Falling Out of Fashion (Little Black Dress) [Import] [Hardcover]

Karen Yampolsky (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Little Black Dress (May 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0755339533
• ISBN-13: 978-0755339532
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Badly-written roman à clef, December 8, 2007

By 

alicetiara (Capitol Hill, Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Falling Out of Fashion (Hardcover)

Although Karen Yampolsky purports to have written this book, it's clear to anyone with a good memory of Sassy and/or Jane that this is the (very thinly veiled) story of Jane Pratt herself as told to Ms. Yampolsky.

The book is very simply written and thus easy to read. It doesn't really have much narrative pull, as it's basically just Jane yammering I did this, then I did that. It's not really fiction so much as it is a blog-like memoir. Jane's obviously quite impressed with her star-studded life and has very little self-awareness of how she might appear to others. She constantly talks about how Jane was this groundbreaking women's magazine that was ruined by moving to a new publishing house, but most women I know thought Jane kind of sucked from the very beginning. Jane is desperate to establish her indie cred, but it falls flat: for example, she runs down the "cheesy reality-tv winner" "Katy Hanson" (Kelly Clarkson), instead championing such slebs as "Serena Sax" (Courteney Cox). Her characters are sketched in the broadest of one-dimensional strokes and the celebrity pseudonyms are unbelievably easy to guess. Anyone in-the-know will immediately recognize "Richard Ruiz" as Michael Stipe, Drew Barrymore as a bisexual, curiously African-American (?) recovering addict who Jane makes out with at a party, and so forth. I gave this book 2 stars because some of the gossip is quite juicy once you get past the aliases.

For fans of Jane/Sassy, this might wile away an hour or so. For chicklit fans, the bar is already so low in this genre that I can't say this is much worse than most of what's out there, but compared to good chicklit like Marion Keyes, this is dreck. It's certainly no Devil Wears Prada, which, while not brilliantly written, was sparkling, entertaining pop trash. This is not.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Fun, Free Read!, July 20, 2010

By 

Libby Mari - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Falling Out Of Fashion (Kindle Edition)

I truly enjoyed this book. So much so that apparently I read it in two days! I got so caught up in it that I was enjoying myself as the pages just flew by. This book has just enough parallelism to real events (the real life magazine Sassy is relabeled Cheeky, etc)that is believable and entertaining. If you enjoyed books like The Devil Wears Prada, Everyone Worth Knowing, or Celebutantes, you will like this book. It offers insight into the world of publishing that most of us are not aware of, but honestly many of the antics will ring true to anyone who's had a boss from hell, snarky coworker, or a colleague that tries to take credit for your work. If you want a nice, fun book for the pool or beach, this is a great choice. Same for passing time at an airport. If you want a book with alot of action, suspense, drama, or inspirational message, you will walk away disappointed. Also, I can't imagine it would appeal to the average man.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Somewhat Smarter Chick Lit Offering, September 3, 2007

By 

Lisa J. (Bridge City, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Falling Out of Fashion (Hardcover)

While I won't say this is a great book, I did find it to be quite entertaining. It didn't have the humor or snap of The Devil Wears Prada or some others of the same genre, but Yampolsky did a good job of creating mostly believable characters with a storyline that rang true, as well. This may not be the best book she ever writes, but I think it's proof that Karen Yampolsky is an author to look out for.