Book Review: City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

 

“…at some point in a woman’s life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time. After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is.”- Elizabeth Gilbert 

    Wow! That was the 1st thing I said when I finshed this book. This book is amazing! I never really like Elizabeth Gilbert's books before but I love this book! Seriously, it is one of the best books I have read in a really long time. 

    City of Girls follows the story of Vivan Morris, a unconventional women who has a talent for dress making. Vivan Morris tells her story in her own words. She talks about her involment with infamous broadway play City of Girls, the scandal that almost ruined her life and the people who helped shaped her into becoming the person she is today. 

    Pros: 

-I really like Vivian as a protagnist. I really enjoyed reading her story and her personality felt very real & human to me. She's a very imperfect character but that's exactly what I like about her. 

-I also found the relationships in this book to be very refeshing to read about. Vivan is a single women by choice. She has multiple boyfriends throughout the story but she's not really interested in getting married or settling down. Someone on goodreads said that Vivan's "promiscuous" behavior isn't progressive. however, I would like to disagree. I really enjoyed the fact that Vivan's story is about trying to find a guy or falling in love. I really liked that. That feels very progressive and modern to me.  I also really like the idea of Vivan's true love being her best friend. That was really sweet and stangely more realistic to me. 

-The Setting is amazing. Gilbert did a great job of bring the 40's to life and I really did feel like I was there. 

-The Characters in this book are phenomenal to say the least. There's a great cast of characters within this book. And I love the diversity of women seen in this book. Every character is so rich and each feels like they have their own personalities and story to tell. I wish Gilbert will write short stories or spin offs about them because I would love to read more about them. 

Cons:

-I don't have any because this book is that good!! 

Overall, I really LOVE this book. There's no book like City of Girls. It is completely unique in both it's story and it's characters. I love our protagnist. I like how this book isn't a romance but it has a lot to say about love and relationships. This is by far Gilbert's best book she has writte so far and I hope she writes more fiction in the future.  I give City of Girls a solid 5 out of 5 stars.