GCBC: Red Sparrow, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, and the Assistants

My friend Sarah and I have a book club composed of just the two of us, which we call GCBC, short for Grand Central Book Club.  Since for various reasons we have had to reschedule our last few lunches and therefore were unable to discuss our books at the actual Grand Central in NYC, we bring to you once again our conversation on the books we have been reading, conducted by e-mail and then edited into this post!

Today, we're discussing 3 books we've read over the past few months:  (1) "Red Sparrow," by Jason Matthews, a spy thriller about a young male CIA agent and a young female Russian agent who end up being assigned to spy on/recruit each other; (2) "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" by Becky Albertalli, a young adult novel about a gay teenage boy who is not yet out to his friends or family, only to an anonymous fellow high school student on the internet whose identity he does not know; and (3) "The Assistants" by Camille Perri,which is kind of a chick lit/satirical novel about the assistant to the CEO of a media empire, who somewhat accidentally ends up in a Robin Hood-esque expense account embezzlement scheme.

Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews

We both read this book on our respective vacations in February, mine to Mexico, and Sarah on her fabulous safari in Africa.  Regular readers of this blog already heard my thoughts on this one on my post on what I read on vacation.  To recap, I had mixed feelings about this book - I enjoyed the story, but I also found the book weirdly sexist.

Sarah:  That book sucked. I was so pissed I was reading it on vacation!  Here's why I hated it:

1. I don't really like spy books to begin with, so obviously this book was at a disadvantage.

2. Gratuitous sex - this was like a 14 year old boy's fantasy book.

3. The "sparrow" aspect wasn't really all that important. It was almost like the author discovered Sparrow school existed and then wanted to write a book about it, but then a quarter of the way in, it just became a background detail.

4. The author clearly wanted to prove how much he knows about being a spy and how spies work, which became really tedious. I mean, how can you write over 3 pages on how someone got to a meeting by weaving all around the streets? Who cares?????

5. This will make a great movie and I'm excited to see it. Action scenes are much better when watched, not read.

Jen:  Ha!  Sorry I made you read a book you hated.  As you presumably saw on either Goodreads and/or the blog, I thought it was kind of bad but yet I enjoyed it.  With respect to your points 2 and 3, do you agree with me that there was something weirdly sexist and objectifying about the way he wrote Domenika?  (Absolute worst has to be the hairbrush scene.  Ew.)

I’m excited for the movie but I think as great as Jennifer Lawrence could be as Domenika, casting Joel Edgerton as Nate seems like horrendous miscasting.  He should be someone young, naive, and cute.  Also the big twist as to the Russian mole’s identity seems like it would be impossible to do in a movie. 

Sarah:  I wanted to read it! I just didn't like it. And, yes, the book was weird and sexist and overly sexual. The author seems like a total perv. Why did he always describe what she was wearing? Really just gross and pointless.

Agree that Joel Edgerton is not a good choice. I pictured Nate as an All American type with glasses. I can't think of who I would cast - maybe a young Simon Baker type.  I think they can still do the twist by keeping the mole in the shadows or wearing a hat, etc.

Jen:  Yes, the author was a total perv.  And as you said also wanted to show off his CIA background. 

I was picturing someone like Aaron Tveit in the role of Nate if you know who he is - he played an FBI agent in this tv show Dan and I watched called Graceland so maybe that’s why I was thinking of him?

Sarah:  Also, not sure why they needed the detail that she could see colors. That seemed like another thing the author just wanted to add in, even though it had nothing to do with the plot.

I think Aaron Tveit would be ok, but I pictured someone more jocky and all-american. Like a young Matt Damon - I don't know who that would be right now.

Jen:  Let's discuss Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli.  I loved this one!  Even, as you may have seen, included it on my recent blog on young adult realistic fiction.  I just LOVED the characters - not just Simon but his friends, family, everyone - all just felt very real.  It had pretty much nothing in common with my actual high school years, but yet it made me feel like I was there with them at their high school.  4.5 stars which makes it a possible contender for my 10 favorite list this year. What did you think?

Sarah:   I really liked this book. It was entertaining to read and did a great job with a difficult subject. The characters were all really fun and I related to their experience. That said, because this was a YA novel, it felt a little light to me. I would love to read a similar story that is a little meatier.

Jen:  I don’t think it’s fair to say all YA books are light - what about John Green, for example?  I thought “Turtles All the Way Down” - which we read for GCBC in December - was pretty deep and dark.  I agree “Simon” was lighter than that but it did eke out a few tears from me which you know is always a mark of quality to me, ha ha!

And this definitely was a book where I didn’t want to leave the characters at the end of the book.  So I was excited to see that the author has another book coming out on April 24th called “Leah on the Offbeat” - not a direct sequel since it’s from the perspective of a side character but I’m excited for it anyway. (Becky Albertalli also has another, unrelated book called “The Upside of Unrequited” which perhaps we should add to our book club to read list?)

Sarah:  I think with YA books, the subject matter often isn't light, but the writing style is usually lighter. By lighter, I mean less literary/faster reading. Not sure if I am explaining myself clearly.  Which part did you cry at? I didn't find the book sad or "tears of joy" happy. I liked this book, but probably won't read the other books she's written. To me, the book was good because of the unique subject matter, but I didn't love it.

Jen:  I know what you mean, though again I think some YA is written better than others.  Some definitely is written on the “young” side, whereas some I feel like is only classified as young adult because it’s about teenage characters.  “Simon” fell somewhere in the middle, I thought.  Can’t remember specifically what made me cry since I read the book a few weeks ago but I remember tearing up at a couple of poignant spots.  Interesting that you’re not interested in reading her other books.

Moving on, let's discuss the book we just read, The Assistants by Camille Perri.  I actually enjoyed this book, but it was just so dumb that I couldn't in good conscience give it higher than 3 stars.  Like, it was a quick and fun read and I would even recommend it to certain people - but it was not exactly a good book.  The characters, the plot, the satire, were all just both thinly sketched and over the top.  Not realistic at all.  But still kind of fun to read.

Sarah:  I found this book very entertaining. It even made me laugh out loud in parts.  That said, this book was good because it was short and quick.  If the story had taken longer to tell, it would have stopped being cute and become ridiculous. I also did not like how they ended it. I guess its a hard story to tie up, but I just found the ending sort of lame.  I'm also not sure if someone who didn't work in a fast paced NY office could really relate to the humor at all.

Jen:  I thought the book was kind of ridiculous even at its short length.  It did have a few laugh out loud moments (I especially liked the Harvard-Hartford thing) but I actually found it less funny than I thought I would.  To the extent I felt sympathy for the main character, this book actually made me feel anxious about her getting caught!  The end did feel very simplistic but I’m not sure how else they would have ended it consistent with the tone of the book.

Sarah:  I think we are on the same page with The Assistants. I have a few "Brooklyn" friends who I think would love this book, but I'm not sure most people would feel the same. It's one of those books that exists at a certain time/place, but it definitely will not stand the test of time.

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For anyone curious, the next book Sarah and I are going to read together is "The Hopefuls" by Jennifer Close.