Review: Mafia Girl by Deborah Blumenthal

Mafia Girl by Deborah Blumenthal

Publication Date: March 4, 2014
Page Count: 256
Published by: Albert Whitman & Company
Source: eArc received from publisher in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis from Goodreads:

What's in a name? Everything if you have my name." At her exclusive Manhattan high school, seventeen-year-old Gia is the most hated/loved girl in school. Why? Her father doesn't have a boss. He is the boss--the capo di tutti cappi, boss of all bosses. Not that Gia cares. But life gets complicated when she meets a cop she calls "Officer Hottie" and feels a surprising chemistry. Then Vogue magazine wants to feature Gia in a fashion spread about real-life bad girls. On top of this, she's running for class president. Can Gia step out from under her dad's shadow and show everyone there's more to her than "Mafia Girl?

The events in Mafia Girl take place over a period of a few months in a mob daughter's life. Told from Gia's POV, it had a stream of conscious type writing that resulted in run on sentences without any punctuation. It's a style choice made by the author, and I think it worked here because Gia's thoughts and feelings were put out there without any filters. I didn't mind this little quirk because it was consistent throughout the book.

I don't feel that the synopsis reflects what the book was really about. Gia didn't break out and become her own person. If anything, she let the stigma of being a mob daughter affect her entire life. I also think that for as much as she didn't want to be treated differently because of her father, she still really enjoyed the 'perks' that came with being a mob boss's daughter. Gia really played up the naivety, and it really bothered me how much she KNEW about her father, and yet she overlooked all of the bad because he was a "good father" to her. Gia was likable enough, although she was quite immature. She had a hard time realizing the consequences of her actions because she was so used to dealing with things her father's way - by getting the lawyer to 'make it go away'. Also, she never thought of her own safety, even when she knew people (her father's enemies) were out to get her.

Michael is a police officer who arrests Gia after she steals a car. Gia decides she wants Michael, then sets out to relentlessly pursue him. Things between them progress slowly, and little by little Michael begins letting her into his life. I could totally understand his reluctance to get involved with Gia, but I wish he had stayed away from her completely because it was hard for me to get past their age difference. Unfortunately, I really didn't get to know Michael at all, even though he was quite interesting. I have no idea what he saw in Gia, especially because she acted so young at times. They didn't seem suited for each other at all.

Gia's asexual friend, Clive, was the absolute best part of this book! He was such a great friend, and very supportive of Gia. I really got emotional at times when reading about his background, and I just wanted to reach in and give him a hug. He was SO awesome and was the most developed character in this story. Can Clive get a book of his own? Please?

This was a pleasant enough read, and it kept me entertained, but I wasn't blown away by it. The premise was good, and the story had a lot of potential, but it didn't have that 'oomph' that would have made it special. The plot was all over the place with multiple storylines running throughout. It was sort of a mess. And the lackluster ending was really disappointing. The most interesting aspect to me was the relationship between Gia and Michael. It was wrong for so many reasons, but knowing how bad things could potentially become if anyone found out about them is what really kept me reading.

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars