I bet you all know why I wrote about this book. Just look at the cover; it's easy to guess. Just like The Sweetheart of Prosper County, there is a rooster on it. I know a lot of people don't like romance novels or take them seriously, but they are my guilty pleasure. So how could I resist a romance novel with a rooster on it?
When Amy Klasse loses her job at the local TV station because she's been replaced by a dancing chicken, she is lucky enough to receive a chivalrous offer from Jake Elliot, the local veterinarian, to be his receptionist. However, the ensuing romance between them is anything but smooth. When the very dancing rooster that stole her job disappears from the clinic where she now works, she's suspected of foul play (GET IT?). Their romance evolves as they search together for a way to prove her innocence.
This book was a little hard for me to sit down and write about actually. When I first started reading it and it was revealed to me that the leading lady was a virgin, I was all ready to jump down Evanovich's throat about being a female author who promotes society's virginity fetish in her work. However, not wanting to make any rash judgements, I just kept reading. About halfway through the book, I decided that the author must be trying to empower women who have made the choice to remain a virgin and wait for the right person to come along.
HOWEVER.
By the end of the book, I realized that the author had no intentions at all. She's not promoting the virginity fetish, she's not empowering virgins, she's simply being entertaining. She has an interesting writing style. Not amazing (well, maybe amazing for a paperback romance author), just interesting. After reading the book, I realize that she is a person who uses her gut to write; she embodies the feelings she feels and the feelings women everywhere feel in her writing simply by blatantly stating thoughts, no matter how small or random they may seem. She lets her characters follow her emotions and her wants. This makes for a good romance novel, one that speaks to lots of women and makes characters and situations identifiable, but the technique has its flaws. Or rather, it has little graces that allow a bit of meaning, intentional or not, into an otherwise typical airport paperback.
What she has done with her technique, this being a romance novel and all, has created a female character who embodies many seemingly random traits that women everywhere might identify with, such as wondering if they're to flat-chested, being a virgin because the right person never came along, being engaged to someone they didn't love, not wearing makeup, loving children, having a secret sexy side etc. They may not identify with all of the attributes of the main character, but it is just about guaranteed that they can latch onto at least one. While this doesn't make for a deep and meaningful story, this is actually a pretty good strategy for a romance novel.
As far as this type of book goes, I was fairly impressed. Her book was continually upbeat, witty, and charming, even in the face of the mystery of a rooster murder. The intro to the book states that this was one of her earlier works and first appeared in a magazine, and I can see why it and other stories like it led her to success with her Plum series. It is a sweet story that hinges on romance and good times all wrapped around a mystery story, like a love burrito filled with intrigue and sleuthing. Although I've never read her Plum books myself, I must assume that they follow the same sort of style, being also romance/mystery books. They're not deep, they're not dark, they're simply fun. Foul Play is a good little story to read on the plane or at the reception desk that doesn't make the reader contemplate the mysteries of life too much, just provides some happy entertainment.
As I mentioned, the writer's technique of giving in to her feelings and the feelings that she perceives her readers have as well leads to a bit of meaning underneath all the steamy romance and entertainingly witty comebacks. Her portrayal of the antagonist, Veronica Bottles, says a lot about society today, and what it says isn't really good. The character comes from a place of hate; the writer hates society's beauty standards and she hates the girls that conform to them, or rather the perceived "perfect woman" that they have built. Therefore, she has created Veronica as an embodiment of everything that seems to make things harder for the average woman in order that she may tear them down. The character has big breasts, wears skimpy clothes, dons lots of makeup... oh, and she's dumb and overtly sexual. Jake, who in this instance embodies the "male gaze," rejects and even laughs at Veronica and her traits outright in favor of the more unconventional beauty of the protagonist, validating female readers everywhere who feel inferior to women like Veronica. Jake's rejection shows readers that Veronica is not the type of woman that good men want. Veronica becomes a sort of running gag in the book, something to laugh at and to look down on, even when the character is vulnerable and suffering in a bad relationship. Even her sexuality is ridiculed and vilified at every turn. She is not a well-developed character at all, she is instead a scapegoat only. Her feelings and personality as a character are unimportant; she is a shell and a representation of everything there is to envy or hate in today's world.
It is sad that a character like this exists, especially as a sort of little villain. I do not think that Evanovich is a bad person for writing a character like that, rather that the society that made her feel that such a character was needed is a bad society. Women shouldn't have to feel that there is a great and oppressive standard hovering over them their entire lives that everyone hates but can do nothing about except destroy symbolically in the pages of a book. Veronica as a scapegoat should be unnecessary.
But she's not. Her existence speaks to women and accurately captures their thoughts and opinions about beauty standards. We all hate that girl we are told we should be. Veronica is, sadly, relevant to the times.
Be that as it may, it is not necessarily right to hate each other, to hate other women who face the same problem we all do, because of an external force seemingly beyond our control. Girl hate shouldn't exist, and we shouldn't hate Veronica (no matter what kind of silly shenanigans she gets into). We cannot take out our feelings of injustice on other women who just so happen to fit society's ideal. Girl hate has been ingrained into us, but we, especially as writers, can strive to end it. We must remember that all girls are girls are human, no matter what they look like, and they all struggle with the same forces everyone does. Rather than write scapegoats, we should write girls with souls. We should write girls who are clearly human beings with problems and feelings, no matter how they look. If there is to be a female villain, looks shouldn't be the only source of her villainy.
I said in my review of The Sweetheart of Prosper County that I enjoyed the book because it broke the stereotype of the busty girl being slutty or dumb, gave her a soul, and gave young girls struggling everywhere someone positive to identify with. Sweetheart showed that all types of people are humans with emotions and cannot be judged by what's on the outside. Society's ills won't be solved by hating each other, but rather by accepting each other and uniting as a solid front against them.
In the end, I chose to give Foul Play three stars because it is a three star book of its type. Rather than comparing it in my mind to masterpieces beyond its field, I compared it only to other romances. There are better romance novels out there, but so far as the purely-for-fun, entertainment-only type, this one is pretty darn good. It kept a little smile on my face the whole time, and isn't that what those kinds of books are supposed to do? So if you like paperback romance and you're going to be stuck on the bus or the subway or a plane for an hour or so, I'd recommend this book for the job.
If you're interested, you can pick up a copy of the book (used or new) here. Enjoy it!