Customer Reviews

Maneater

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

MANEATER is a scrumptious story written in a witty style as sharp as the spike heel of a strappy Manolo sandal. Our heroine, Clarissa, is as shallow as a wading pool, knows it, and wouldn't have it any other way. At first you may not like Clarissa but soon you will be almost as fascinated by her as she is by herself. :) The other characters are just as cleverly written; from her ex-con ageing-playboy, yet loving, father Teddy to her rarely un-intoxicated self-declared genius best buddy Gravy to the (still hot for) ex-boyfriend Simon with the long lingering English accent and spiffy wardrobe.

What's a girl to do? Clarissa is hitting 29 (in Clarissa years)-- OK, so she's bypassed 31 and trying to ignore that 32 is on the way -- knows the younger, firmer, fresher competition for the alpha male is on her bountiful booty and her time bomb of a biological clock is ticking away. If she doesn't get married - but quick - she may have to resort to getting a J-O-B, heaven forbid! Daddy (Teddy to Clarissa) has supported her thus far, but Teddy has threatened to stop paying her rent. So Clarissa sets out to find a suitable -- read rich, handsome - well not too ugly - rich, available, rich, socially sophisticated, (did I say rich?) hunk of prime husband material. And voila, being the woman around town (Los Angeles of course, is there any other?) she finds an appropriate victim, umm, man, Aaron Mason. You know she's going to snare him, but Aaron turns out to be just as feisty as Clarissa and not that easily lead to the slaughter.

Best laid plans and all, well, you know how that works out sometimes. The groom to be has secrets of his own, ones far more creative than anything Clarissa has ever cooked up.

But beyond being just a great beach or poolside read, Maneater is also a good lesson in how we shouldn't raise our daughters. Thank goodness Clarissa's self-realization that taking the seemingly easy, quick way in life to success and happiness is neither easy nor quick, doesn't come too late for our heroine.

Maneater is a great poolside read - fun fun fun - and easy to find, just look for the M.A.C. Lust lipglass colored jacket cover. ;)

What a read! I think the Steve Martin quote on the back cover says it all- "Women aren't really like this, are they?" Needless to say, Maneater is a witty and sharp insider's view into the material world of Hollywood. Clarissa wants it all and wants it NOW. She is a social climber who gets what she wants and doesn't let her friends (aka the Star Chamber) or her mother stop her. She gets what she's after, all right, but her story is one that will keep you laughing, gasping, and ultimately, reading. The characters are fresh and funny-I especially love her Bolivian/Jewish mother. Take this novel for the satire that it is, and you will truly enjoy reading Maneater.

I read this because I like Candace Bushnell's works (4 Blondes, Trading Up), and Amazon always has Maneater under the "Customers also viewed..." section. I can see the similarity between this and Bushell and works like The Devil Wears Prada: the characters and plot lines are completely over-the-top, with self-centered, social climbing women who still somehow manage to engage the reader in their antics.

Clarissa's weird self-image and her husband seeking antics in the first half of the book were wacky and odd, but the second half of the book took a genuinely bizzare reality-bending turn, making the first half seem absolutely normal.

Gazer is absolutely obsessed with parenthetical notes. She used them excessively. Often, the sentence could have been written fine with commas or by separating the thoughts into two sentences, but Grazer used parentheses to no end.

Overall, there were some catchy, ditzy quotes and some great footnotes, but the book was bizarre enough that I won't be seeking out more from this author.

Having lived in West LA for 6 years, including 4 years at USC, this book sounded a lot like many of the females I knew and loved in college and after. What a fun read. I read this book in a day because I just couldn't put it down. Clarissa is a total B**** and that is exactly why people love her. She says what others only think. Her outrageous lies, offset by Glazer by parentheses, bring all out belly laughts. The ending was a little "neat," but it was fitting that her true love ended up being a master manipulator just like herself. One of the reviewers asked, "What LA is this?" and I can answer that: it is the LA of Studio City, West Hollywood and South Beverly Hills. The wanna-be's who are so close but not quite good enough. The LA of social climbers and gold diggers. The girls who live north of Santa Monica Boulevard but are on the wrong side of Doheny. Or they live in the right area but in the guest quarters. If only....

I can't believe I didn't know this writer before now!

If you liked "Trading Up," "Shopaholic Takes Manhattan," or "Sex and the City (the novel)" you will love this book.

Gigi Levangie Grazer's "Maneater" is the evil sister of "Sex and the City." It tries hard to turn into some sort of glitzy Hollywood morality tale wrapped in the story of a former "It" girl. But it's too strained, limp and irritating to be more than self-conscious urban chic-lit.

Clarissa Alpert is twenty-eight (real age: thirty-one) and needs a husband. Since she has no skills, no independent income, and her dad may stop sending her money, she needs a rich husband before she hits her "marry by" date. She's slept with every rich'n'powerful guy in Hollywood, but the man she needs is rich producer Aaron Mason.

She dates him. They get married very quickly. She uses a turkey baster on their wedding night to make sure that she gets pregnant. But the next morning he reveals that his incredibly wealthy parents have disowned him, and they're going to live at a struggling-actor apartment complex. Clarissa, being quite spoiled, is appalled. But she struggles to maintain her life in the dingy apartment... until she learns that Aaron has some weird secrets of his own.

Hollywood is one of those places that just asks to be spoofed. And Grazer does a passable job. Her satire is over-the-top, but cute enough to be vaguely amusing. Not everybody there is like Clarissa and her cohorts, but there are enough that a book like "Maneater" is inevitable. So... whatever. Such satire is amusing in itself.

What "Maneater" lacks is good writing. It drags on a lot longer than it should, and too little gets accomplished. Once Clarissa marries Aaron, the only semi-surprising development is that she actually lives in the dingy apartment. Name-dropping, sex-related talk and plenty of whining fill in the gaps between plot developments. (Of which there aren't many)

Clarissa is a not-so-good character from the start. She's selfish, spoiled, vain, artificial and described as being sociopathic. So by the time she has a sudden change of heart, you may not care. You may want a Clarissa voodoo doll instead. Supporting characters are caricatures -- shallow pals, hunky ex-boyfriend, annoying quirky parents, and an equally annoying husband.

"Maneater" is an overlong piece of froth. Like Clarissa's mother, it's too thin and weird to be much more than a failed satire.

With her curves and overall maneating charisma, Clarissa Alpert is woman who is a bit smarter than she comes off (much like Jessica Simpson). Going after what she wants with a selfish, but somehow innocent mentality, whether it be a handbag or a man, makes this character endearing. Yet despite everything she's got, Clarissa does not have Mr. Right, and the diamond encrusted biological clock is ticking.

Enter the man she sets her sights on. An up and coming Hollywood "it" producer. Clarissa knows that this man has everything...except her. As things progress Clarissa gets to shop for wedding gowns, rent halls, choose the food, basically plan a fantastic wedding with all the trimmings. Now all she has to do is convince the groom-to-be to marry her. And not only that, but she has to make him think it was all his idea.

Clarissa has her work cut out for her, but for once is it really she who is pulling a fast one? Will her and her Vera Wang dreams live happily ever after?

Read this light, funny book to find out! I personally enjoyed this more than The Devil Wears Prada, and I think its just as good as the Shopaholic series.

This book was part "Sex in the City" and part "The Devil Wears Prada" wrapped into one but it did not have the originality of either one. I felt as though I was reading bits and pieces from other well known movies and books and then slapped together. Clarissa the main character is so obsessesd with her age or is it really Gigi...??...that it is brought up one to many times! How many times does Gigi have to remind us that she's really older buy saying she's younger? It is brought up way too much in the book.

Secondly, I feel as though Gigi is writing for a sixth grader rather than adult women. There are many examples of this display such as when Cinnamon said "thing" but really said it like "thang"...couldn't have Gigi just written "thang" and we as the reader would have known it was not a typo? Next was the way her mother spoke and Gigi again had to remind us that every time she said "you", she said it like "ju"...again why couldn't have Gigi just wrote it like that to begin with? Next, was the Braxton-Hicks reference...Gigi felt compelled to explain what it is to the reader. There are many other words or actions that Gigi does not explain but assumes the reader knows like Vicodin...anyone over 16 knows what Vicodin is but Gigi did not explain this one, which is fine by me. I like to read for fun instead of feeling like I'm reading a dictionary and being given explanations of what certain things are. Gigi insults the readers intelligence too many times.

Gigi also loves (parentheses) and uses them way too much in her writing! They are distracting to what is already a weak book.

The plot was weak. I don't know how Clarissa can go from being single, to planning her own wedding without having a groom to talking Aaron into it in one-page. Real men would never agree to it. I know this is a book and it's fiction but there were so many "that would never happen in real life" situations that I started to lose track. I painfully finished the book but I am extremely suprised that this is the same author that wrote Stepmom. I loved that movie, granted I have not read the book...maybe if I had it would have turned me off to the movie.

When there is nothing else on the shelf to check out from the library or buy at the bookstore, then and only then should you read this book.

Just when you thought you couldn't read one more bridget jones-shopaholic-devil wearing prada kind of female protagonist novel, along comes something TRULY SPECIAL AND UNIQUE. Darkly delicious, this novel will transport you, show you a window into characters and a world that are fascinating, compelling and oddly relatable. The main character is unlike any you have ever encountered before. You will have to read it all in one sitting because you won't be able to put it down. I hope they make a movie out of it - I will rush to go see it. It will be as good as the terrific "To Die For" or the really entertaining "Election". This book will entertain you no end, and also make you think about yourself and your friends around you. There are some very cleverly woven subtle insights into love and marriage as well. The meaning of true love. What we receive in return for giving love and being vulnerable. All of which is like the cherry on top of this very delicious ice cream sundae. I loved this author's first book and this one is even better.

I won't waste your time by paraphrasing the plotline of this awful book, I think everyone else who's reviewed it has summed it up well. In a word, I thought this book was terrible. Levangie Granger spent so much time creating Clarissa, a super-fake, unlikeable, shallow, generally awful character in the first half of the book that I didn't believe that Clarissa could change her tune and actually experience real emotions. By the time Clarissa started acting more like a human being and (a bit) less like a soul-less west coast chick from HELL (which she kind of remained all the way to the end), I didn't care what happened to her anymore. I actually started wishing something terrible would happen to her (car crash... train wreck... struck by lightening...). Unfortunately, when it did (her mother's death; her anorexic mother -- another somewhat unbelieveable character -- was described by the author as having "shat herself to death" -- could you be more vile?) I really didn't give a damn about stupid old Clarissa. I'm as fascinated by the glamorous, glitzy life of Beverly Hills socialites as the next middle class gal... but maybe not as much as I was before I read this book. Thankfully it's fiction, and even though I'm from the great nowhere between New York and Los Angeles, I refuse to believe that this is an accurate snapshot of how women in Clarissa's social position are. At least I can hope it's not.

Hey -- and did anyone catch that Clarissa put her cat, which she only had to match her sofa, in a bag and forgot to take her out when she moved back in with her mother??? I assumed that the cat died due to Clarissa's negligence. Was that supposed to be cute? I don't think animal abuse is very cute. Yet another gross and unforgiveable aspect of Clarissa Alpert.

I think this book was intended to be kind of a funny, lighthearted romp. I even think that the author probably intended to make the characters so extreme that they became rather cartoonish. All well and good, but I think Levangie Granger does women a real disservice. Women in this book were either: 1. manipulative, deceptive, shallow bitches, obsessed with "product" and sleeping their way up the social ladder (which Clarissa and her friends shameless and dangerously DID), or 2. not that way, and therefore dumb. Fortunately I don't think this book was that popular and I only picked it out as something to read between more serious work-related books, so maybe not a lot of people will read it, and hopefully fewer will be at all influenced by it.

I'm a fan of all kinds of books and can usually say something nice about them (even the ones I didn't particularly like). In a nutshell: I didn't even finish this book. I didn't want to finish the book! It's supposed to be a witty story of an "IT-girl" type heroine who wants to land a husband. However, the way it was written makes you not care about the protagonist. This story was written pretentiously with over-the-top descriptions about people "in the biz," and many side comments about people in the book (in parenthetical form) that make you just want to roll your eyes at them. It was very hard to like this book, the characters in them, or to even find the story remotely interesting. Thank goodness I borrowed it from the library and didn't buy it!