gabyelle97's review against another edition
3.0
This book was one of those nice reads, a book that’s easy to pick up and let the distractions of the world simmer away. But that the thing, it was just nice. I definitely enjoyed the book. It was interesting to see a different side to LA but I’d have preferred a deeper insight, something a bit darker maybe? I liked the references to the Manson murders, and how in a more analytical sense the whole book was about how we can easily be stirred to a different path and become our worst nightmares. But is not the kind of book I expected it to be - I was after something a little grungier or darker. That’s just my opinion, but if you like a YA book that takes a different turn then I definitely recommend.
irrelahvant's review against another edition
4.0
Oh my goodness. That's all I can say right now.
Okay I lied. I got more things to say but this book is so wild, following Anna go through her summer in Los Angeles. When I say 15, I didn't take my stepmother's credit card and book a flight to LA. The air ticket prices are INSANE.
Anyway, this whole story is basically Anna falling into LA with her half-sister, an aspiring actress. She is still in contact with her ex boyfriend, who apparently is a 'director'. The story focuses a lot on the Hollywood culture, which actually can be pretty dark as compared to overly glitzy books written about Hollywood. LA can get weird, on certain days.
A+ because this book is amazing.
Okay I lied. I got more things to say but this book is so wild, following Anna go through her summer in Los Angeles. When I say 15, I didn't take my stepmother's credit card and book a flight to LA. The air ticket prices are INSANE.
Anyway, this whole story is basically Anna falling into LA with her half-sister, an aspiring actress. She is still in contact with her ex boyfriend, who apparently is a 'director'. The story focuses a lot on the Hollywood culture, which actually can be pretty dark as compared to overly glitzy books written about Hollywood. LA can get weird, on certain days.
A+ because this book is amazing.
blakehalsey's review against another edition
5.0
This book is titled very appropriately. I'm sort of in awe of Umminger's ability to weave in so many different types of lives, stories, and experiences and show the reader a portrait of...American Girls. From the Manson Girls to Anna, the books cynical and lonely 15 year-old MC, to her actress sister, the women in this book shine--sometimes very darkly--revealing parts of American culture and emotional violence that we so often ignore. This book is bittersweet and funny and honest. Anna is fully real and messy. This book, my friends, is one that everyone needs to read.
freesien's review against another edition
4.0
3,5 stars
Gritty and realistic but I had problems with the main protagonist. She was too naive and self-centered, even though it got better towards the end.
Gritty and realistic but I had problems with the main protagonist. She was too naive and self-centered, even though it got better towards the end.
danys_reads's review against another edition
1.0
MC is a privileged, entitled, whiny little brat who learns nothing. And the Big Point™ of the book is just pretentious garbage.
girlreading's review against another edition
1.0
*original review posted on my blog http://girlreading.co.uk/bookreviews/american-girls-by-alison-umminger-book-review-and-somewhat-rant/ *
I think American Girls/My Favourite Manson Girl is possibly the first book that I have felt as though I’ve read a totally different book compared to the large majority of reviews. I don’t think I’ve read a single negative review for this book and yet somehow I just can’t connect the raving reviews, to the pages I read myself? It’s safe to say, I didn’t love this. I had really hoped that I was going to. I should have loved it since it had everything I love in a book, LA, Hollywood, Movies, Mystery, Romance but it didn’t take me long to realise that a romance between me and this book probably wasn’t on the cards. I’m not entirely sure how to go about this review because I have so much to say and no real idea of how to say it, well, say it remotely coherently or eloquently that is. Instead, I think I’m going to show rather than tell and simply leave it up to the quotes and words from the book themselves.
Unless other wise stated, these quotes come from the main character Anna, who’s point of view we follow:
Page 8 – “It had crossed my mind that my sister might be a slut, but a really nice-smelling, clean and carefully closeted slut.” – Anna consistently slut shamed her sister and other girls throughout the book.
Page 10 – “Before mum decided she was a lesbian” – Because this is apparently something you can just ‘decide’? – A stigma and stereotype that doesn’t need anymore miseducation and one that was left unchallenged.
Page 17 – “I started getting more and more nervous, like I was having a panic attack. So I Googled “panic attack” and decided that I didn’t want to start having those at fifteen.” – Again, because apparently this is something you can ‘decide’. – Another unnecessary and uneducated stigma being boosted and once again, left entirely unchallenged.
Page 19 – “If someone had wired her jaw shut, she probably wouldn’t have had to change her diet.” // “When reality sunk in, I remembered that she ate salads without dress when she was starving and seemed to assume that I would just want to do the same.” – Anna made numerous comments regarding her sisters eating habits, all of which felt quite trivialising and slandering towards eating disorders, without going into any depth of the reality of them.
Page 27 – “He had on tight black jeans, a black leather jacket, and had shaved his head into a cancer-victim crew cut.” – I’m not sure I need to explain why, not only describing someone as having a ‘cancer-victim crew cut’, but also using it mostly as an insult is honestly pretty gross and entirely unnecessary…
Page 46 – “I was already thinking of the places I would apply for jobs, maybe the candy store near the lot where my sister was filming. Or one of the ice cream stores with the trendy names and all the girls in line who looked like they kept that ice cream down for about 2.5 seconds.” – Once again, shaming eating disorders and using it as an insult.
Page 54 – Anna’s older sister Delia: “Well, where to start – he’s biracial, but probably whiter than I am.” // Anna about Delia’s dating life: “when it came to actual dating, frat-boy white was last year’s color. In high school, she was strictly interested in black guys. She found the one Nigerian exchange student to take to prom. She once broke up with a perfectly nice biracial kid from the suburbs because he was “too white”. I think Rodger slipped in because he had an accent and wore eye makeup on a semi-regular basis. By sheer virtue of his awesome command of Euro-weird, she must have overlooked the pasty glow of his flesh. Neve mind that she had a lack of pigment rivalled by the walking dead.”– I realise that, being white, I’m not really in any position to say whether or not this is categorically racist but this didn’t sit right with me. It just seemed, once again, entirely necessary. It didn’t add anything to Delia as a character and honestly feels pretty offensive and racist?
Page 56 – “Marilyn Monroe in her fat phase” – Body shaming.
Page 63 – Anna’s Mother: “we don’t know how cancer works. I don’t know what caused this. I don’t know what would make it come back or make it spread, but I do know I can’t have any more stress in my life than I already have.” // “I can’t take the risk that having you hear might make the cancer worse.” – Yes. Her mum essentially blamed Anna for causing her cancer. Charming…
Page 68 – “I thought you told me once there was no such thing as asexual. Just a train from straight to gay with a whole bunch of stops in between.” – Asexual erasure is a very real thing and something I’ve only recently begun educating myself on. This is not only erasure but I’m assuming offensive and once again left entirely unchallenged or revisited.
Page 77 – “there were times when my mom seriously reminded me of a dyked-out Blance DuBois.” – Not sure this needs explaining, nor did it need to be written into a book.
Page 155 – “I would sit in the corner and listen in on people’s first dates, or the baristas bitching about who they thought was throwing up in the ladies’ room.” – Yet again, another trivialisation of eating disorders.
Page 158 – “You don’t have to say anything, do you? You just want to because you have some anorexic teenager buying you pink shirts, and you’re too lazy to work now that the baby is born.” – ‘Anorexic’ being used as an insult, aimed at her fathers new partner.
Page 161 – “How was I supposed to know perfect Paige Parker was a cutter? She was the popular one, what did she have to be mad about?” – Stigmatising self harm and mental illness. These stigmas need to be bought down, not built up and left unchallenged.
Page 214 – “I had breasts, enough that my bra wasn’t just one of those lacy things that flat-chested girls get to be part of the club” – Another example of body shaming…
Page 262 – “But if I had to write a memo to America on what to do to import the future, on how to go back and correct the past, it would be simple: Dear America: Please give your daughters sturdy bedroom doors that lock from the inside. And when they are hungry, give them a place at the table. It wouldn’t solve everything, but it would definitely be a start.” – Despite Anna realising that this wasn’t a solution to rape, the simplicity of the idea that ‘sturdy bedroom locks’ as a solution is what is needed, still left me uneasy.
Given context or not, these passages just didn’t sit well with me at all and almost even more so than the quotes themselves, what bothered me was they were never challenged, apologised for, or (I personally feel) redeemed in anyway. The first 60 pages made me genuinely uncomfortable and not in a good way, as though I was learning or being challenged. Albeit the specific quotes were very saturated within the first 50 or so pages and by the end Anna wasn’t quite so angry at the world and the uncomfortable quotes began to spread out more evenly but despite this, I just don’t see the necessity behind the targeted hate and insults. There was homophobia, ableism and racism. Cancer and Eating Disorders were being used as insults or as trivialising anecdotes. I understand that Anna wasn’t meant to be a likeable character (or at least I assume so, or else I am totally confused at what was going on here) but I just feel as though there must be ways of portraying and creating an unlikeable character, without being outrightly offensive, potentially harmful to the reader, problematic or building up stigmas that people are constantly working hard to bring down. You can make a reader dislike a character without potentially upsetting, miseducating or offending.
All this put aside, I didn’t hate this book. Did I enjoy it? No but I didn’t hate it. Had these quotes been non existent, I probably would have given it around a 3/5 stars. The plot intrigued me and despite my discomfort, I found myself wanting to read on. I also did enjoy the scenes at the film sets and slight insight into that world. But overall, American Girls felt like a book of sub-plots, none of which ever really came to head or had much of an impact or conclusion...
It’s possible that I’m just being uber sensitive and nitpicking at the contents of this book and if that is the case, I fully put my hands up and apologise.
I’m not sure I have too much more to add to this, well that’s not entirely true. I think it’s more of a fact that I think I could probably ramble on about this for pages and days but that’s probably not in anyone’s best interest, nor do I think it’s wise to stumble into the phase of being even more incoherent than I have probably already been. So with that being said, I think I’m going to leave it here. I have a review for this book on my blog as well, so whether or not you've read, I'd love to know what you think in the comments over there!
I think American Girls/My Favourite Manson Girl is possibly the first book that I have felt as though I’ve read a totally different book compared to the large majority of reviews. I don’t think I’ve read a single negative review for this book and yet somehow I just can’t connect the raving reviews, to the pages I read myself? It’s safe to say, I didn’t love this. I had really hoped that I was going to. I should have loved it since it had everything I love in a book, LA, Hollywood, Movies, Mystery, Romance but it didn’t take me long to realise that a romance between me and this book probably wasn’t on the cards. I’m not entirely sure how to go about this review because I have so much to say and no real idea of how to say it, well, say it remotely coherently or eloquently that is. Instead, I think I’m going to show rather than tell and simply leave it up to the quotes and words from the book themselves.
Unless other wise stated, these quotes come from the main character Anna, who’s point of view we follow:
Page 8 – “It had crossed my mind that my sister might be a slut, but a really nice-smelling, clean and carefully closeted slut.” – Anna consistently slut shamed her sister and other girls throughout the book.
Page 10 – “Before mum decided she was a lesbian” – Because this is apparently something you can just ‘decide’? – A stigma and stereotype that doesn’t need anymore miseducation and one that was left unchallenged.
Page 17 – “I started getting more and more nervous, like I was having a panic attack. So I Googled “panic attack” and decided that I didn’t want to start having those at fifteen.” – Again, because apparently this is something you can ‘decide’. – Another unnecessary and uneducated stigma being boosted and once again, left entirely unchallenged.
Page 19 – “If someone had wired her jaw shut, she probably wouldn’t have had to change her diet.” // “When reality sunk in, I remembered that she ate salads without dress when she was starving and seemed to assume that I would just want to do the same.” – Anna made numerous comments regarding her sisters eating habits, all of which felt quite trivialising and slandering towards eating disorders, without going into any depth of the reality of them.
Page 27 – “He had on tight black jeans, a black leather jacket, and had shaved his head into a cancer-victim crew cut.” – I’m not sure I need to explain why, not only describing someone as having a ‘cancer-victim crew cut’, but also using it mostly as an insult is honestly pretty gross and entirely unnecessary…
Page 46 – “I was already thinking of the places I would apply for jobs, maybe the candy store near the lot where my sister was filming. Or one of the ice cream stores with the trendy names and all the girls in line who looked like they kept that ice cream down for about 2.5 seconds.” – Once again, shaming eating disorders and using it as an insult.
Page 54 – Anna’s older sister Delia: “Well, where to start – he’s biracial, but probably whiter than I am.” // Anna about Delia’s dating life: “when it came to actual dating, frat-boy white was last year’s color. In high school, she was strictly interested in black guys. She found the one Nigerian exchange student to take to prom. She once broke up with a perfectly nice biracial kid from the suburbs because he was “too white”. I think Rodger slipped in because he had an accent and wore eye makeup on a semi-regular basis. By sheer virtue of his awesome command of Euro-weird, she must have overlooked the pasty glow of his flesh. Neve mind that she had a lack of pigment rivalled by the walking dead.”– I realise that, being white, I’m not really in any position to say whether or not this is categorically racist but this didn’t sit right with me. It just seemed, once again, entirely necessary. It didn’t add anything to Delia as a character and honestly feels pretty offensive and racist?
Page 56 – “Marilyn Monroe in her fat phase” – Body shaming.
Page 63 – Anna’s Mother: “we don’t know how cancer works. I don’t know what caused this. I don’t know what would make it come back or make it spread, but I do know I can’t have any more stress in my life than I already have.” // “I can’t take the risk that having you hear might make the cancer worse.” – Yes. Her mum essentially blamed Anna for causing her cancer. Charming…
Page 68 – “I thought you told me once there was no such thing as asexual. Just a train from straight to gay with a whole bunch of stops in between.” – Asexual erasure is a very real thing and something I’ve only recently begun educating myself on. This is not only erasure but I’m assuming offensive and once again left entirely unchallenged or revisited.
Page 77 – “there were times when my mom seriously reminded me of a dyked-out Blance DuBois.” – Not sure this needs explaining, nor did it need to be written into a book.
Page 155 – “I would sit in the corner and listen in on people’s first dates, or the baristas bitching about who they thought was throwing up in the ladies’ room.” – Yet again, another trivialisation of eating disorders.
Page 158 – “You don’t have to say anything, do you? You just want to because you have some anorexic teenager buying you pink shirts, and you’re too lazy to work now that the baby is born.” – ‘Anorexic’ being used as an insult, aimed at her fathers new partner.
Page 161 – “How was I supposed to know perfect Paige Parker was a cutter? She was the popular one, what did she have to be mad about?” – Stigmatising self harm and mental illness. These stigmas need to be bought down, not built up and left unchallenged.
Page 214 – “I had breasts, enough that my bra wasn’t just one of those lacy things that flat-chested girls get to be part of the club” – Another example of body shaming…
Page 262 – “But if I had to write a memo to America on what to do to import the future, on how to go back and correct the past, it would be simple: Dear America: Please give your daughters sturdy bedroom doors that lock from the inside. And when they are hungry, give them a place at the table. It wouldn’t solve everything, but it would definitely be a start.” – Despite Anna realising that this wasn’t a solution to rape, the simplicity of the idea that ‘sturdy bedroom locks’ as a solution is what is needed, still left me uneasy.
Given context or not, these passages just didn’t sit well with me at all and almost even more so than the quotes themselves, what bothered me was they were never challenged, apologised for, or (I personally feel) redeemed in anyway. The first 60 pages made me genuinely uncomfortable and not in a good way, as though I was learning or being challenged. Albeit the specific quotes were very saturated within the first 50 or so pages and by the end Anna wasn’t quite so angry at the world and the uncomfortable quotes began to spread out more evenly but despite this, I just don’t see the necessity behind the targeted hate and insults. There was homophobia, ableism and racism. Cancer and Eating Disorders were being used as insults or as trivialising anecdotes. I understand that Anna wasn’t meant to be a likeable character (or at least I assume so, or else I am totally confused at what was going on here) but I just feel as though there must be ways of portraying and creating an unlikeable character, without being outrightly offensive, potentially harmful to the reader, problematic or building up stigmas that people are constantly working hard to bring down. You can make a reader dislike a character without potentially upsetting, miseducating or offending.
All this put aside, I didn’t hate this book. Did I enjoy it? No but I didn’t hate it. Had these quotes been non existent, I probably would have given it around a 3/5 stars. The plot intrigued me and despite my discomfort, I found myself wanting to read on. I also did enjoy the scenes at the film sets and slight insight into that world. But overall, American Girls felt like a book of sub-plots, none of which ever really came to head or had much of an impact or conclusion...
It’s possible that I’m just being uber sensitive and nitpicking at the contents of this book and if that is the case, I fully put my hands up and apologise.
I’m not sure I have too much more to add to this, well that’s not entirely true. I think it’s more of a fact that I think I could probably ramble on about this for pages and days but that’s probably not in anyone’s best interest, nor do I think it’s wise to stumble into the phase of being even more incoherent than I have probably already been. So with that being said, I think I’m going to leave it here. I have a review for this book on my blog as well, so whether or not you've read, I'd love to know what you think in the comments over there!
louandlife's review against another edition
2.0
This book was not what I was expecting it to be (I feel like a broken record having said that a lot in my last couple of reviews, but I think it's a sign that I should stop imagining how books will be like). This book is about a girl who runs away from her parents to live with her sister in LA for the summer, and she lands a job researching the Manson girls (the women a part of Charles Manson's cult that killed people in LA in 1969). As a concept it sounded intriguing... in reality it was a let down. By the time I finished this book, I felt like it would be better if the Manson parts were taken out. The addition of the Manson girls gives this contemporary book a distinguishing feature, but it weakened the story. I felt like the bits on the Manson girls just didn't fit. When there would be a paragraph where Anna would tell us what she learnt, it would be amongst her daily life and it felt forced in and interrupted the story. And she though about Manson and the girls a lot... like almost an obsession, and in the most inappropriate of times too.
The plot was nothing remarkable. This book focused more on relationships, than a clear plot. It was relatively realistic. I liked the romance but it didn't turn out the way I wanted it, and was such a small part of the subplot. I almost felt like some of the plot was pointless. The only reason why I finished this book was because it was short, but from about 100 pages in I knew that it wasn't going to be a great read and was tempted to put it down. It is disappointing because I really love the cover (and I have it in hardback) but the story inside just didn't match the cover...
And the characters... I only really liked Dex and I felt like his character was given the short end of the stick. I also liked Jeremy but he wasn't that developed. I felt like Anna was selfish, and inconsiderate, so was Delia (although I did like her in the beginning) but she was also untrustworthy. I hated their mother... and Roger was a creep. Dex was the only redeeming character and he was barely in it, and was not developed. The imperfectness of family felt real, but I didn't like anyone in that family.
Overall... I wouldn't recommend this book. I think I will unhaul it eventually (I'm going to be really sad to part with the cover though) because I'm not going to reread it and it has no positive sentimental value. This book actually made me not want to ever visit LA...
The plot was nothing remarkable. This book focused more on relationships, than a clear plot. It was relatively realistic. I liked the romance but it didn't turn out the way I wanted it, and was such a small part of the subplot. I almost felt like some of the plot was pointless. The only reason why I finished this book was because it was short, but from about 100 pages in I knew that it wasn't going to be a great read and was tempted to put it down. It is disappointing because I really love the cover (and I have it in hardback) but the story inside just didn't match the cover...
And the characters... I only really liked Dex and I felt like his character was given the short end of the stick. I also liked Jeremy but he wasn't that developed. I felt like Anna was selfish, and inconsiderate, so was Delia (although I did like her in the beginning) but she was also untrustworthy. I hated their mother... and Roger was a creep. Dex was the only redeeming character and he was barely in it, and was not developed. The imperfectness of family felt real, but I didn't like anyone in that family.
Overall... I wouldn't recommend this book. I think I will unhaul it eventually (I'm going to be really sad to part with the cover though) because I'm not going to reread it and it has no positive sentimental value. This book actually made me not want to ever visit LA...
jeon's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
with how innocent this cover is, you wouldn’t think it talks about being stabbed so hard your spine breaks in half
ginnikin's review against another edition
Tales of whiny teenager (granted, she has some stuff to be upset about) and dude obsessed with Charles Manson (ugh) and the Manson Girls (extra UGH) are just not working for me.
sonia_reppe's review against another edition
4.0
The cover is awesome so I had to read this. The prologue starts out a little weak and confusing, you can skip to chapter one. From there it's good, if you are in the mood for a 1st person teenage girl POV, and a story of one summer during which there is character growth, atonement, and sister bonding. Anna is unhappy with her home situation so she steals her mom's credit card and gets on a plane to visit her sister, an actress in L.A.
Anna is researching the Manson girls for a project. Besides the California setting, the tie-in works because Anna reflects on that they were regular girls who ruined their lives with bad choices, and she wanted to start making better choices.
The tone is snarky, and it only crossed the line once--there is a flip remark about herpes. I don't have herpes but it sounds horrible, and the remark was a little disturbing--a young woman (who didn't have it) described it in a gross way and was like: it's not big deal, right? It wasn't a joke, I would prefer a joke, jokes are funny and help people cope. It was just kind of gross. Moving on.
There is humor in this book, a good storyline, and some nice writing at the end. The book consistently got better from beginning to end. It got less snarky and more substantial-- this mirrors main character Anna's growth.
Anna is researching the Manson girls for a project. Besides the California setting, the tie-in works because Anna reflects on that they were regular girls who ruined their lives with bad choices, and she wanted to start making better choices.
The tone is snarky, and it only crossed the line once--there is a flip remark about herpes. I don't have herpes but it sounds horrible, and the remark was a little disturbing--a young woman (who didn't have it) described it in a gross way and was like: it's not big deal, right? It wasn't a joke, I would prefer a joke, jokes are funny and help people cope. It was just kind of gross. Moving on.
There is humor in this book, a good storyline, and some nice writing at the end. The book consistently got better from beginning to end. It got less snarky and more substantial-- this mirrors main character Anna's growth.