E. Lockhart: Dramarama

** spoiler alert ** Fantastic book, but suffered from sudden left turn syndrome. It was going one way full steam ahead and then just sort of stopped. If you've read the book, you know it's about a very close friendship that ends suddenly when Sadye takes the blame for Demi breaking the rules at their drama camp. She was having a hard time at the camp anyway and got kicked out for the rule-breaking that she didn't actually do.

Here's why I had problems with that: it was narratively unsatisfying, to an incredible degree. The narrative was about Sadye separating from her friend and discovering that she had the skill set for a director, not for an actor. That's an awesome story! But the author dropped the ball on it and left Sadye with absolutely nothing. She goes back to her stupid town with no friends. Demi doesn't even keep in touch.

At the very end, Sadye is mysteriously living in New York and working a crap job for no pay just to be near show business, I guess?

I felt really betrayed by this ending to what should have been a fantastic story about not being what you want to be but finding something else better. Sadye obviously should have become a director! She has all the skills, the critical thinking, the eye for detail, the ideas. Why not go there? Why take this character and say: if you can't be what you wanted, you can't be anything? You have to sit there as a wannabe on the sidelines?

I was pretty shocked by this. Because the world actually really needs stories about not making it in what you thought you were going to do. We need stories that model that and show someone finding their true strengths and skills when the whole beautiful plan falls down. This ending really, really bothered me.