Review: The Spinster Diaries

Oh, The Spinster Diaries. I wanted to love you. I was smitten with your cover and your description sounded so fun! Alas, I was not blown away and I was left wondering how anyone thought that ending would be a good idea. Perhaps I'm being too harsh on the novel author Gina Fattore published in the spring of 2020 but I really expected so much more from it.

Here's the book's description:

Our heroine, a moderately successful TV writer in L.A., wants her life to be as sunny and perfect as a Hollywood rom-com: a cool job, a wacky best friend, and lots of age-appropriate hot guys just dying to date her. Instead, she’s a self-described spinster who is swimming in anxiety and just might have a tiny little brain tumor. So she turns to an unlikely source for inspiration: the eighteenth-century novelist and diarist Frances Burney, who pretty much invented the chick-lit novel.
A semi-autobiographical unromantic comedy, The Spinster Diaries is a laugh-out-loud satire of both the TV business and the well-worn conventions of chick lit―as well as the true tale of the forgotten writer who inspired Jane Austen to greatness. It's an endearing and refreshingly honest testament to how one person’s life can reach out across the centuries to touch another’s.

I was totally intrigued by a story that was about a character who was older than your typical rom com heroine and one who loved an old British author I had never heard of but felt like I should, given the genre formally known as chick lit (I used to be OK with the term...now I hate it) is one of my favourites and has been for as long as I can remember. I honestly wish the character's Frances Burney show would get made because I'd totally watch it.

Something I've learned about myself while reading this book: I don't love (semi)autobiographical novels. I'd rather just read a bunch of essays about your life rather than a loosely fictionalized version of it. If you know what shows Fattore worked on (which you can know because it's right in her author bio) you know that the heroine was probably working on similar ones (namely, Dawson's Creek and Gilmore Girls). Because it was loosely (?) based on Fattore's own life, I imagine that's why it was set in 2006. Which didn't exactly add anything to my enjoyment of the story.

Huh. I just did a bit of a deep dive into Fattore's writing career. I'm a HUGE Gilmore Girls fan and I was pretty bummed when the creator left and season seven, the final season, was just kind of...not great. Guess what season Fattore worked on? 

I really didn't hate The Spinster Diaries. I think I just felt...hoodwinked by it. I wanted something that was a cross between Bridget Jones's Diary (the book) and Nora Ephron's movies. Gina Fattore didn't give me that (though she does seem to be a talented writer). The idea was a good one but the execution (and that ending!!!! argh!) left a lot to be desired.

*A copy of this novel was provided by the Canadian distributor, Thomas Allen and Son, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*