A review by tairaxo
Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler

2.0

I’m really torn on whether or not to recommend this book. First off the book reads like poetry, the author is a true poet, it’s really beautiful to read. Secondly, it is absolute food porn if I’ve ever read one! However, the story-line, or lack thereof could have been so much better. This could have been a great book all around but, it didn’t deliver a great story and the ending was… blah! Maybe it’s just something I can’t relate to that made it a bit unappealing to me. You have this girl who arrives in New York City that can be anything she wants to be. She gets hired at one of the top restaurants and really wants to climb that latter to become a server. She stays out late, snorts coke, drinks til she’s belligerent all while trying to get the attention of Jake, the grungy bartender. Then there’s Simone, an older woman that I assumed was (maybe sort of is) a mentor to Tess. Jake and Simone have this weird relationship, weird meaning I don’t know if they’re romantically involved or mother/son type. Just a little gross. Anywho… you’ll have to read the book to find out the rest. It’s not a very long book so maybe it actually would be worth the time even if you agree that it was just… meh.