Customer Reviews

Trading Up

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(37)
1 star:		(78)

 

 

This is the first book that I have read by Candace Bushnell and I was very disappointed. Instead of wasting the paper it was printed on, the story should have instead been made into a cheesy Lifetime movie starring Tori Spelling. The plot was slow, boring and predictable while the main characters were detestable. Don't waste your time reading this book!

I loved it; it was like having my very own Sex and the City. Bushnell is an astute observer of social castes and manners. Bushnell never describes the main character's beauty; instead, she writes about her in such a way that you completely believe this woman could roam the earth wreaking havoc as the result of her stunning good looks. Things happen quickly-- at the end of one chapter, Janey is sitting next to some guy and at the start of the next, she's married him-- but you never feel cheated; you just want to turn the page and find out what happens next. Perfect summer book. I missed the Janey so much I went out and bought 4 Blondes.

This is a pretty mediocre book. Its worst flaw is that every one of the characters is so downright despicable that you end up not caring a jot what happens to any of them. You find yourself hoping that Janey will get her come-uppance, but unfortunately when she does, it's short-lived. The writing is barely okay, certainly nothing outstanding, and the plot development is sluggish.

On the positive side, Candace Bushnell obviously knows the Manhattan social scene well and at times you feel that the descriptions are depressingly accurate. I say depressing because it comes across as being such a shallow and superficial world that I am happy to be well removed from it. It's kind of fun to guess at the inspiration behind some of the characters - Gwyneth Paltrow, Rupert Everett, Anna Wintour, Aerin Lauder...

I continued with this book hoping it would get better. It didn't. It's not the worst book that I've read, but I still wouldn't recommend it.

I tried so hard to finish this book, just so I could say I finished it. I think I have like 20 pages to go, but I can go no further. This book has NO redeeming qualities. It is poorly written: with 20 pages or so to go, I can detect no sign of an actual plot. Is the "heroine" Janey Wilcox going to change from a shallow, vapid model into a shallow, vapid movie producer? Will she leave her rich husband for a richer one? Who knows? And who cares. This book features a main character I could care less about. In fact, NONE of the characters with the possible exception of Seldon (Janey's husband) are even LIKEABLE. I kept hoping Janey would get hit by a bus crossing 5th avenue, or maybe trip on a heel and break her neck. I couldn't STAND her. And the characters around her, obviously crafted to make her seem sympathetic, only made her seem worse by comparison, because they are all such hideous people. After 400 pages, this book has gone nowhere, and quite frankly, I'm not even convinced that Candance Bushnell knows what she's talking about. This is nothing like "Sex and the City" -- it's snooze in the city, and it just doesn't get better with time. Zero stars for a zero-caliber book. Thank God I only paid three bucks for it at a used sale. No wonder the previous owner wanted to get rid of it! This is one of the worst books I've ever read.

This book was really not that fun of a read. I was expecting a light-hearted book with a plot and characters I would enjoy reading about, but did not find any of this with Trading Up.

The book is about Janey Wilcox, a Victoria's Secret model who uses anyone and everyone that comes into her life to make it to the top. From a socialite to several movie producers to her own sister, she uses them all to get what she wants.

The only reason I made it all the way through is because I kept thinking, this has to get better. I was wrong. By the end of the book I really did not care what happened to Janey and therefore didn't care that the ending was as bad as it was.

I'm disappointed and definitely would not recommend Trading Up.

I had such high hopes for this book, but it was one of the worst I've read in years. The plot was boring, at best. I kept reading and reading, hoping it would magically get better at some point, but it never did. At least 200 pages of pointlessness should have been edited. I hoped it would all come together at the end, but it didn't! There was no moral, no resounding feeling of completion - nothing. Don't waste your time on this one.

I threw this book out once I realized it was a rehashing of "House of Mirth" by the classic authoress Edith Wharton. Right down to some of the names. Does the name Selden ring a bell to you? Ok, Ok, it's the guy's Last name in Wharton's book. Skip this book and read the original!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0451527569/qid=1118684771

The main character in Ms. Bushnell's story "Trading Up" is one of the most annoying character's that I've read in a long time. I liked her somewhat in the story "4 Blondes" but she is shallow, and very selfish. I found this a difficult book to enjoy since the main character was such a snot and the nasty way she used people and treated people that were close to her, never mind how she treated and used people that were simply in her way also became rather tedious.

I found that although the overall story about improving ones life through social connections could have been fun this one just really fell short of the mark. IF on the other hand you like shallow, self involved characters then this is the book for you.

Yes I had a hard time putting this book down, but only because I wanted it to be over! If I weren't the type of person who has to finish what they started I would have stopped reading it. The "protagonist" is completely unlikable. As a matter of fact there are few truly likeable characters in the book, Janey's sister Patty and her husband Digger being the only two I can think of. It's about a bunch of narcissistic freaks. I like a summer trash novel where you want the protagonist to succeed or find happiness or love or something. In this book, and maybe this is the point after all, Janey is written to be the protagonist, but is also the primary antagonist as well. The end was also a little quick and neat and clean, leaving itself open to...yikes...a sequel...which I will definitely not read. A great disappointment after Four Blondes, which I enjoyed.

This was a tough book to get through. Bushnell took her story way too seriously. She chose to spend pages and pages describing every single character and his/her past, yet at the end of the book, she merely forgets to tie up a few storylines. What ever happened to Patty and Digger? What about Mimi's baby--who was the father?

Obviously the main character, Janey, was completely unlikeable. But I got the impression that Bushnell wanted us to be proud of her, to cheer her on. I also couldn't understand why the author had suddenly turned Seldon into a creep with 1 chapter to go. Very long, very disapointing book.