Manhunting, by Jennifer Crusie

[sophia_sol]

Mostly an extremely charming book! There are bits and pieces of uncomfortable things re: gender, and there is one short scene with some bad consent practices, and there are a few other more minor flaws, but it did a lot of things very right.

For one: omg the friendship between Kate and Jessie was SO GREAT, and Jessie (the bff of the main character) is amazing forever and I love her a lot. And I loved that this book just KEPT ON HAVING female friendships! With a variety of different types of women! Kate is friends with Jessie AND with Penny AND with Nancy and none of those friendships or those women are looked down on by the narrative.

For two: The book acknowledges that the way Will deals with Valerie is wrong - EVEN THOUGH Valerie is a pretty nasty woman she still doesn't deserve to be treated badly!

For three: Kate is good at her work and enjoys it and that is not seen as a bad thing.

For four: I just really enjoy the characters and find them and the book charming and funny.

For five: awwwwww the author's note at the beginning made me feel so charmed by the author. My favourite part:

Manhunting is the first novel I ever wrote and I love it. It's full of flaws, there's some head hopping, there's probably infodump although I tried to edit it out, but I don't care. I love it. I still think those scenes on the lake are hysterical, and the dates, well, I was on a roll there, especially the mashed-potato date--that one still kills fifteen years later. (Why no, I'm not modest. What's the point?) And the best friend, Jessie, is the first best friend I ever wrote and I...well, you know. I love this book."

YEAH JENNIFER CRUSIE ROCK ON, ADMITTING OUT LOUD THAT YOU DID A THING THAT YOU THINK IS AWESOME. IT IS.