Killing Monica
Hardcover edition
AuthorCandace Bushnell
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectRelationship with pop-culture
GenreChick-lit
PublisherGrand Central Publishing
Publication date
June 23, 2015
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages311 (first edition)
ISBN978-0-446-55790-0
OCLC1108718336
813/.54
LC ClassPS3552.U8229 K55 2015
Preceded bySummer and the City (2011) 
Followed byIs There Still Sex in the City? (2019) 

Killing Monica is a novel written by American author Candace Bushnell. It was first released as a hardcover on June 23, 2015. Bushnell's publisher, the Hachette Book Group, describes its central character, Pandy "PJ" Wallis, as "a renowned writer whose novels about a young woman making her way in Manhattan have spawned a series of blockbuster films."[1]

Synopsis

A champagne-drinking New York novelist named Pandy Wallis has found success through writing a series of books about her alter ego, Monica. The books have been adapted into films starring an actress named Sondra-Beth Schnowzer. Now, newly divorced, Pandy wants to write serious fiction about one of her ancestors instead. The plot of the novel combines flashbacks of her friendship with Sondra-Beth and failed marriage, with her quest to kill off her character Monica.

Characters

  • Pandy PJ James Wallis – The main character, a writer.
  • Sondra-Beth Schnowzer - The bitchy actress with whom Pandy was once friends.
  • Henry - Pandy's long-suffering and devoted literary agent.
  • Monica - A Carrie Bradshaw-style fictional character.

Reception

The book was "critically reviled", according to New York Magazine.[2] "The prose is both hyperbolic and repetitive," wrote Eliza Kennedy in The New York Times Book Review. "Characters never speak when they can screech, shriek or scream." Kennedy concluded: "The entire thing is capped by a cheap revelation that's supposed to make readers think, but only made this reader cringe."[3]

Writing in The Washington Post, Bethanne Patrick called it "a sloppy story that doesn't hold together."[4] In The Independent, Arifa Akbar said: "None of it, including the final, unconvincing plot twist, is particularly well-written."[5] In the New York Daily News, Sherryl Connelly called Killing Monica[6] "an unfunny farce" and "a book of bad taste."[7] It also received negative reviews from Kirkus Reviews,[8] Kirsty McLuckie in The Scotsman,[9] Georgie Binks in the Toronto Star.[10] and Publishers Weekly.[11]

References

  1. ↑ "Killing Monica". hachettebookgroup.com.
  2. ↑ O'Connor, Maureen (June 29, 2015). "Everybody Is Wrong About Candace Bushnell". New York Magazine | The Cut.
  3. ↑ Kennedy, Eliza (July 26, 2015). "Summer Fiction". The New York Times.
  4. ↑ Bethanne Patrick (June 16, 2015). "The big wink-wink at the center of Candace Bushnell's new novel". Washington Post.
  5. ↑ Arifa Akbar (June 21, 2015). "Killing Monica: Sex and the City creator Candace Bushnell's dark new novel has a familiar feel". The Independent.
  6. ↑ "Killing Monica by Candace Bushnell". Best Post. January 11, 2022.
  7. ↑ "'Killing Monica' review: Candace Bushnell's unfunny farce". NY Daily News.
  8. ↑ "KILLING MONICA by Candace Bushnell". Kirkus Reviews. April 15, 2015.
  9. ↑ McLuckie, Kirsty (February 28, 2019). "Book review: Killing Monica by Candace Bushnell". scotsman.com.
  10. ↑ Binks, Georgie (June 27, 2015). "Killing Monica by Candace Bushnell: Review". thestar.com.
  11. ↑ "Fiction Book Review: Killing Monica by Candace Bushnell". PublishersWeekly.com. June 1, 2015.
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