I’ve been looking forward to reading this book every since making my cyber-acquaintance with Diana earlier this year. Diana’s living the dream of every aspiring writer of commercial women’s fiction: she’s pursued publication determinedly and is now reaping the rewards with a debut novel, Secret Society Girl, — issued by Delacorte in hardcover — that’s garnered significant press including reviews in Bloomberg News, the New York Observer, Booklist, and The Washington Post.
She’s also smart and high-energy (if you need proof of that just follow her blog!) and is dedicated to mastering the craft of writing and the ins & outs of commercial fiction as a profession.
So it’s no surprise that Secret Society Girl is a well-structured novel. The characters come alive — I feel I could practically pick them out on the street — and the pacing is excellent.
The book’s setting is a fictional Ivy League campus (Diana’s a Yalie) and the mileu is definitely the 20-something crowd; since I haven’t been 20 in (ahem) some time, and since my politics tend toward libertarianism rather than the heroine’s liberalism and have also had a lot of their rough edges knocked off over the years, I am not exactly a 1:1 fit with the book’s natural born audience. All the more tribute, then, to Diana’s writing that the narrative engaged me as it did. Never once did my attention to Amy’s fate flag; never once did I lose interest in the story’s arc.
Diana’s now working on the book’s sequel, of course — but I, for one, am equally interested in where she’ll go as a writer once the Secret Society franchise has run its course. I have no doubt she’ll be scaling some impressive peaks. It’s going to be wonderful to watch.
Don’t know either the book or the author, but NOW I think I know why I feel a kinship to you, Kirsten.
“…my politics tend toward libertarianism…” HA! A kindred spirit.
John
:-)
The fact is I have tremendous respect for principled positions on all bands of the spectrum. Unfortunately the tone of online political discourse is so vicious nowadays there’s no way I’m going to get into it on my blog. Life’s too short. But I’m sure my inclinations show through once in awhile.
Hey, Kristen! Thanks for reading. I definitely try to avoid the politics on my blog as well. (the one time in history I made a political post, I got the weirdest email about it — about how refreshing it was to see a woman who, unlike most of the upstarts on earth, still thought a man did a better job than she did. Bizarre.
I am surprised about the subscribing of political theories to Amy, though. She’s probably the least political person in the book!
Yes, you have a point there, Diana — I guess I projected political leanings on her based on the actions she ultimately took — not only with the society itself but her support of Malcom. Or I just made some assumptions based on my own college experience — heck my high school experience. I really ought to blog sometime about how my best friend and I forced our school district to honor Title IX . . .