Customer Reviews

Cherries in the Snow: A Novel of Lust, Love, Loss, and Lipstick

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

Journalist/author/screenwriter Emma Forrest writes like the girl next door... if the girl next door is a savvy, sharp gal with encyclopedic pop culture knowledge. Her third novel continues the offbeat characters and dark, quirky writing. "Cherries in the Snow" is a bit like its namesake -- bright and engaging.

Sadie Steinberg is a British twentysomething living in New York, and employed at chic Grrl Cosmetics. Her job? She comes up with the kicky nicknames for makeup, like "Ass-Slapping Pink" and "Born To Run," (yes, I'd love that job too) and aspires to create a name as memorable as "Cherries in the Snow." Lipstick is also a barometer for her moods. Some people wear their hearts on their sleeves, but Sadie wears hers on her mouth.

Then her love life takes a radical shift, after way too many "father figure" men (Dr. Freud, you may now leave the stage) who are twice her age. One day Sadie encounters hippie-esque graffiti artist Marley, and they fall in love. But Sadie has a rival for his affections: his young daughter Montana, who eerily reminds Sadie of herself.

Sounds like your typical chick-lit? Trust me, it's not -- at least, it's not the fluffy twenty-something-woman-in-love stuff that is churned out on a monthly basis. Emma Forrest is far wittier and more flippant, sort of like if Nick Hornby had been born a girl. To dismiss "Cherries in the Snow" as "chick-lit" is a disservice of the worst kind.

Forrest's writing has grown up a bit since her debut novel, "Namedropper." There are echoes of her earlier work -- Holly in particular reminds one of sexy, free-spirited Treena -- but Forrest's writing has become a bit deeper over time. Here, she's taking a harder look at friendships, love affairs, and dating men with children.

But if her themes have gotten deeper, Forrest hasn't lost her knack for acidic observation. Or, for that matter, her ability to steep her books in pop culture without making them seem trendy or gimmicky. On the subject of Holly, Sadie muses that "you have that intense, romantic love for your best friend and if it ends, the breakup is absolutely traumatizing." Insights like those can cut like a knife.

The cover of "Cherries in the Snow" sums up the book pretty well. Reminiscent of a minimalist makeup ad, feminine, colorful yet a bit wink-nudge. Much like the book itself.

every character in this book is a cliche. if a book has no plot, no wit and no heart then i'm still happy to read it for its insight into human nature, but this writer offers nothing. i imagine she'd be better off writing movies for lifetime TV than attempting novels. of course, she might only manage to crank out one of these lame sex and shopping storylines before she ran out of ideas.

Don't let the cover or title fool you into thinking this is chick lit. Chick lit heroines may bewail calories but they rarely talk about the orgasmic properties of bulimia and they certainly don't self-mutilate. If you've read Forrest's memoir Your Voice in My Head: A Memoir, you will certainly wonder how much of Sadie's story is biographical but that doesn't matter when you write with such a clever, self-deprecating hand. And what Gen X girl hasn't wanted to be 'the person who makes up the names for lipsticks'? It's all a bit theraputic and I've gone straight on to Thin Skin

Sadie Steinberg is a 24 year old English girl working in NYC at her friend's cosmetic company. Her job is to name all of the products. Sadie seems to always find herself with the wrong (older) man until she meets 28 year old Marley. Then, she finds out he has an 8 year old daughter. Sadie is forced to act like an adult if she wants things to work out. Slowly, with tons of mini breakdowns and twists along the way, she realized that she does and that Marley is her knight - in spray paint- and Montana (the girl) is pretty okay too.

This book was an easy read, but really a bit of a mess in terms of plot and character development. Sadie's whole fascination with older men made no sense since her dad was great and still married to her mother. Montana was a caricature, as was her mom. Most annoying was Sadie's constant crying and whining. I almost hoped that Marley would dump her and smack his kid into some semblance of normalcy.

Sadie Steinberg is a transplanted Brit living in New York City, with the fun job of naming new products for an edgy cosmetic company. She's also one of the most endearing heroines of the chick lit genre. She's goofy and childish and occasionally, even gross, but she totally captures your imagination and you wish you really knew someone like her.

Cherries in the Snow will stay in your mind long after you've read the last page. I loved it, and I've just bought my own copy so I will be able to read it over and over after I've returned the library's copy that I just read. It's a keeper. And if Emma Forrest is reading this--please give us another Sadie Steinberg story!

I was pretty engossed in this novel from the Get-go! That doesn't happen that often for me. But I just love the author's style of writing & highly reccomend this brilliant & edgy book..

I absolutely loved this book. The unusual main character, Sadie was oddly very easy to connect with. I love how she expressed herself through her lipstick. It is a book about finding yourself, finding yourself through love, and finding yourself in some pretty akward, yet hillarious situations. It's creative, poetic, and funny. It made me laugh out loud but also really feel for the main characters. It also made me want to go buy lots of lipstick!

Emma Forrest's 3rd novel "Cherries in the Snow" is brilliant! The writing is crisp, edgy, down-to-earth, clever and memorable. Ms. Forrest has finally created a character to care about. Sadie Steinberg is a very real character. Three dimensional and flesh and blood. While reading the novel I felt myself cringe a few times at some stupid thing Sadie does and I know it's because she's real. Sadie could be me, she could be you. Sadie is neither pathetic nor too whiney as some of Ms. Forrest's previous characters have been. The reader cheers for Sadie. We want her to break through her writers block and write the great novel! We want her to invent the name for Grrl Cosmetics signature lip stick just like Revlon did with "Cherries in the Snow". And finally, we want her to live happily ever after with Marley, the man of her dreams. If you read anything by Emma Forrest, read "Cherries in the Snow". You'll love it!

There's not a whole lot if anything to recommend about "Cherries In The Snow" by Emma Forrest. It's really a big snore. The situations are uninteresting, the conversations between characters are stilted and disjointed and the conflicts are dull. The characters themselves are woefully underdeveloped, especially that of Marley, protagonist Sadie Steinberg's boyfriend. He is so sappy, bland and, despite Sadie's description of him possessing black hair, brown eyes and brown skin he seems colorless. Who is this guy? What makes him tick? And why on Earth does he love Sadie, who is so shallow and annoying? Their relationship is completely unbelievable. So too unbelievable is Marley's young daughter Montana. Author Forrest would seem never to have encountered an eight-year old girl, so unrealistic and fake is this character. Really, the whole book is a mess. How did this book ever get published?