Customer Reviews

Undiscovered Gyrl (Vintage Contemporaries Orig)

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I firmly believe that books should stir emotions, whether they be good or bad. A book, or story, that incites a reader is a book that will oft be remembered and discussed. Of course, when the book is highly subjective or provocative, it runs the chance of being wildly loved or hated. This is one of those books.

It begins with a seventeen year old girl named Katie Kampenfelt who decides to defer her collegiate career for a year and blogs about her experience. Of course, Katie Kampenfelt is not her real name and she has a penchant for speaking her mind, unfiltered. She describes explicitly her alcohol and drug abuse, her dysfunctional relationship with her boyfriend, and her affairs with older men (one of whom was married and the other almost so).

Within the first fifty pages, it became clear to me that Katie was an amalgamation of so many different types of people. And her candor was apt to offend most, if not everyone, who read the entries. There were racial, political, and socioeconomic pejoratives strewn throughout. There was even an allusion (I believe, but could be mistaken) to a character from 'The L Word'. All of this makes Katie easy to dislike.

Despite that and the eye-popping moments, the book was easy to read. The voice was casual and light and there were moments of true lucidity. For instance, when she's discussing narcissism with "Dan" or when she's learning something from "Paul" or "Glenn", it's apparent that Katie, on a deeper level, wants more from her life, but doesn't know where to look for it.

What pulled me out of the story at times was the contrivance of some of her spelling errors and writing quirks. We all have them, yes, but in the story it seemed as though they were carefully placed there to dumb herself down, but instead came across as being disingenuous.

Then there's the matter of the ending. If a reader actually makes it to the end of the book, it means she's invested a great deal of time getting to know the character and caring about the character (even if that caring is dislike...), so the unresolved nature of the end can be disconcerting. We *want* to know what happened, but ultimately we have to determine it for ourselves.

In truth, I saw it coming because this book is a discussion piece. From page three, I realized this fact. And having everything tied up with a neat little bow wouldn't haunt the reader--it wouldn't cause as many discussions as leaving it up in the air for the reader to figure out (and possibly debate with friends).

If you do decide to read this book, you should know one thing going in: There is a good chance you will either be completely revolted or intrigued by it. I liken it to a train plowing into a stalled car on the railroad tracks; when it's over you either feel a little guilty for having watched or glad that you looked away.

"Undiscovered Gyrl" moved me in so many ways. I was completely engrossed and mesmerized by the dichotomy of Katie Kampenfelt. She is courageous and confident, yet vulnerable and reckless. I am a 51 year old housewife and have a 12 year old daughter. The book brought back memories of when I was that age: the mind and drive of a young woman, the power of seduction and its ugly components and our need for validation. Burnett's book exposes multiple layers that affect not only "Katie" but the reader as well. We are all victims of delusion in one form or another. I am still reeling from the aftermath of Katie's sexcapades and the consequences that befall both her and the reader. This book will stay with me for a very long time. I highly recommend it!

I have not read book in a very long time that has stuck with me the way Undiscovered Gyrl has. I was a bit hesitant to purchase this at first because I didn't know if I would get annoyed with the "blog style" of writing, but after reading just a few pages I was hooked. The author does a great job of getting the reader to connect with Katie and have many different emotions about her. Sometimes I hated her, sometimes I thought she was funny and sometimes I just felt bad for her. I was very surprised to find out that Allison Burnett is a man, but he did a great job of capturing an older teenager girl's voice on paper. Katie is just as immature, impulsive and cocky as I remember being at that age. The ending of the book is a very unique twist that I did not see coming at all. A definite must read, and you will keep thinking about it long after you finish reading!

This is a difficult review to write. While I liked the book a lot it was still different.
I liked it because it was written in blog form. I have read books written like diaries but never blogs.
Some other things I liked is that the author makes you feel for Katie. She is a troubled teen who drinks, smokes, has a bad relationship with her father, and sleeps with older men. You can't help but feel sorry for her.
Saying this, there are some things in the book that were very bold and detailed. Like Katie's language got raunchy once in a while, and her sex life is explained. And even though Katie is a teenager I wouldn't think that this book would be for a young reader.
And I did not see the ending coming.

I'm not going to say who picks up Katie's blog from here because I don't want to give anything away. But I have to say that I was not expecting the ending. And I am also still wondering what exactly happened. I wish the ending would have been a little different.

Burnett seems to capture the voice of a teenaged girl pretty well. I'm not a girl, so I can't say for sure, but this book seemingly captures the vulnerable, painful side of the new American teen heartbreakingly well.

The book might have been cribbed from blogs on MYSPACE, I don't know, but middle-aged parents HAD BETTER read this book if your children are on the computer all day. It is a realistic story of a coming of age in a dangerous world.

Parents: do you remember keeping things from your parents? Stolen kisses, sneaked cigarettes, going to parties you were warned against? You need to read this book, and see what your daughter may be keeping from YOU.

This book is an important new morality play, not to be missed by any parent, especially if your daughter is becoming a teen.

Allison Burnett is able to absorb every facet of his created characters so completely that each of his books gives the reader the feeling that the first person narrator is the actual writer. Visit his previous books - CHRISTOPHER: A TALE OF SEDUCTION and THE HOUSE BEAUTIFUL - and try to be convinced that the idiosyncratic characters are not real and writing their own memoirs. Now in UNDISCOVERED GYRL Burnett further challenges himself by writing a novel in the first person who happens to be both a girl and a female artifice created by the media we now live by - the internet. He manages to make this Katie creation so credible that her incredibility works! Who is she really - spoiled mouthy high school graduate or the femme fatale she creates with the device of the blog?

Burnett's writing style is so fluid that he makes this initially wild idea for a novel capture the reader's attention and makes us go along with the preposterous shenanigans of a character about whom we know little except for the persona she manufactures, scratching our heads at times trying to figure out how the deception will play out, while most of the time just voyeuristically going along for the ride. He knows his craft and after his sojourns into the edgy worlds of his previous two novels, he has the guts to pull us further into those places most of us only silently peek at as we surf the www. This book is entertaining as a novel: this book is a real examination of where we are now in this distorted world of quasi-real communication and identities! Grady Harp, October 09

To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to reading this book at first. I thought that maybe I was too "old" to connect with it, even though I've been interested in YA type novels in the past. I have also not been impressed with email and blog type styles, but that didn't take away from the story like I thought it would. Once I started, it grabbed me and pulled me in. I'm not even sure I can explain why, but I haven't been affected by a book this way in a long time.

Katie started her blog when she was 17, following the advice of a teacher to help her learn about herself for a year, while deferring her college education. When starting the blog, she decided to change her name and some details that would give away who she actually was. What follows is an honest (and possibly dishonest) account of Katie's sexual exploits with olden men (often involved with other women) and boys her age, her love for Obama, her ideas on the world at large, and some very funny entries. I laughed out loud many times reading this book.

There were also many moments where I was saddened by the story. Katie's loneliness and her excitement of knowing that thousands of people read her blog in one day reminded me of a humans need to connect with others, in any way that they can. The further we go in technology and the advances we make seem to push us away from others in a personal way. Knowing that what someone writes on a blog can be the truth or a "complete lie," makes us all the more vulnerable because we can be taken advantage of so easily.

I read this in one evening, and it shocked me that this was written by a man. I had the same feeling when I read She's Come Undone (Oprah's Book Club) I've never seen many men write women (especially teenagers) that well, and it was very impressive because a lot of the feelings she had and the experiences she went through, were very typical of a teenager. Her need for attention, her narcissism, wanting to be "discovered," and being in love with the idea of someone loving her. Though she wasn't the most likeable character at times, I still felt sorry for her, and I had a hard time putting the book down. When I did put it down, it wasn't long before I picked it back up again, because it was addictive.

The only problem I had with the book is that I'm not sure if the ending was genius or a complete cop-out. I can only tell you that it came out of nowhere, and gave a whole twist that I didn't see coming. It was comparable to watching some obscure foreign movie, and as you finish watching, think, "What happened?" Maybe we are left to figure out the ending for ourselves.

Highly recommended!

17 year old Amy has just decided not to go to college for a year and to kill time she begins to write a blog. Writing under the name of Katie she begins to amuse her readers with tantalizing tidbits of her life. By changing names and pertinent facts she is able to keep her sordid tales about sex, drugs, drinking, and the dysfunctional relationship with her parents and much older men, anonymous.

Amy longs to be discovered and truly loved, but there is so much about herself and life she needs to discover first and the lessons aren't always easy.

When I was younger the book to read was Go Ask Alice, the supposed real life diary of a good girl gone bad with a heavy dose of drug abuse. This book reminded me of that one, immediately. I guess because the blogs of today are the diaries of yesterday. It has the same concept, except I think this one is solidly more compelling. I began reading this book with the promise that after 20 pages I would clean my house... 290 pages later I finally finished the book and was at least able to vacuum before the hubby got home.

It is a hard book to set down, and the blogs are all interesting although some are simple, some childish and selfish, some are sexy and some are downright sad. While reading I wondered how someone so physically and mentally mature could be so emotionally immature. She was at once a child and a whore, innocence and corruption; half the time I wanted to smack her, the other half I wanted to hold her.

I can highly recommend this read; on entertainment value alone I would have given it 5 stars. However, the ending was unnecessarily dismal and left you with more questions than answers and no real closure. I hate that. I am not a fan of unanswered questions or cliffhangers; I like a tidy clean ending. But maybe that's just me. Enjoy!

Cherise Everhard, January 2010

I had never read anything by this author before: on the strength of this book, I immediately ordered her other 2 books. The opening chapters just seem to be about a self-centered but witty teenager who has decided to take a year off college to find her direction in life while boozing, partying, and sleeping around the entire time. Gradually we learn about her yearning for her father, which causes her to pursue older men and offer herself sexually to almost anyone who crosses her path. The lead character is clearly smart (she has apparently gotten into a terrific college, but deferred her entry) and there were several places in the story where I laughed out loud---it's very funny in places, which lightens some of the enormous pain of the book. As she spends the year trying to decide what to do with her life, she gets used a lot by men (usually while under the influence of drugs or alcohol). Interestingly, the one person who doesn't try to use her (although he may have later, admittedly) is the convicted sex offender: I liked the humane treatment of this topic, and the realistic depiction of how the parents freaked out without ever having met the man, talked to him, or discovering what his crime was. This is a great tale of how a father's lack of attention can seriously damage a young woman, and the dangers for women in navigating the dating world; granted, while she mistreats the younger men in this book, the inherent dangers are disproportionately on women. I literally could not put this book down, and read it all in one evening (it's just short enough to make that not too much of a chore is you are a fast reader---3 hours). This book has a lot of sex in it and, although it is a cautionary tale for youngsters about publishing details of one's life on the internet, as a result I wouldn't recommend it for anyone younger than 16 or 17.

"Undiscovered Gyrl" takes the form of a blog by a seventeen-year-old girl who, having been accepted to college, defers matriculation. She takes up a blog using pseudonyms for herself and everyone else, describing her life, complete with narcissism, lots of sex with several partners, drug use, and her family struggles. From time to time, presumably for verisimilitude, she responds to e-mails, many of which apparently just correct her cacography.

Like others, I found the style initially off-putting, though I eventually warmed to it, at least somewhat. (The author seemed to skirt uncomfortably the requirements of actual blogs--typographical errors, emoticons, and all sorts of grammar problems--and more literate writing, and I'm not sure the balance here satisfies either requirement.) Katie, the pseudonymous blogger, does emerge as a three-dimensional character, and her life is, to put it mildly, a mess. Still, one holds out hope. However, the ending of the novel felt like a complete rip-off, again, as others have noted.

I won't give away the ending, but I will say that I found that it undermined far too much of the novel. A major plot development is left unresolved and unexplained, and parts of the ending retract parts of the blog. I do not demand answers to everything in a novel, and some ambiguity is acceptable and sometimes even desirable. However, this ending was, for me, akin to the "it was all a dream" ending against which introductory writing teachers so stridently warn their charges. It wasn't a dream, at least I don't think so, but the ending ruined the novel for me.