Saturday, March 16, 2013

Diary of a Fangirl: "The Power Trip" Review

So, I've been a fan of Jackie Collins since I was thirteen years old.  I started with Hollywood Wive: The New Generation, and read all of her books (except for maybe one or two) between then and now.  The bulk of those books were read while I was in high school.  It's interesting reading an author's work from start to present--you get to see their growth and strengths.  I definitely think that Ms. Collins' work midway through was her best--particularly the Santangelo series.

Which brings me to "The Power Trip..."

The book was definitely a page turner--a super model and her billionaire Russian boyfriend celebrate her thirtieth birthday on a custom yacht with a special guest list of a movie star and his girlfriend, a soccer player footballer and his wife, a gay Latin sensation and his boyfriend, a senator and his wife, and a journalist and his journalist friend.  Right before the last day of the trip, the yacht is held for ransom by Somalian pirates...



However, I had some issues with this particular book:

The ending was definitely open ended, setting this up as a part one (just un-officially), which is fine, but I felt unsatisfied.

The main heroine--Bianca the super model--I had a ton of issues with her.

1. Like most of the black people in a Jackie Collins novel, she was biracial--black and Cuban.  I would like for there to be one regular black heroine with brown eyes as opposed to green.  This is a common Collins trope (mixed race black woman with green eyes).

2. She makes racist comments, but says she can't be racist because she's black and has been called names herself.  This, however, does not negate her racist comments, and I can't imagine someone actually believing that bullshit (i.e. I can't be racist cause I'm black).

3.  She's a bitch, and not in a good way.  This wouldn't normally bother me, but she doesn't get to redeem herself by the end of the book.  Disappointing because I wanted to like her.

4. She is the lead female of the book, and yet on the cover, there is some white woman on the yacht who doesn't fit the description of any of the other characters in the book.  It's a Jackie Collins novel, after all, so I think if there was a hot black woman on the cover of just one book, it still would have sold...

Other than that business, I did like the Flynn character--the journalist.  If I had to guess, I'd say that the next book will be mostly focused on him, and I do look forward to that.  Additionally, I do think it's a great read, in spite of my issues with it.



    
    

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