Book ~ "Girls in Trucks" (2009) Katie Crouch

From Amazon ~ An unenthusiastic Southern debutante copes with the cruelties of post college New York life. Sarah Walters is neither a misfit nor the queen of the Camellia Society cotillion scene growing up in Charleston, S.C. But when she and her fellow Camellias try to make a life in New York City, they find themselves coping in unexpectedly dangerous ways — from standard substance addictions to Sarah's fixation on preppy ex-boyfriend Max, a smooth and sadistic child of wealth. While the formula of young women in the big city seems destined for cliché, Crouch subverts most expectations; Sarah almost purposely misses an opportunity for happiness and stability with the gentle lover she met in Europe, and her ploy to ignite sparks with a college friend goes painfully awry. When Sarah goes back to Charleston and faces a perhaps too over-the-top family crisis (it involves suicide and lesbianism), the reader's left with the hope that the worst is over. Though this feels almost like a collection—each chapter its own story with its own narrative technique — Crouch's portrayal of a young woman's self-sabotage and the pitfalls facing young women in a cold world is wise, wry and heartbreaking.

This was a fairly quick read.

The good part is that I enjoyed the writer's style.

The bad part is that it is a dreary depressing story. I didn't like any of the characters and they were all pathetic and desperate. Sarah keeps going from one bad situation to another but doesn't use any of the lessons learned to help herself.

Would I recommend this book? No.