BOOK REVIEW: "Fishbowl"

Fishbowl
By Sarah Mlynowski
Copyright 2002
Worldwide Library/Red Dress Ink Publishers
Adult Fiction
4 Bookmarks

Meet Allie. Allie has just lost her two old roommates and is getting two new ones. Who knows if they will get along; if they will “mesh”. Allie is optimistic. But when she meets Emma and Jodine things get pretty crazy pretty quick. They end up burning down their kitchen just two weeks later and are faced with the daunting task of raising enough money to pay for the repairs (without letting their landlord know about it).

The book bounces from being told in the first person by Allie, then Emma, then Jodine, and even occasionally by the “unbiased narrator”, while twisting and dancing around the various neuroses and idiosyncrasies of the characters. A fingernail-chewing addiction competes with a cigarette-smoking addiction and workout obsession as the girls make their way through six months of life.

With love triangles, discussions of who would or would not look good with a tongue ring, and a boyfriend who has to pee ALL the time, there is never a shortage of interesting dialogue in this book. The writing is witty, entertaining and descriptive: “Allie kneads through this information, like fingers in a fresh jar of Play-Doh.”

I really liked this book. It was fresh and fun, without being indulgent or cliché. The characters were believable and relatable and I was sorry when the story ended. I would recommend this one and read it again myself!