Book Review: The Luxe

Title: The Luxe (Luxe Series #1)
Author: Anna Godberson
Format: ebook
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pub Date: Nov 2007
Read: Apr 2011
Purchased: amazon, for my kindle app
Why: I like my teen novels trashy (just kidding….maybe)
Fulfills Challenge? No
Notes: I started reading this in late 2010 when I first bought it…then I stopped. Decided to pick it up again after watching Downton Abbey. Clearly this was a mistake.

Review/Thoughts:
Where do I begin? When I bought this novel, it’s not like I was expecting anything particularly deep. I was looking for a quick, “guilty pleasure” read, something that would entertain, that I didn’t have to think about too much. The problem is that I didn’t find it all that entertaining. I want to say that this book is like The Age of Innocence meets Gossip Girl, but even that seems insulting (of course, Gossip Girl is supposed to be a modern day The Age of Innocence. I’m trying not to scoff at the thought). This book is more like Gossip Girl set during the time of The Age of Innocence. The dialogue simply doesn’t ring true for the late 1800s — it’s too modern, trying to pander to today’s young adults instead of doing justice to the time period in which it is set. This is understandable, to an extent, given the intended audience (you’re trying to get teens to read, not bore them to death with dialogue they might have trouble slogging through), but that didn’t make it any less frustrating — like watching/reading about a costume party instead of the actual time period.

It also lacks all of the subtlety and nuance of Wharton’s work. The reason I mentioned Downton Abbey earlier, is that I just watched the series yesterday. I was amazed by how well the show captured not just the lives of the rich but the nuanced ways in which the servants interacted with each other and with their employers, things aren’t just black and white. Unfortunately The Luxe does not contain subtle storytelling: the characters behave very predictably and their emotions seem fake due to their very black and white nature.

I also grew frustrated with the younger Holland sister, Diana, in particular. She is presented as a kind of feisty free spirit, different from her older sister Elizabeth who feels very much bound by duty even as her heart longs for something else. Yet all of Diana’s portions of the novel centered around her love/lust of Henry Schoonmaker. I mean really? This character could have been so much more than that — and with three subsequent novels in the series, she could have fallen in love later on. I would have liked to see something else from her. Every female character seemed so focused on a guy that I got sick of it after a while. And to make matters worse, the relationships were of the dodecahedron sort. Elizabeth has to marry Henry because her family is in debt, but lo! she’s really in love with her coachman, Will. Lina, Elizabeth’s personal maid, is also in love with Will. Penelope, Elizabeth’s “best friend” (frenemy I suppose is more like it), is in love with Henry and furious with Elizabeth for getting engaged to Henry except Elizabeth didn’t even KNOW Penelope was in love with Henry until literally a moment before her engagement to him is announced (yet Penelope behaves as if Elizabeth should have been able to read her mind/heart despite her being abroad all this time). Henry was in fact involved with Penelope shortly before becoming engaged to Elizabeth and he’s only engaged to her because his father wants to go into politics…so I actually do understand Penelope’s anger, but not surprisingly, it’s at the wrong person. Oh, and as mentioned, Diana is also in love with Henry, and it turns out Henry really cares for her. Did you understand anything I just wrote? Probably not, because it’s a bloody mess.

Also, I couldn’t help but feel that there were too many misunderstandings due to ineffectual communication. And while I know the time period and society were known for never saying the real thing as illustrated in this brilliant Wharton quote

In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs.

the fact that the novel had such a modern feel to it, completely undercut that, and had me screaming inside: for fuck’s sake, just SAY something already! or better yet, stop being so damned self-involved and maybe you’ll see that things aren’t as they seem.

Now the reason this gets 2 stars and not 1 is that I am still curious as to how things will unfold in the next few books of the series. The story has that kind of soap opera appeal that keeps you wanting more even though you know it’s bad and there will be a predictably happy ending… but you still kind of want to know how they get to that happy ending. In this way, the book is very much a success. I’d recommend it to take your mind off things. You’ll be wanting to bop the characters across the head with a giant Q-tip though. Just fair warning.

Final Verdict: