Pitifully Ugly by Robin Alexander

Pitifully Ugly by Robin Alexander

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This specific book here is both the second book I read by Robin Alexander, back in February 27 2014, and the second book I’ve successfully reread by Alexander.

When I started the book, I was somewhat uncertain what kind of reaction I might have, what I might find – for, you see, while Robin Alexander has become one of the top lesbian fiction authors I read (somewhere, without thinking too hard about it, within the top three), Alexander was also the author I read three books by in 2014, then didn’t read another until 2016. It’s also one of the four Alexander books I’ve read and not yet written a review for, but that’s neither here nor there. Let’s move on.

At the beginning, not sure how far along I’d put the change point, but at the beginning I was confused by my original 2014 rating of 3.5 stars. Because this was one damn funny book. And then . . . I recalled why I had rated the book ‘so low’, well low for an Alexander book. This is a one person point of view book – and it somewhat suffers because of that issue. For, unfortunately, the main character really started to annoy me.

Before I mention the main character, I feel the need to reference my most recent prior Alexander review – all about humor and stuff like humor. A lot of the humor in this book really seemed like it was/would be better with these specific characters (like, say, that vibrating strap-on on-going scene); while others were . . . kind of meh – possibly because of the characters involved. Which, in its way, added a layer of knowledge and appreciation to the humor and characters in the other books – for, I realized, some of the humor was meh because I didn’t really care that much about the characters by the time the event took place (thinking here, as an example, the time a goose attacked Shannon – it’s vaguely humorous moment, but more of a weak smile; oddly enough the prior book I read by Alexander, the prior reread, had a swan attack the main character – and there I found the entire scene much more satisfying – to a large extent because I much more preferred spending time with the characters in ‘Next Time’. Right, let’s move on again.

Shannon Brycen, like Ryann from ‘Next Time’, has an important to the story straight sister (here Kalen, there Shelly). Their family dynamic is otherwise quite different, and I only mentioned because both books had that situation of a straight sister being something of a best friend to one of the main lesbian leads. Right, so, Kalen is described as being quite charming and extroverted – quite capable of being a people person. She’s older than Shannon and married to a man called Todd. I mention all of that to then say that Shannon is basically the opposite (though her looks are supposedly similar) – she’s a lesbian, introverted (a shy introvert), and very much a back-office non-people pleasing, non-charming woman with no real skills at picking up women (all of this is learned by the reader very quickly at a meal shared between Shannon and Kalen at the start of the book; for someone quite bad at picking up women, Shannon sure did end up in a lot more situations with woman than that would imply – see above where I made mention of a humor gag that involved a vibrating strap-on, I won’t elaborate more on that specific scene). And by back-office, I mean that Shannon is the hair salon business accountant (they have four . . . um . . whatever you call an outlet in the hair business).

In an attempt to change her position in life, Shannon does two things: 1) create a profile on a dating website (which meets stiff opposition and outright derision from Kalen); 2) attempt to become fitter, or at least have a make-over. The dating profile lead to several run ins with various lesbians, some online, some in person; while the make-over lead to getting a hair-cut at a rival hair salon and finding someone there to hire for her own hair place. Which is important to note because the gay man who cut her hair, it’s important to note he is gay, becomes a strong side character in this story.

Right, so, that’s the story – a thirty-something woman living in New Orleans who’d prefer to spend all her time in her apartment, is forced to get out and attempt to upgrade her life (part of the ‘forced to get out’ is the part where the sister and brother-in-law go on vacation, and Shannon will be forced to step in, if called upon, as the boss – in person). Some humor is had along the way.

There are, as would be expected, several other characters of importance – there’d have to be, no?, since I haven’t even mentioned a potential love interest yet. Right, so – sister Kalen, several potential dates, gay hairdresser (I’d use his name, but I forget it, Marion or something like that, Marvin?) and the combo of new next door neighbor Hailey and her dog Fuzzy. There are some great scenes involving Fuzzy. And Hailey’s the love interest who is seen almost exclusively through the eyes of Shannon.

There is a lot of miscommunication, disinformation, and outright lying in this story that adds obstacles to love (and detract from my ability to enjoy this book). There is also graphic sex, humor, and . . . um . . . other stuff.

I’m not really sure how or why, but the characters in this book just seem to be of a lesser quality than others created by Alexander. And by ‘lesser quality’, I’m specifically referring to their creation, there ‘there-ness’. The connection between the reader and them. I might be talking gibberish so I’ll, once again, move on.

Rating: 4.12

December 19 2017




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