August 27, 2010

Book Review: The Heart of the Matter

The first thing I want to say about Emily Giffin's books are that they definitely inspire me to write but yet I still can't pin down my exact opinion of them.

Let's start with the positive.

There is no doubt that Giffin is an amazing story teller. Despite my impression of the plot, characters, behaviours and so on, she keeps me enthralled from page one. Just like the last one I read, I could not put this book down. The writing is amazing, she knows just how to balance the right amount of character development and conversation so as not to make the book novel. She also keeps the right amount of action so that the reader is dying to know what will happen next. I have come to associate her books with good gossip. The kind that you really don't want to know about but you can't help but listen to.

Which brings me to the bad.

I just can't get over the subject matter of her novels. She seems to have such a pessissmistic attitude towards relationships. I have read two of her books so far and they are all about cheating husbands of wives. People who mkae bad or stupid decisions and then spend the rest of the plot piting themselves and trying to pass the blame. It's just not something I can relate to. Maybe is has to do with the current status of my relationship (reading these books while planning a wedding is kind of a downer) or the fact that I have strong opinions about cheating, feeling that there is no excuse, and it is unforgiveable. Either way, both books have really bothered me, and I found that I had a lot of trouble understanding the characters in them.

My Basic opinion of "Heart of the Matter" is that it is the kind of book that creates paranoid housewives, basically giving the insinuation that all men cheat. I was also really not impressed with the ending, but I won't give it away.

The bestest is a big fan of Giffin's novels, and has told me that I need to read the "something borrowed/something blue series." For those of you that have read them, are they anything like this one? Should I give them a try?

1 comment:

Ella Everywhere said...

I think you'll like the "something" series, it's a bit of a different angle and topic

I'd avoid "Baby Proof" though, that one is more similar to "Love the one you're with"