Zodiac Girls: Recipe for Rebellion

admin — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:40:00 +0000

Cathy Hopkins has sold millions of books, most of them written for teenage girls. After reading her latest book, Zodiac Girls: Recipe for Rebellion, I credit her popularity with a tone that both accurately captures the anxieties of adolescent life, and also achieves a likeability of character that is the key to most of today’s popular literature. Formerly an art school student, rock singer, aromatherapist and teacher of meditation techniques, Hopkins has an edge to her, a wit and style only found in people who have lived life outside of the lines to a certain degree. And this comes through in her characters.

Recipe for Rebellion is the story of Danu Harvey Jones, a motherless thirteen-year-old whose father has left for the archeological expedition of a lifetime and foisted her off on his sister, a workaholic attorney. Danu hates having to leave her home, her pets and her friends, and hates the cold high rise her aunt lives in. So, she plots to get herself sent back home by dreadlocking her hair, adopting a scowl and acting out in class. Unfortunately these tactics only increase her loneliness and isolation, until she meets a magical stranger who informs her that she is this month’s "zodiac girl."

While the plot and characters are interesting and engaging enough to stand up on their own, the key to the Zodiac Girls series is that each book is centered on an astrological sign, Recipe’s being Sagittarius. And through the foil of fantastical characters - people who represent planets and all live together in one small, needless-to-say very funky town - Hopkins manages to give a solid overview of astrology to her reader. Anyone not familiar with astrology would have a much better idea of what it is all based on and how it all works after reading a book in this series. That in and of itself is a reason I’d recommend this over most other teen chick-lit books. It is informative as well as incredibly entertaining.

Written by: Jen Wilson Lloyd, June 19th 2007

Bad Girls Club

admin — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 00:54:00 +0000

Oxygen Network

You probably don't need to be told that a reality TV show called Bad Girls Club is not high art. I was expecting, however, that it might at least be guilty fun. The Real World-style formula of taking a group of strangers and recording their (mostly drunken) antics has produced some hits and many misses. From its cloyingly coy title to its faux-self-help premise, however, Bad Girls Club is a clunker.

The idea of the show is that "difficult" women will live together for four months in an attempt to overcome their problems. In order to really get behind the basic intention of the show, you have to be willing to distill the spectrum of female personalities into a rainbow that ranges from "peevish" to "ostentatiously bitchy." That's a bad start, but each of the women did agree to be on the show, so I'll give that part a pass. Still, it is a little unnerving to watch grown women consistently refer to themselves as "bad girls" during the interview segments.

Overall, I blame the producers for the weirdly hostile vibe of the show. The women themselves seem to be trying their best to be entertaining, although there's absolutely no vestige of the self-help angle of the program in most episodes. The producers leave the girls with little to do beyond partying and fighting. Episode plotlines are often shallow and ridiculous. Watch Zara become obsessed with a bobble-headed club promoter! Watch the blondes try to set up a tent and build an illegal bonfire! (How tired are blonde jokes?!) Every now and then the women are able to manifest a spark of their inner, non-stereotyped personality, but these instances are sadly few and far between.

Kudos to the show for its catchy theme song by Lady Sovereign, and its pretty California beach setting; otherwise, I think this show is too aimless and angry to be much fun.

Written by: Dominae Petrosini, March 3rd 2007