Sunday, June 08, 2008

Book Review: My Mother is a French Fry and Further Proof of My Fuzzed-Up Life by Colleen Sydor

48 Hour Challenge Book 9
Started: Sunday, 6:46 pm
Finished: Sunday, 8:57 pm

Book: My Mother is a French Fry and Further Proof of My Fuzzed-Up Life
Author: Colleen Sydor
Published: 2008 (There is some dispute about this. Amazon says July 10, the ARC says September. Either way, I have no cute cover image for you.)

Eli Smyth's mother is the source of everything annoying, frustrating, and downright enraging in her life. What can you do when your own mother dresses up as a french-fry for a living, and that's not even the weirdest thing she's ever done?

Eli just keeps her head down and her shields up. By this time, she figures she's hardened to anything her mother can bust out. But that's before the parental units make the big announcement . . . they're pregnant. Euwwwwwwwwwww. How could Eli's mom do this to her? And how will she ever survive?

What with the introduction to Eli's quirky, free-spirited mother on the first page, I was expecting this to be much more of a comic novel. Don't get me wrong; it's funny. Eli's sarcastic, snarky voice is definitely one of the strengths. But Sydor also delves deep into the mother-daughter relationship to pull out not-so-funny-in-fact-painful moments that can either destroy this bond or make it even stronger. Expect a couple of tears in your eyes by the last few pages.

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