Saturday, June 11, 2016

2016 book 105

Alison Umminger's American Girls
I feel sort of bad for Alison Umminger, because who could have known her book that heavily references the Manson Girls would be released as Emma Cline's book of the summer, which is also about the Manson Girls? Of course, Umminger's book isn't /really/ about them--it's about a teenage girl, fleeing family problems and other issues, who runs away to her older sister, a young, struggling actress in LA. And of course she ends up hanging out on various sets and meeting celebrities--but she's also hired to research the Manson Girls for her sister's ex-boyfriend. Umminger is straight up telling a story about the American Dream, and family, and how even being a "regular" girl is hard, and so on. It's definitely engaging, if not entirely believable. But I hope it will be a hit with the teens. A-/B+.

__
A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.

No comments: