Semi-Charmed Life

May 7, 2012
In her semicharming debut, freelance journalist Zelevansky navigates the brackish confluence of quirky Upper West Sider Beatrice Bernstein and Veruca Pfeffernoose, her “famous-for-nothing socialite” dorm room neighbor. Hired by Veruca to ghostwrite her blog detailing Veruca’s collegiate goings-on, The Pfeffernoose Chronicles, Beatrice is soon trading stained sweaters for designer duds as she shadows her new subject, whose wiles are potent enough to win over a celebrated artist immediately after barfing on his shoes. Slowly but surely, Beatrice (dubbed Beany Baby by her new posse of Veruca’s friends, whom she calls the Axis of Evil behind their backs) begins to forget her family and friends as she jets to Miami and London on a moment’s notice. But as Bea quickly learns, appearances can be deceiving, and she’s not the only one passing for something she’s not. Zelevansky infuses the superficiality of Veruca’s world with an insider’s knowledge of the socialites and sycophants she’s chronicling, which lends credibility to the story. Despite a bizarre and jarring introduction of magical elements that fail to jive with the Blackberry–and–black truffles materialism of the book, this is an amusing first effort. Agent: Anne Bohner, Pen & Ink Literary.

July 1, 2012
Chick lit takes a trip down the rabbit hole in this first novel. Twenty-one-year-old Beatrice Bernstein, of the Upper West Side artist Bernsteins, has never left New York City. A flu-induced wish on a mohawked pigeon starts a strange journey through her senior year in college. First, her student housing is a basement apartment full of cockroaches. Then, instead of studying Latin American literature, she finds herself ghost-writing a blog about the art world for socialite Veruca Pfeffernoose. She also gets a new wardrobe, travels around the world, alienates best friend Dolly, foils a plot by thieving hipster goons, and, of course, gets the guy. One thing she does not do is figure out how to navigate Veruca's ever-changing loft, until she starts to follow disappearing clues found in her precious moleskin notebook. Beatrice is hard not to like, smart but just naive enough to get caught up in Veruca's fabulous world. The narration is full of giddy pop-culture references, and the story is told with a sort of gleeful cynicism that only fails at the too-neat ending.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)