Snapped by Pamela Klaffke

Amazon.com:

Sara B. is losing her cool.

Not just in the momentary-meltdown kind of way—though there's that, too. At the helm of must-read Snap magazine, veteran style guru Sara B. has had the job—and joy—for the past fifteen years of eviscerating the city's fashion victims in her legendary DOs and DON'Ts photo spread.

But now on the unhip edge of forty, with ambitious hipster kids reinventing the style world, Sara's being spit out like an old Polaroid picture: blurry, undeveloped and obsolete.

Fueled by alcohol, nicotine and self-loathing, Sara launches into a cringeworthy but often comic series of blowups—personal, professional and private—that culminate in an epiphany. That she, the arbiter of taste, has made her living by cutting people down…and somehow she's got to make amends.

Snapped was sort of a mixed bag for me. At first I loved the author's humorous voice and the setting and the characters and in the end I did as well but in the middle it got a little bizarre. Let me explain, Sara goes off on these tangents in her mind where she thinks of all these horrible things that can happen and some of them were a little bit revolting. I think if that was toned down a bit it wouldn't have distracted me so much from what I liked about the book.

I really admire the originality of the author's voice and how she goes places others wouldn't dare though. I'm not sure if I exactly share her sense of humor though in the end, because while the book is listed as comical (specifically Sara making a fool of herself) I didn't find very much funny in that and it kind of stressed me out at times.

While Sara was hit and miss for me (though I do love what she decides to do with herself at the end!) one character I adored was an elderly lady she befriends by the name of Esther, anytime Esther was in a scene I loved it. I loved the stories she shared about her friend Lila and the things she did for Sara. I was also fascinated by Eva who I think really represented a different generation from Sara and was interesting to see them befriend each other and then clash.

Overall there is some really good stuff here but there were some things I could have done without. I will definitely watch to see what Klaffke comes up with next though!

Snapped was released on January 1st 2010
Genre: Chick Lit (sort of)
3.5/5 Stars
ARC provided by Amazon Vine