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Citizen Girl
by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus


3.3

based on 16 reviews
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based on 8 votes
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Official Publisher Site

The authors of the bestselling Nanny Diaries return with a satire of the corporate world centered on Girl, a recent college graduate who sets off to change the world with her women's studies degree.

Atria, 320 pages
11/16/2004
$24.95

ISBN: 0743266854

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

The New Republic Sacha Zimmerman

Wickedly funny and well written but not dogmatic or finger wagging.

Booklist Meredith Parets

McLaughlin and Kraus deftly satirize postfeminist, postmodern, twenty-first-century America, using management jargon and hipster slang with equal precision. [1 Oct 2004, p.283]

Boston Globe Clea Simon

That's quite a lot to tackle in one supposedly fun novel, and the results range from arch to didactic.

Chicago Tribune Emily Gordon

This opening section is the funniest in the book, which is otherwise less carefully observed and less rich in over-the-top detail than its predecessor.

Kirkus Reviews

Many, many funny lines, somewhat incoherent plot.

Library Journal Beth Gibbs

While a fun if a bit harsh read, the novel gets drawn out near the end. After spending so much time reading about Girl's ambiguous job, we've almost lost interest by the time the book reaches its semi-exciting denouement. [1 Nov 2004, p.76]

Publishers Weekly

Though witty and biting in spots, this bitter tale is too schematic and strident to be much fun.

Sydney Morning Herald Harriet Veitch

Surprisingly, has something to say. It isn't a philosophical treatise but it does have more than just sex and shopping on its mind.

Washington Post Susan Adams

Although the book has issues, it's not such a bad read, as twentysomething chick lit goes.

Village Voice Joy Press

Stranded between its glib, high-gloss tone (complete with breezy chapter titles like "Choking on My Parachute" and "Make Lemonade, Dammit!") and its earnest attempts to say something deep about the new economy and young women's place in it, this is one confused Girl.

The New Yorker

In “The Nanny Diaries,” McLaughlin and Kraus successfully parodied the world they knew; here it’s hard to keep track of the (rather blunt) barbs as they wobble toward their various targets.

New York Observer Ruth Davis Konigsberg

Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus should stick to satire, and leave the relationship stuff to Helen Fielding and Anna Maxted. [22 Nov 2004, p.23]

Chicago Sun-Times Elisabeth Egan

For all its buzz, Citizen Girl lags behind "The Nanny Diaries" in originality, believability and plot.

Entertainment Weekly Karen Valby

A royal bore.

Houston Chronicle Hannah Sampson

Their disjointed, incoherent new novel reads like a cheap knockoff of The Nanny Diaries and every copycat that followed.

USA Today Carol Memmott

Sadly, having to read this brain-numbing book from start to finish for review purposes was the visual equivalent of a chokehold.

The average user rating for this book is 3.3 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

[Anonymous] gave it an8:
good book

zoe l gave it a4:
It was really funny at the start and i thought it was going to be a good, interesting book. however, it got a boring and too focused on the movements of My company rather than Girl's life.

Josie gave it a0:
I am normally able to give a book at least a hundred page grace period before declaring it inreadable- this book only got fifty and I had to push myself after twenty. The writing was terrible and the characters were so forced it was as though the authors had list of traits they decided were hip and so they incorporated them in the most random way possible. The dialogue was painful to read... I thought Nanny Diaries was overrated and this book just proves that these authors were destined for one hit wonderland...

karen c gave it a0:
worse book i've ever read. can't believe anyone would publish such rubbish. not good enough for toilet paper. what a waste of time.

Sam N gave it a4:
The beginning was a drag-boring at the most! The mid got better but the ending could have been more thought out instead of seemingly throw in to rush publication. Overall-won't recommend

Lizzie M gave it a10:
good book!!

[Anonymous] gave it a1:
Just awful. Probably worse than Devil Wears Prada. Describing everything in sight to the minutest detail does not make a novel. Also, many weird sex-related plot points seem out of the blue, and completely unrelated anything on the bookjacket.

Citizen Girl by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

Citizen Girl
by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus