the devil wears prada

[mimesere]

So, during this Week O' Insanity, I've been reading like mad. I finished Kushiel's Scion¹, the novelization for Superman Returns² and The Devil Wears Prada. Today I am going for The Alienist.

And okay, I have these rules about things I read. Only it's not so much rules as it is guidelines. I don't like a) first person narration³, b) couture, c) or um, things based in reality⁴.



I mostly picked up the book because I like Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci and Anne Hathaway and I want to see the movie. Also, I thought that the boss -- Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep in the movie) -- was actually going to be, you know, the devil.

It turns out...not so much. Just a demanding and insane boss. Which, hello, so disappointing. Not the devil! Woe.

And the hero -- Andrea -- is mostly just kind of selfish and nuts herself. So, whatever. I totally thought there was going to be an actual battle for Andrea's soul! I was looking forward to wacky chick lit shenanigans where she outwitted the devil to keep her soul! Bah. Bah, I say.

It was just everything I don't like in chick lit and none of the things I do like.



1 - I rarely say this about things, but that book could have greatly benefitted from some explicit guy on guy sexin'. More on this later.

2 - If the movie pulls the story off with half the grace implied, it will be an amazing movie.

3 - There are, of course, exceptions. But not many. Raymond Chandler and LKH and and Jacqueline Carey are the only ones I can think of off-hand that don't make me crazy. Meg Cabot only on recommendation from fox1013.

4 - Unless there's violence.

Comments

[coniraya.livejournal.com]

I'm glad your alive! I was worried all that overtime would do you in. Also I really can't think of any book or movie that wouldn't benefit from at least a little guy-on-guy sexin'.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

Heee. No, the overtime didn't do me in. Dumb people might have, but not the overtime.

And you know, it's true. Most texts would benefit from guy on guy sexin'.

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

1 — I rarely say this about things, but that book could have greatly benefitted from some explicit guy on guy sexin'. More on this later.

dude. I said the exact same thing. exact same.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

All of his decent and somewhat healthy emotional relationships were with me and he didn't seem to like girls very much at all! So I spent the entire book going, "Yo emo manpain Imri! Look, boo, you should have sex with your hot incestuous dom cousin...no? Okay, well...how about your hot celtic barbarian best fri--no again. Um, gay Italian guy? I mean, you're banging his sister and you like him better...huh. Well, I guess a kiss is okay. But you would have been happier having sex with Gay Italian Guy than with Gay Italian Guy's Ho of a Sister."

I live in hope that one day, Imri will wake up gay.

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

I think he will! I think he's all about the denial and the tamping down of stuff inside of him. but I so totally think he's going to come around. in a big way. if he doesn't....well, I suspect that the second book will be something of a yawn.

[milkshake-b.livejournal.com]

I feel gypped now. One of the things I adored about Phedre was her total casualness about which set of plumbing was involved. Given the prevalent attitudes of the culture, I was sure Imri was going to end up in the sack with at least one guy. I really hope this isn't an indication that Carey is going to be a kind of milder LKH about the bisexual guys thing. *glares at her library, which has had the book in processing for over a week now*

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

I don't think that it's a case of LKH syndrome so much as it is that Imri is kind of an emo manpainy dick and also has many issues. So, I suspect that there will be the boy on boy stuff, it's just...not yet and I kept expecting it.

[geekturnedvamp.livejournal.com]

WORD. I think it's going to turn out that due to his deep trauma he will only be able to enjoy the dark sadomasochistic sex he *really* needs and desires when he finds True Love... the problem I had was that the author was setting us up for a lot of emotional payoffs which will presumably come in future books (resolution of Imri/Phedre, Imri/boys, etc.) and as a result this one dragged and not nearly enough happened for 768 novel. Maybe I can just skip ahead five years and wait for him to wake up gay in the last book.

[geekturnedvamp.livejournal.com]

Uh, 768 page novel, that is.

[rawumber.livejournal.com]

You should reqrite it so it is!

Battles for couls are so much better.

Also--I put you down as a reference for crack whores. Um. Or people that work with them?

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

*snuggle* That is totally fine, my darling.

And that would require that I give more of a crap about that book than I do. Woe.

[fox1013.livejournal.com]

...I think there SHOULD be more chicklit about fights for souls against the devil.

NEW GOAL IN LIFE.


Also, yay me! I win at recommendations! Or something.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

Oooh, oooh, you could totally write the Meg Cabot-esque queer novel about a girl who fights the devil for ownership of her soul!

And the devil could be a hot woman and then they would fall in love and have sex.

*nods solemnly*

Drive-by rec

[strangerian.livejournal.com]

Battles over a heroine's soul can be found in War for the Oaks by Emma Bull. The devil is a Unseelie sidhe queen. It's stronger on fantasy than capital-R romance, but the heroine definitely goes places and meets interesting people.

Re: Drive-by rec

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

Heh. I love War for the Oaks very very much.

[geekturnedvamp.livejournal.com]

I rarely say this about things, but that book could have greatly benefitted from some explicit guy on guy sexin'. More on this later.

Oh, tell me about it. I'm the same way but I kept wishing he would just sleep with his hot cousin already.