Product Description

From Jackie Collins to People magazine, authors and press alike have lauded Whacked as a dark and sexy guilty pleasure. Parade, Real Simple magazine, the New York Post, and the Houston Chronicle all selected Whacked as a summer reading pick, and author Jules Asner was featured everywhere from Good Morning America to the Los Angeles Times.

Life promises to be perfect for Dani Hale. She has an almost-perfect boyfriend named Dave and a dream job writing for the TV crime series Flesh and Bone that allows her to indulge her macabre forensic passions. But something isn't quite right with her relationship, and Dani-a wily and inventive snoop-learns that Dave's real creative talents are (1) lying and (2) cheating on her. Soon she is plunged into the world of Los Angeles singledom, enduring a battalion of bad dates with men whose peccadilloes would drive a lesser woman to kill. At her wit's end, Dani is driven to a dramatic extreme that is as shocking as it is sensible in the girl-eat-girl world of Hollywood.

Praised by critics as the perfect beach read, Jules Asner's Whacked is a wicked tale of relationships, betrayal, and very modern revenge.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #103607 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .75" h x 5.25" w x 8.00" l, .66 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781602860766
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Asner—ex-model, wife of director Steven Soderbergh and E! Entertainment Television personality—debuts with a dishy mix of Tinseltown hackdom, chick lit and, surprisingly, a chilling plot. Dani Hale is an L.A. TV writer for crime show Flesh and Bone who has an inordinate interest in all things forensic—one shared by technical adviser Rich Pisani, a retired LAPD cop. None of this stuff bothered me, Dani boasts about crime scene analysis. But what does bother her is slow-to-commit boyfriend and director Dave; the pretty actress he's directing, Chloe Johnson (whom Asner slyly credits as having worked with Soderbergh); her Crate and Barrel saleswoman mom; and work rival Evil Janet. But where other chick lit heroines fret about their fears, Dani hacks into e-mails and cellphones to alleviate hers. After discovering Dave has been cheating on her, Dani plots revenge on him, freckled harlot-starlet Chloe and office boor Evil Janet, but things quickly spiral out of control. Asner juggles horror and giggles and wraps it up with a subtle kicker, and though Rich's role is underwritten, the novel is still tons of fun. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Entertainment host Asner’s first novel is a send-up of the viciously cutthroat world of romance in Hollywood. Dani Hale is a staff writer for the successful forensics procedural Flesh and Blood, but while her professional success isn’t in question, she is finding her love life to be a trickier prospect. She is massively insecure in her relationship with her boyfriend of two years, a television director named Dave, and after conducting her own investigation, she soon discovers all her fears were founded when she learns he has been cheating on her with an up-and-coming starlet named Chloe. Dani dumps Dave and gingerly reenters the dating pool only to find that the prospects are grim. When Chloe turns up as a guest star on Dani’s show, Dani finds herself seeing red. This delightful black comedy shows how easy it is for someone to be driven to extremes—and how seamlessly a person can go from rifling through receipts to reading someone’s personal e-mail and beyond. Clever and witty, Asner’s debut will appeal to readers who like biting satire. --Kristine Huntley

Review
"A darkly sexy, insightful, and witty peek into the L.A. dating scene. I couldn't put the book down!"
(Jackie Collins )

"A chilling and fiercely funny look at dating in Tinseltown" (People Magazine )

"Whacked is a terrifically wicked read!" (author of The Devil Wears Prada and Chasing Harry Winston Lauren Weisberger )

"This delightful black comedy shows how easy it is for someone to be driven to extremes-and how seamlessly a person can go from rifling through receipts to reading someone's personal e-mail and beyond. Clever and witty, Asner's debut will appeal to readers who like biting satire." (Booklist )

"Tons of fun...a dishy mix of Tinseltown hackdom, chick lit and, surprisingly, a chilling plot." (Publishers Weekly )

"From a true Hollywood insider, Jules Asner's Whacked takes us by surprise as she cleverly navigates the mind of a spurned girlfriend-funny, witty, and dangerous!"
(author of The Starter Wife Gigi Levangie Grazer )

"As a TV personality, former supermodel and wife of director Steven Soderbergh, Asner is more than qualified to write chick lit set in Hollywood."
(OK! Magazine )

"Asner has captured Hollywood narcissism in all its detail and desperation. There is no one in showbiz who won't recognize Dani Hale as an associate, or girlfriend, or wife, or self. Well, friend of self. I liked this book a lot."
(Mike Nichols )

Customer Reviews

An easy read, poorly written
Whacked is an easy read, but it is not a well written one. I got used to the clunky prose ('that halted me"), but the book failed to come alive for me on almost any level. The characters are flat and so is the emotional landscape. I didn't like the main character - not because she is 'whacked', but because she is vapid and tends to blather in cliches. The ending is surprising. It makes surprisingly little sense.

Even more baffling is the lack of descriptive detail in a Novel of Hollywood. Whence the perfume of night-blooming jasmine in the Hollywood Hills? The heat of an LA afternoon? Surely there is some Pilates Studio to the Stars I don't know about! I have no image of the narrator at all. I suppose she's 'hot' because, well, that's just the level of discourse here. The writer either lacks interest or an eye for visual or social nuance that makes these kind of books worth reading - at least for me.

Much has been made of the author's Hollywood Insider status, but the book is not enriched by it. On the contrary, the reader is served a smaller than usual portion of 'dish' - followed by a smaller than usual serving if sex. Is there such a thing as a low fat/low carb beach read? Flavorless! Neither delicious nor filling!

Crapped
I bought this book because it was on New York Magazine's summer recommended reading list. Jules Asner should be embarassed, as should her publisher. The book was silly, plot-deprived, and a bore (I forced myself to finish it). The book centers around a man-crazy and borderline psuchotic LA woman with no redeeming qualities, though she end up a "winner" at the end. Anyone puchasing the book is wasting their money.

No fun at all
I heard about this book in a magazine's list of "fun beach reads"--it was definately not fun. The main character is petty, whiny and miserable, not to mention crazy. The ending was so out there that I had to re-read a few pages to make sure that I hadn't missed something important. The author kept adding characters to the book for no apparent reason other than to fill up pages and I could never find anything to like about the main character. The author uses plenty of profanity and some lame sex scenes that didn't really do anthing for the story.