The Bitch Posse

Thanks go to Martha O’Connor for the interview on her blog. I bought her novel last summer when I went to see her reading at Barnes and Noble. This was in the middle of rewriting North of Sunset so I wasn’t reading much fiction at the time. Before that, we had a correspondence going where she gave me some good advice about publishing. I finally read The Bitch Posse over the winter and never wrote about it because I wasn’t really in the habit of writing about books I’d read. Now I seem to write about every book that crosses my path.

I have to admit that I was a little wary of her book at first. The novel is called "anti-chick lit" which reminded me of calling Avril Lavigne the anti-Britney Spears. This isn’t giving The Bitch Posse nearly enough credit, but I thought if it can be used in the same sentence, it’s sort of related to it. I’ve never actually read any chick lit. I imagine it’s something like "Sex and the City" and I’ve never seen an entire episode of that show. I caught part of a show where the main character’s main dilemma is tripping with her bags at Christian Dior. If anything is anti-that, I’m all for it.

The novel is kind of Anti with a vengeance. A dark read from start to finish. It follows the lives of three friends in high school, cutting well between the present and the past, the third and the first person. I enjoyed the book and read it quickly, which for me is saying a lot. So did my wife. It’s powerful and stuck with me these many months later. I’m looking forward to what she comes out with next. Buy the novel, it’s coming out in paperback.