Where I Belong by Gwendolyn HeasleyReviewed by Noelle: June 19, 2012
Published February 8, 2011 by HarperTeen
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Corinne is the stereotypical spoiled rich girl with the narcissistic entitled attitude to prove it. After her dad is laid off and her family loses most of their net worth in a Ponzi scheme, Corinne is shipped off with her little brother to Broken Spoke, Texas to live with her mother's semi-estranged parents. Goodbye credit cards, hello public school. Her new life entails having to *gasp* eat carbs and *double gasp* buy off the rack and *hyperventilate into paper bag* get a job!
Never mind that her grandmother seems to be Paula Deen in the kitchen and the local Lyla Garrity equivalent wants to be her BFF-- Corinne considers her life ruined. She balks at normal human interactions and generally see the whole experience as beneath her. She stubbornly persists that her living situation is temporary and doesn't see why she should bother trying to adapt or reprioritize.
Despite some capable and occasionally funny writing, Corinne's lack of attitude adjustment really brought down the book for me. To her, the recession is the end of dropping $1000 on a dress for a school function. It doesn't even occur to her that if the recession means such drastic changes for her privileged ass, what it must mean for those already struggling financially.
It's like if Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie's reality show The Simple Life was aired DURING the recession.
Sure, sometimes the culture shock is funny. Sometimes it's offensive as hell.
Corinne spends the entire book looking down on people: her family, the non-socialites of Broken Spoke and then the socialites of her old life when her former BFF comes to visit. Even worse, Corinne has no trouble verbalizing her perceived inferiority of everyone and everything around her, blaming it on her lack of filter. She also has no problem, however, keeping her comments to herself when one of her new friends is insulted in front of her or when she has the opportunity to express any sort of gratitude whatsoever.
I kept waiting for the epiphany---the moment Corinne realizes she should examine herself before putting down others--but it never happened. Even after she bitches out her old BFF for being everything Corinne herself still is, no light bulb goes off. To the very end, Corinne has the self awareness of...well:
Corinne is so self centered her relationships with other characters end up as shallow as she is, making it impossible to get invested in any of her interactions with other people. It's a shame because the author thought up several interesting characters and situations to put them through but Corinne's detachment left much of the potential untapped.
Corinne makes some (very minor) changes but in the end it just seemed too much like:
Rating: 2/5 stars
Oh mate, this book sounds.... um..
ReplyDeleteBad. Is there a mysterious boy who helps her realise that... there are things more important than money?
Great review, Noelle! Not heard of this one before, but I can't say I'm in a rush to read it. I hate annoying female protagonists (AFPs)
I also hate it when people try and make me eat carbs. *eats a crisp buttie....with extra crisps*
There is a boy named Bubby. We all know that doesn't count. (There is no boy presence that is anywhere near that cover let me tell you.)
DeleteWhat's really funny Jo is that EVERYONE walks up to the main character and makes these totally awkward statements about what she is supposed to be learning at that moment etc and Corinne just makes fun of them until they walk away. Lesson learned? --N
Oh what a huge, total shame :( I don't think I'd heard of this but if I saw the cover and knew it was contemp, I would totally pick it up.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that Corinne doesn't growth or have any sort of realisation over the course of the story! What are you supposed to get out of a book like that?
Great review, Noelle, I wish this had been a better read for you!
*doesn't grow... my typing gets worse every day ;)
DeleteThanks Mandee! It was frustrating to say the least. -N
DeleteOh geez, that sounds a bit rough. I really can't handle reading about characters with a complete lack of perspective. I'm sure these people exist but it is such a rare case when readers are *excited* to read about unlikable characters, you know?
ReplyDeleteI kept glancing at my read percentage like, any moment now! She'll have a break through! *crickets* I don't always have to LIKE the characters but they at least have to be interesting, y'know? --N
DeleteWow, thanks for warning us against this one, Noelle. I try to avoid self- centred, bitchy protagonists like the plague and would definitely dislike this as much as you did.
ReplyDeleteOn the up side, the Paris Hilton gifs/pics are very amusing. :) Brilliant review.
Hee, thanks Leanne! It is kinda sad that the bright spot of reading this book was going through The Simple Life tag on tumblr for the review! --N
DeleteThanks for reviewing this so I know not to bother with it. Corinne sounds awful!
ReplyDeleteI was looking for summer fluff and NOPE. Thanks Belle! --N
DeleteI read this one last your and was kind of excited about it because it 1) had a cute cover and 2) took place in a super rural area. Normally it would have been a dnf for me but I kept reading, hoping for some character growth like you did. It disappointed all all fronts.
ReplyDeleteDid you see that there's a companion novel in which one of the main character's Texas friends goes to NYC?
I hadn't heard that Sarah--but hmmm. That might work out much better since all of her Texas friends were starting at a much more tolerable starting point than Corinne. --N
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