ZERO foreshadowing. No hints throughout the book. And it made NO sense, didn't satisfy the reader, at that point it really didn't matter and served no purpose at ALL! And it could have been an interesting part of the plot... in a completely different book!! It was plain stupid. Tossed in at the end with a sentence of explanation as if an editor said "hey you need to punch up the ending with something that's trending" ... the way you grab an umbrella last minute as you head out the door. Plus, the whole book had an angry tone. Nothing happy or fun about it. The opposite of Sex & The City or Lipstick Jungle. SAVE YOUR MONEY! This sucked!

Hard to enjoy a book that has been written with so little effort and imagination. Was this book actually written by a human being or some kind of automatic software that churns the story out. Pretty poor excuse for a story.

I was really disappointed with this book, given how much I have enjoyed all of Candace Bushnell's books in the past. It was badly written, paced, had dreadful characters and above all was BORING. Give it a miss.

I read it but it was a hard slog as there was no depth to the story, I kept hoping that it would improve but no, a very very light read

Utter stupidity! Vapid plot, ham-fisted writing, unlikeable characters. I wasn't expecting Chekov from a beach read, but this was beyond awful.

Cannot believe this book was written by a grown women, it was so lame, unoriginal, old-hat, it reeked of being written by someone who MAYBE had her finger on the pulse 25 years ago. Every night I picked it up and would think "why am I even bothering? This is so bad I can't be bothered finishing it!" I love a bit of 'fantasy' and I love to step into someone else's glamorous shoes but this was beyond believable in anyway, I could barely follow it. Was the main character secretly attracted to the actress? Was the actress trying to bring the main character down? Who knows! Nothing went anywhere, it was like Bushnell had an idea for a big twist finish, which was basic in itself, and just had to fill in the gaps with fluff to get there. My teenage nieces could have written this, but then again, they wouldn't have lowered themselves to do so. Avoid.