Notice for Review Requests

I receive review requests weekly. However, my personal schedule is hectic and I no longer review actively. (I also manage another blog called The Toronto Cafe and Food Blog). I do read every request sent but I apologize in advance that I do not reply to them all.

If I do take on a request, I will forewarn that it may take some time before I can review it. I am now looking to review adult fiction and self-help books instead of young adult fiction because I have grown out of it. If you are to request a review for either adult fiction or self-help, I will more likely to give it a shot.

In the meantime, Stop, Drop, and Read! serves as an archive book review blog. When I have the time, I may post a review. Thank you for understanding.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Hancock Park by Isabel Kaplan

Title: Hancock Park
Author: Isabel Kaplan
Age Group: Teens
# of Pages: 272
My Rating: 2.5/5

Living in L.A.'s best neighbourhoods, Becky Miller is surrounded by luxury. But life is not all that amazing. Her parents are on rocky roads and soon she finds herself rotating her life with one or the other.

While that happens, her social life seems to sky rocket as she starts hanging around with the It girls of her school after her best friend, Amanda, moved away. With a little too much partying, can Becky hold it together before she changes completely into someone she does not know?

I felt that Becky is the self-insertion of the author (who is currently eighteen and a Harvard student). I don't want to think it is so but that is what it felt like. Becky is just very...dull. She apparently lives in this amazing and rich atmosphere but she ends up as the "smart student with world-saving goals" and dislikes the school's popular bitches (but, they didn't have the full out "rawr" effect so I shouldn't even consider them the "bitches"). Which I didn't really have a problem with but the way Kaplan shaped her, it was just so plain for brain intake from beginning to end. Even though Becky's feelings were defined, she just didn't bring up anything to look forward to because the story was simply taking the reader through her life.

The chapters were really brief and the plot went absolutely nowhere. But it was definitely an easy read to breeze through. I didn't dislike it; I just wished there was something more. All the characters presented were easily forgettable. I even forgot Becky's own name and had to pull the book back out to check.

Hancock Park is a perfect beach read. You can get through it and throw it to the side after for some swimming or tanning. But if you expect three-dimensional characters or a plot with a great development, than you will be most definitely disappointed.

You can have a peek of the book by clicking here!

Review ARC copy provided by HarperCollins.

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6 comments:

wdebo said...

Hm, it does sound really shallow.

Diana Dang said...

In a way, quite. But it's to mehh to even be shallow.

Anonymous said...

I haven't read this book, but it does seem that Becky is a self-insertion of the author. I just googled her, and I found that she is also originally from L.A.

This book seems to be a lot of fluff. :P

Diana Dang said...

Haha, yes. The blurb at the back of her as the author fits all of Becky. Blonde, pretty, and intelligent. Living in L.A. too.

Fluff, yes, that describes the novel perfectly. xD

Thao said...

Sad to hear that the book was not that great. It has such a pretty cover though :)

Diana Dang said...

Yea, the cover is pretty attractive. ><