A review by chelsea_jack
Virgin by Radhika Sanghani
2.0
This book was definitely not for me.
The story, as you'd expect from the blurb, follows Ellie, a young woman who is keen to lose her virginity before her opportunities dry up (she's in her last year of school, and apparently it'll be impossible after that!).
Now, I thought this would make for hilarious, naive, endearingly fumbling experiences - but it did not. What followed from an awkward experience in a doctor's office (in which the doctor implausibly labels her a virgin on their computer rather than not sexually active -> and frankly, the doctor doesn't seem to believe that anyways - though maybe Ellie's obsession with the issue manifested in her seeing something that wasn't really there) - REGARDLESS, the book goes downhill from here.
Ellie's obsession results in more discussions about personal grooming than I could stand - one scene, sure, but Ellie's works her way through every possible option.... Surely a woman so obsessed with the penetrative-status of her vagina would have done some online research about options for making herself 'presentable' (though I have a hard time envisioning what kind of boy/man would laugh at the sight of a woman's pubic hair, no matter how under or over groomed).
The end of the book is so cringeworthy - I won't spoil it though I've seen it noted in other reviews.
The vlog - vagina blog, not video blog, which is what I kept reading it as and wondering how the heck Ellie got the courage to go on camera to discuss her lady bits - might have worked for me if it was named something different. If I could have bought into their being no information available online, and that these women were perfectly happy putting explicit details up on the web, then it might have been a clever way to have them reflecting on their escapades.
Yeah.
In the end, this book was just not for me. The quality of the writing itself is good, but the story, with Ellie's complete focus on her vagina just didn't keep me entertained.
Received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
See this and other reviews at ToEachTheirOwnReviews.com
The story, as you'd expect from the blurb, follows Ellie, a young woman who is keen to lose her virginity before her opportunities dry up (she's in her last year of school, and apparently it'll be impossible after that!).
Now, I thought this would make for hilarious, naive, endearingly fumbling experiences - but it did not. What followed from an awkward experience in a doctor's office (in which the doctor implausibly labels her a virgin on their computer rather than not sexually active -> and frankly, the doctor doesn't seem to believe that anyways - though maybe Ellie's obsession with the issue manifested in her seeing something that wasn't really there) - REGARDLESS, the book goes downhill from here.
Ellie's obsession results in more discussions about personal grooming than I could stand - one scene, sure, but Ellie's works her way through every possible option.... Surely a woman so obsessed with the penetrative-status of her vagina would have done some online research about options for making herself 'presentable' (though I have a hard time envisioning what kind of boy/man would laugh at the sight of a woman's pubic hair, no matter how under or over groomed).
The end of the book is so cringeworthy - I won't spoil it though I've seen it noted in other reviews.
The vlog - vagina blog, not video blog, which is what I kept reading it as and wondering how the heck Ellie got the courage to go on camera to discuss her lady bits - might have worked for me if it was named something different. If I could have bought into their being no information available online, and that these women were perfectly happy putting explicit details up on the web, then it might have been a clever way to have them reflecting on their escapades.
Yeah.
In the end, this book was just not for me. The quality of the writing itself is good, but the story, with Ellie's complete focus on her vagina just didn't keep me entertained.
Received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
See this and other reviews at ToEachTheirOwnReviews.com