Saturday 17 January 2015

Smart Mouth Waitress, Writing Teenage Girls who are REEEEAAALLL

I read a book because I came across the author on the Kindleboards Writer's Cafe and she seemed fairly awesome.

The author is Dalya Moon, who is much better known as Mimi Strong, author of grown up romance stories. The book I read is called 'Smart Mouth Waitress.' It has a couple of elements that I love, characters that are authentically realised in every direction, even ones that have nothing to do with the plot, and realistic (or real) locations that I can completely see and would completely go to.

The lead is Perry, the waitress of the title, and the setting is Saltwater City - a stand in for Vancouver. One of my favourite series ever is Tales of the City, which explored the same characters for book after book and year after year, just as much as the amazing city they lived in (San Francisco).

Smart Mouth Waitress in the second Salt Water City Book. Sadly I think it could also be the last, and there's no chance of 'Tales of Salt Water City.' These days Mimi Strong seems to be attracting a lot more attention than Dalya Moon.

So, standing alone, Perry is very cool. She's unconventional, speaks her mind, and has a lot to learn. Her story is kind of a coming of age. She's 18, but the story covers her first exploits with boys, plus day-to-day life at the I-wish-it-was-real cafe where she works and with her family and friends.

The only downside to this story, and it is very slight, is that we don't actually see enough of it. The author has a bit of a habit of letting Perry tell us about what happens after it has happened, rather than letting the characters show us events as they go along. This extends to most of the most important events in Perry's life, which happened before the story began, and the fact that at the end her life moves on a bit less than I expected.

That might just be me, though. It could well move on just as much as you expect. Give it a try. For sure the characterisation and dialogue are top-notch enough to make me properly jealous of Dalya's talent.

I recommend it:


No comments:

Post a Comment