Book Review: Friend Zone

Title: Friend Zone

Author: Camilla Isley

Date: 2017

Publisher: Pink Bloom

Quote: "What's up with the hair?" "Change of style...Ethan dumped me."

Alice and Jack have been best friends ever since they got into Harvard. Alice has had an apparently pill-popping rather than intelligent, but monogamous, sex affair with Ethan for most of that time. Ethan knew her as a bleach-blonde. When he dumps her, Alice decides to symbolize her intentions to be truer to herself, in the future, by reclaiming her dark hair--a nice trick if you can do it; bleached hair tends to stay bleached, but tar-based anti-dandruff shampoo used to do wonders. The change of style makes Jack want to confide that he's actually been attracted to her all along. Alice has had a major crush on Jack, which was probably a factor in her being dumped. But instead Jack confides about another girl having told him she was in love with him, which made for an awkward ride back home, and Alice flops into bed with Jack's best buddy. 

Camilla Isley can do so-o-o much better than this. She's slumming. She can do thoughtful, intelligent, likable characters with interests and the ability to keep their hands off each other until they're married. She's even done characters who are serious, not preachy, Christians. But this is Harvard, the school that threw away its reputation by admitting it frankly discriminated against introverts and not even committing to a nonviolent revolution in that regard. The characters are extrovert idjits. When Alice and her roommates want to talk about something other than boys, there's a moment of silence before one of them squawks, "We can always discuss the latest Kardashian drama!" None of them has a noticeable job and, though they have to have chosen "concentrations" with some thought of future careers, the only one who shows any interest in his future career is Jack's best buddy, whose goal is to play basketball for a living. 

I could care less about any of these airheads and their stupid faith in birth control pills, but possibly some readers like reading about this kind of wastes of education. Well...I can't imagine Isley having known them well, in college, but she has observed them closely, and she does write about them with far more empathy than I think they deserve.