BOOK REVIEW: 100 Days Of Cake by Shari Goldhagen

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. The scheduled publication date for this book is May 17, 2016.

For the past two years, Molly’s been struggling with something more than your usual teenage angst. Her shrink, Dr. Brooks, isn’t helping much, and neither is her mom, who is convinced that baking the perfect cake will cure Molly of her depression—as if cake can magically make her rejoin the swim team, get along with her promiscuous sister, or care about the SATs. Um, no. Never going to happen. But Molly plays along, stomaching her mother’s failed culinary experiments, because, whatever—as long as it makes someone happy, right? 

What can I say about this book? The first thing I want to say is that I didn't feel as emotionally invested as I should have felt. And considering this is a book about depression, I didn't feel much towards the main character, good or bad. 

The thing that attracted me to this book was the title: I LOVE CAKE! I was really hoping there would be more cake. I was kind of annoyed that Molly's mom thought she could cure depression with cake, but that motivation becomes clear towards the end of the book so I got it. Every chapter had a different cake as the title, but some chapters would have NO descriptions of the cakes at all and definitely no cake eating. That was a bummer. It was amusing to see Molly's mom make all these horrendous cakes because she was an awful baker. But seriously, what a waste of sugar.

One thing that really annoyed me was Molly's friend Elle. God she was annoying. First of all, she insisted on yelling at perfect strangers about the environment or whatever. She was the stereotypical hippie vegan and I thought the author exaggerated her opinions just to make her annoying. But the one thing that pissed me off was her treatment of Molly's sister, Veronica. If Veronica was in a bathing suit or sundress or whatever, Elle would freak out and call her a slut. There were numerous STD jokes and stuff that were just stupid. First of all, Veronica was FIFTEEN. Second of all, her ONLY "crime" was wearing something that was revealing. At one time, she said "I know she's your sister, and women have the right to dress however they want, but she is seriously everything that's wrong with America." 

REALLY?

A girl wearing a sundress is EVERYTHING THAT'S WRONG WITH AMERICA?? Insanity! Elle would say some sexist remark about STD's or she could call Veronica a "hoochy mama" but then she would immediately say girls have a right to wear whatever they want and she would mention being an opponent of rape culture. I think Elle needs to reevaluate her opinion on rape culture because her remarks are EXACTLY what people mean by that phrase.

The whole crush on the therapist thing was just weird and creepy. It is very common for patients to experience transference with their therapists, but it is the THERAPIST'S job to remain professional and deal with those feelings. The problem was that the therapist confided about personal problems to Molly and he crossed all kinds of professional boundaries. He was pretty much the worst therapist ever.

Do you know what I did love about this book? Molly's obsession with GOLDEN GIRLS!! Jeez, I freaking love that show. I own the entire series on DVD and I have seen every episode dozens of times. I can usually figure out which episode it is within the first two minutes of the show. I loved how much Molly watched it and how she actually named some of her favorite episodes. It made me want to watch that show right now. 

I also thought the author wrote depression really well. Molly has a lot of anxiety and self esteem issues and days where she just hates everything so much that she couldn't get out of bed. The struggle is real people. Oh and she has a hermit crab, which is AWESOME. I just loved Pickles. I was not a fan of Alex and the whole romance thing. There was no chemistry and I didn't understand why he was into her. He kept asking her out, but she kept rejecting him. I really wish they had just remained friends. It was better that way. Alex was a nice enough guy and he was very patient with Molly. Like I said, I just wasn't feeling the chemistry. What I did appreciate was that the romance was NOT seen as a cure-all for her depression. I HATE books that have that message about mental illness. I thought the fact that she was depressed and anxious with or without Alex was very realistic. 

Buy/Borrow/Skip: Eh, probably just skip this one.