Trinity on air (Paperback)

Reviews

Reviewed by Amanda P. - 17 July 2011

This novel promises so much. It has a great cover, and a good blurb. Trinity is 23. She lives in Sandton. She is a privileged black woman who wants to be an 'on-air presenter' for Jozi Talks. Her father is an ex-Robin Island Struggle veteran turned corporate zillionaire. She has the perfect mother who bakes melktert, cooks bobotie and loves her children. She also has the PB - or perfect boyfriend - as her roommate, Steph, calls Ethan. Ethan is a health nut who tries to look after Trinity's eating habits. He also proposes. Trinity declines. Her ex-boyfriend, Farouk, is conveniently back from Oxford, law degree in hand. Farouk's sister and Trinity's brothers try o set them up. However, Trinity, has to deal with Farouk anyway. She is working on the story of a strip joint in Rivonia. The owner, A Nigerian called Ajala, conveniently lives upstairs. Farouk is the advocate on the case, representing the resident's association suing Ajala. And this is where Snyckers lost me. Coincidences and too many characters ( I haven't mentioned half of them yet!) seem placed to simply fill up pages. I lost interest when I lost track of the names of the (obligatory) gay best friend, the perfect brothers, Farouk's family etc. I also lost the plot. But the real problem is Trinity. She is an intrinsically silly character. She is ditsy, slow on the uptake and worst of all, boring. To write brilliant chick-lit requires creating a likeable character. The author has to be funny, and to charm the reader. Unfortunately, this book is not really funny, and Trinity is not charming. I couldn't wait to get to the end - for all the wrong reasons. Perhaps Trinity should have kept on blogging. She is a cardboard cut-out character made to force fit the genre. She does not translate well into hard copy. It was nice, though, to see so much of Johannesburg in the book. Amanda Patterson www.writerswrite.co.za