(97) The Smart One & The Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik

Monday, October 20, 2008



If I were to run into Claire LaZebnik on the street, there is one book I would encourage her to read. Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Boundaries/Henry-Cloud/e/9780310585909/?itm=1
I was absolutely horrified by the lack of Boundaries that Lauren & Ava displayed in the book The Smart One & The Pretty One. Let's forget the stereotypes that the title perpetrates, and move onto the fact that these sisters need some serious boundaries.
I have a sister. We are relatively close & have even lived together before, not to mention sharing a room as we were growing up. And not once. In our 25 years of being sisters have I EVER dreamt of getting into her purse to get money to give the neighbor girl peddling a fundraiser. And never would I think it was OKAY to do that. NEVER in a million years would I EVER think that it would be okay to hire a debt consolidator for my sister without her knowledge or permission.
Good grief. I just wanted to reach through the pages & set these girls down & shake them silly.
I purchased this book, because I saw that it was about Sisters. And it looked interesting because it involved a childhood "sweetheart". Holy cow, was the blurb misleading. There was the frumpy intelligent sister. And then the careless, irresponsible sister. There was absolutely nothing about this book that makes me willing to recommend it to women. I imagine that there are some women out there that can relate to the lack of boundaries between sisters. But, having grown up in a large family, boundaries were established early & (I am eternally grateful for that) this books just makes me want to kiss my mother for that.

Honestly, if the author would have addressed the issues in the story. And have the Sister's have their "moment of truth" moment, where they both realized that they were out of line & would never cross the "Boundaries" line again, I might be able to rec it. But that didn't happen. There wasn't really any "aha" moments about their relationship. About themselves, yes. But not about their inappropriate relationship.
Bottom line. SKIP it. Hopefully the next book on my TBR pile, also about sisters will be a better read.

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