Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell | Rating: ★★☆☆☆

*To clarify, this is a rewrite of an old review, as my thoughts of the novel have changed through the years.  

Ages and ages and ages ago, I loved this book. It is still something I appreciate, on some level, even if my feelings have changed in the years. I certainly loved it all those years ago. Perhaps not as much as the hit HBO television series of the same name, but, it was still up there. Sex and the City was something of a stepping stone for a lot of women through the years and still, I think, holds true even in the years its been off the air. Certainly it's a pop culture phenomenon that still stays highly relevant in popular culture.

I'm always going to appreciate it, and the show, for what they are and how they shaped some aspects of who I became as an adult. I applaud it on many levels but somehow, somewhere along the way, the novel and show have lost their sparkle to me. I don't think I'll feel inclined to reread the book again, in the future, which is strange given I still love the characters from both the novel and show, and have some sense of attachment towards them, but there you have it. It's not that it's a bad novel, it just feels like the older I get the more boring and unappealing it is to me.

The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell | Rating: ★★★★★

The world is full of people who all want the same thing, and you have to do a little something extra to make them remember you.

In the prequel spin off series of Candace Bushnell’s now-iconic novel Sex and the City and its main character Carrie Bradshaw, readers can expect a fluffy, stylish, intelligent and thoughtful coming of age story as Carrie experiences quite a lot of firsts in her teenage years.

Everything that one has come to expect in Bushnell’s work is more than present in this first installment–The Carrie Diaries delivers and is a delightful read for everyone, including those who have never watched or read Sex and the City.

It’s important to note, as well, that this is a prequel to the novel and not the show. And it’s also nothing like the prequel show that the CW aired a few years back. You know the CW and its “adaptations”–is it even fair to call them such? Phew, that was a lot to say and bordering on bitter–but I needed to remind everyone such details before beginning my review.

Before the City, before the Bradshaw audiences know and love, this leading lady was just like everyone else in a suburb in Connecticut. The Carrie Diaries is full of realistic plots, humourous moments and a whole lot of questionable styles from teenagers in the 1980s.