Vinegar Girl: The Review

I tried, people, I really did. I wanted to like this book, mostly because I understand the work that goes into writing a book and I hate bashing someone's efforts but...yuck.

I suppose I should start by saying that Vinegar Girl is a retelling of William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," so in terms of plot, the ideas were pre-formulated and the author does a very good job of altering various element's of the play to fit into her story.

In this version, Kate Battista, 29-year old nursery school teaching assistant, spends most of her life catering to the whims of her father, a scientist working on a supposedly cutting edge project. Father has a lot to say about what to eat and how to run the house and most of it seems pretty ridiculous, particularly as it puts a tremendous burden on Kate. For her part, Kate likes to think of herself as a straight talking, no nonsense woman, but in reality, she puts up with a lot of nonsense.

And then her father totally loses his mind and suggests that Kate marry his lab assistant, the sort of likeable Pyotr, so that Pyotr can get a green card and stay in the US to continue working on their project. The idea, of course, is totally ridiculous, but Kate's dad almost acts like she owes it to him, in spite of the fact that he has all but abandoned Kate and her younger sister in order to pursue his work goals. At first, he seems to try to get the two of them to actually like one another, but later,lets Kate know that he doesn't think she's ever going to find anyone else, so why not? Kate explodes and tells her dad to go to hell, right? Nope. Not even a little bit.

In the end, the men in this story are allowed to act like jerks and Kate even dismisses their behavior by feeling sorry for men because they aren't allowed to express their feelings honestly as it puts them at risk of looking unmanly. What is this, the 1950s? I thought my head would explode.

Likewise, in addition to the antiquated ideas, there was quite a bit of old-fashioned vocabulary: in a snit, conniption, quick as a wink. Most young women just don't speak like that - even the nerdy ones.

I will forego the usual lame scale since this is a book for adults and that really applies to YA, but I think you get the idea.

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