Review of The Unbearable Book Club For Unsinkable Girls by Julie Schumacher

Title/Author: The Unbearable Book Club For Unsinkable Girls by Julie Schumacher
Publisher/Date published: Delacorte BFYR, May 8th 2012
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "I'm Adrienne Haus, survivor of a mother-daughter book club. Most of us didn't want to join. My mother signed me up because I was stuck at home all summer, with my knee in a brace. CeeCee's parents forced her to join after cancelling her Paris trip because she bashed up their car. The members of "The Unbearable Book Club," CeeCee, Jill, Wallis, and I, were all going into eleventh grade A.P. English. But we weren't friends. We were literary prisoners, sweating, reading classics, and hanging out at the pool. If you want to find out how membership in a book club can end up with a person being dead, you can probably look us up under mother-daughter literary catastrophe. Or open this book and read my essay, which I'll turn in when I go back to school."

You guys, do not make the same mistake I did and be misled by this cover and summary: this is NOT a cute summer read. It's just not. I had expected it to be about girls bonding and forming genuine friendships while being in the book club and discovering everything wasn't so bad after all. Or something like it. I had expected it to be funny.

I was dead wrong.

The main character, Adrienne, is a bratty, whiny teenager. Seriously, I REALLY disliked her. I mean, sure she's hasn't had the best of luck lately and having to cancel her summer trip with her best friend because she banged up her knee is tough. But really, she was just so annoying! I found myself rolling my eyes at her 'woe is me and my mom sucks'-attitude, I got it after the first few times it was mentioned. I didn't really get why the other three girls would even want to hang out with her. Her only redeeming quality to me was the fact that she loved reading, but other than that, she was kinda bland.
Also, CeeCee REALLY annoyed me as well. There was no sense to her actions and I never really got what drove her to be the way she was. Jill and Wallis were actually much more interesting, but I just didn't feel invested in any of their stories really.

For the most part I had hoped that we would really delve into all the characters and discover secrets and friendships would be formed and YES, I know pretty much on the first page it's said that someone dies, but well, I guess I was still expecting some sort of happy to be had first. Also, a LOT of questions I had about them all never got answered. I mean, what was going on with CeeCee? What exactly was wrong with Jill's mom and dad and what was the deal with Wallis and her mother??? And seriously, WHO is Adrienne's dad? And why is her mom being all skeevy about not telling her? I felt no sense of fulfillment whatsoever when I finished the last page.

Basically, I felt that nothing had really happened in The Unbearable Book Club For Unsinkable Girls. I don't think any of the girls will in fact be 'changed' because of the big and potential life-altering moment that happened at the end of it. I didn't feel like Adrienne had learned anything from her summer apart from her best friend or from any of the stupid things she did.
I did like Adrienne's doctor, he was probably one of the only ones with a positive outlook in life and I did like the scenes in which Adrienne visited him for her check-ups.
I mean, I don't need a happily ever after, though I do like them, but there was just not even a sense of hope for the future.

I guess this just wasn't the book for me, sadly.

My rating: 1,5 stars