The Luxe by Anna Godberson
Utterly shallow, entirely predictable and frivolous, The Luxe nonetheless provided a few, albeit cheap, thrills. Pitched as “Gossip Girl” meets Edith Wharton, I can say that Godberson is spot on: there’s just as much jealousy, back-stabbing, gossiping, sex and strife concerning upper-class New Yorkers to be found here as in the GG series.
The story opens with the death of Elizabeth Holland, the prim and proper eldest daughter of one of New York’s premiere families. It then backtracks in order to introduce the cast of characters, which include Elizabeth’s Bohemian younger sister, her starchy mother and aunt, her scandalous nouveau-riche best friend, the drunken rake whom all the girls want to marry, Elizabeth’s maid and a whole host of others culled directly from “Character types 101.”
Which introduces the issues with this book: it’s flat. Not only are the characters, but the actual setting of 1899 New York. It’s obvious the author did her research, but it was mainly just narrative filler and did nothing to enhance either the characters or their behavior in that setting.
The Book Book also brought up a glaring note that I feel plagues the romance genre to an extent:
All the girls in the story hate one another and work actively or passively to bring one another down…On the other hand, the “dreamy bachelor” character, who happily goes around seducing all the main characters without any consequences, who is constantly drunk in public, who has no desire to shoulder any responsibility and has dropped out of Harvard to have more time to enjoy his father’s wealth, becomes the object they all compete for, and comes out at the end of the book looking like a tragic hero.
Judging by other reviews online, the camp is firmly split between those who loved this book unanimously, and those who were turned off by the wallpaper history and shallow characters. I myself can admit The Luxe is a page-turner, but nothing more than that. For a truly rich, textured YA historical with wonderful characters, I must recommend Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle trilogy, whose closing installment, The Sweet Far Thing, was released last month.
2 comments February 8, 2008
