From the TBR Pile: The Wonder Bread Summer by Jessica Anya Blau

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

The Wonder Bread Summer by Jessica Anya Blau

Author:Jessica Anya Blau
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date of publication: May 2013

It's 1983 in Berkeley, California. Twenty-year-old Allie Dodgson is a straitlaced college student working part-time at a dress shop to make ends meet. But when the shop turns out to be a front for a dangerous drug-dealing business, Allie finds herself on the lam, speeding toward Los Angeles in her best friend's Prelude with a Wonder Bread bag full of cocaine riding shotgun and a hit man named Vice Versa on her tail.

The Wonder Bread Summer sounded like it would be a amusing book. I definitely didn't get the book I was expecting. Honestly, I'm not sure that I found any humor in it. Allie is a freshman at UC Berkely. Her boyfriend steals $7,000.00 from her and now she needs money for school. She steals a huge bag of uncut cocaine from her sleazy boss, Jonas. For some reason, she decides that she will sell a portion of the cocaine to make up for the pay Jonas owes her and then will return the bag. She goes on the run to try to get out of being hurt or worse as she is hunted down by Jonas and his cronies.

I didn't like Allie and the choices she made. For someone who wants to be on the honor roll at school, she makes a lot of incredibly stupid choices. Her parents are losers who were more wrapped up in themselves and clearly didn't teach Allie anything about making good choices. For example, her mother left her father when Allie was a child to be a tambourine player in a rock band. Allie often thinks of quotes from her grandmother that were supposed to be words of wisdom, but she clearly never really listened to them.

The book ended up being a "Did Not Finish" book for me. I made it about half way. In that time, Allie had three men unzip their pants and pull themselves out for her viewing. Eww! I didn't find that amusing, just gross. When she had random sex with Billy Idol, I had to stop reading. It was just too ridiculous. I clearly didn't get the point of the book, since it has gotten some good reviews. So, all I can say is try it for yourself. Maybe you will get it.