Let's Talk Trash

Forget the cover, forget the blurbs, forget all that author promo--have you ever read a horrible review, and think--I have GOT to read THAT book? I must admit that any book that is hauled out in the public forum by a reviewer and called "Trash" is pretty much an auto-buy for me.

You'd think I would've learned my lesson from Rainbow Party (Cursor over for Spoiler Alert: there was no actual Rainbow Party) and The Garden which I ended up putting down before I got to the snake sex part (or maybe I read it and was too daft to realize what was happening). I do love the cover though...

But why am I so swayed by a bad review, particularly one that promises a vulgar trashy read? Is it the train wreck factor? The what's-the-fuss factor? Or is that maybe, just maybe I like naughty books?

Okay, you got me. As a teen I read Flowers in the Attic, Forever, and Go Ask Alice--those were our big, bad, trashy books. They were also really good and have stood the test of time. Something tells me the trashy books of today won't. At least not the ones I've read.

But here are two more for my consideration--


Swoon which is touted to have a “Homecoming Orgy” and "sexual havoc" and as Publisher's Weekly claims: "This book makes Gossip Girl look like Sweet Valley High." SOLD!

and...wait for it...

Castration Celebration by Jake Wizner (Spanking Shakespeare)--yes it's exactly what it sounds like--a kind of "High School Musical" meets "Saw." Only late night giddiness, illegal substances, and a well-timed re-run of the John & Lorena Bobbitt Story could breed such a premise. I can only imagine what my agent or editor would've said to me had I trotted it out. But alas, I did not.


This book, as you can imagine, has been making the reviewer rounds and I cannot ignore it any longer. I give you the NY Post Review. As ridiculously insulting as Andrea Peyser is, the review is on some level (the is-she-on-something? level to be exact) hilarious. She bleats like sheep, she calls Random House--Random Partners House, and in a big, big finish (I'm imagining jazz hands) she implies that the author is a child molester:

"Wizner's biography lists his hobbies as writing, teaching and "going to the playground."

Just not near my kid.

I mean she doesn't just call the book trash--she calls the author trash and the publisher trash--Hullo? Auto buy!!

What do think of these books? Any others I need to check out?