Why Moms Are Weird Book

I've been a long time reader of the author, Pamela Ribon's blog- Pamie.com and so of course I was very excited to see that she was going to be published. Pamie has a way to make you laugh out loud one second and feel heartbreak the next. When she published her first book, Why Girls are Weird I bought it the first day I could find it in the stores. It was great, and if I had to rate it now I'd probably give it an enjoyable 7/10.

So, needless to say, I was quite excited to see the author was releasing a new novel, Why Moms are Weird- which feature totally different characters... but they went with the "Weird theme in the title again.

The book follows Benny "Boobs" Bernstein, who is living in LA and just as her life starts going in a great direction, she needs to go home to Virginia to take care of her mother, who's been injured in car accident. When Benny arrives home she discovers a her mother's life is not quite what she remembered- and as she tried to sort out the pieces she's also forced to face her own realty and how her decisions effect those around her and herself.

The premise of the story was great- but somewhere along the lines I got lost. This novel isn't the "light" fun the last book was. This one goes to a dark place at times- as the character is forced to face her family and demons she fights with her self confidence. I don't shy away from a novel that goes to "dark places" but at the same time I feel like this one kind of switched from "medium" to "dark" rather quickly and I think it damages the message the author is going for. I didn't always agree with Benny's analysis of the events going on around her and while the author tries to keep us sympathetic to all the characters, I was confused by their actions and couldn't sympathize.

I really wanted to like this book- because I really like Pamie...even though I'm only her creepy internet stalker that reads her blog. The truth is, I didn't really enjoy this book the way I thought I would. There are some parts which were funny- and made me smile, but a lot of the time I kept thinking "WHAT!?"- trying to be on the same page as the author. I'm giving the book a 4/10- it's not bad, and well written, I just feel like it didn't add up the way it could have. Yes, I will read Ribon's next book if she decided to put it out- but I won't put this one on my "must read" recommendation list either.