2009 Reading #96: Gingerbread

Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
Books 71-80.
Books 81-90.
91. The Non-Adventures of Wonderella: Everybody Ever Forever by Justin Pierce.
92. Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin.
93. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach.
94. Strip Jack by Ian Rankin.
95. Wizard of the Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o.

96. Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn. I really liked Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, the first novel Cohn co-wrote with David Levithan, but I bounced pretty hard off of their second co-effort, Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List, largely because the characters came across as spoiled rich kids. Class stuff is a big stumbling block for me. There's a little of the same at work in my reaction to this book. Cyd Charisse (that's the main character here, believe it or not) starts out fairly sympathetic, but by the end of the book I wasn't sure I liked her. To be fair, the book acknowledges that she's a spoiled brat; but while it's not a requirement for me to like the characters I'm reading about, in a book like this it seems problematic. (This could well have something to do with the fact that I'm about twenty years beyond the target market, though.)