Book Review for Book Club: The Carrie Diaries

Book: The Carrie Diaries (The Carrie Diaries book #1) by Candace Bushnell

Edition: Hardcover

Description:

The Carrie Diaries is the coming-of-age story of one of the most iconic characters in our generation.

Before SEX AND THE CITY, Carrie Bradshaw was a small-town girl who knew she wanted more. She's ready for real life to start, but first she must navigate her senior year of high school. Up until now, Carrie and her friends have been inseparable. Then Sebastian Kydd comes into the picture, and a friend's betrayal makes her question everything.

With an unforgettable cast of characters, THE CARRIE DIARIES is the story of how a regular girl learns to think for herself and evolves into a sharp, insightful writer. Readers will learn about her family background, how she found her writing voice, and the indelible impression her early friendships and relationships left on her. Through adventures both audacious and poignant, we'll see what brings Carrie to her beloved New York City, where her new life begins.



Rating: 4 1/2 stars

Review:

Love her or hate her, Carrie Bradshaw is an iconic character and this book follows her early life before she made her life in New York City.

In The Carrie Diaries, you meet Carrie, a high school senior who lives in Castlebury, Connecticut in the 1980s with her father and her two younger sisters. She dreams of becoming a writer but she's not sure she has what it takes especially since she was unable to get in the New School's Advanced Summer Writing Seminar.

Carrie's senior year is filled with drama that centers around family, friends, school and her future. The new school year also brought romance drama when bad boy Sebastian Kydd entered the picture. What started out as a fun romance quickly changed leaving Carrie feeling out of sorts followed by a betrayal, she would like to think she didn't see coming. The thing with Sebastian is he was trouble from the beginning yet she allowed herself to be swept up in it. And when she knew her relationship wasn't working with him she continued to go along seeing him instead of trusting her instincts. She was sidelined by that betrayal because she was trying to pretend that everything was okay even when she knew it wasn't.

I really do like this first book the writing draws you in and not to mention the drama never really stops for Carrie and her family and friends. However, I like The Carrie Diaries TV series a little more and that's mainly because the characters were able to be fleshed out and given more depth. Plus the Sebastian on the show wasn't a horrible jerk like the book version.

This book features a Carrie who is still learning more about herself, life, love and friendship and all the ups and downs that come with it. I like that despite the doubts about her writing she never gave up on it. She even came up with a way to gain more experience. The story ends on a slight cliffhanger setting it up for the second book Summer and the City and with her meeting Samantha Jones.