Review: 2 A.M. at the Cat's Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino

Title: 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas
Author: Marie-Helene Bertino
Publisher/Publication Date: Broadway Books, August 5, 2014
Genre: Contemporary
Format/Source: Paperback, Blogging for Books

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

Madeleine Altimari is a smart-mouthed, rebellious nine-year-old who also happens to be an aspiring jazz singer. Still mourning the recent death of her mother, and caring for her grief-stricken father, she doesn’t realize that on the eve of Christmas Eve she is about to have the most extraordinary day—and night—of her life. After bravely facing down mean-spirited classmates and rejection at school, Madeleine doggedly searches for Philadelphia's legendary jazz club The Cat's Pajamas, where she’s determined to make her on-stage debut. On the same day, her fifth grade teacher Sarina Greene, who’s just moved back to Philly after a divorce, is nervously looking forward to a dinner party that will reunite her with an old high school crush, afraid to hope that sparks might fly again. And across town at The Cat's Pajamas, club owner Lorca discovers that his beloved haunt may have to close forever, unless someone can find a way to quickly raise the $30,000 that would save it.

As these three lost souls search for love, music and hope on the snow-covered streets of Philadelphia, together they will discover life’s endless possibilities over the course of one magical night. A vivacious, charming and moving debut, 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas will capture your heart and have you laughing out loud...

My Thoughts:

Like all books I gave 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajama the first hundred pages to impress me, but as it turns out this story just wasn’t for me. The cover is cute and charming, but I was extremely bored. There was little about the book that kept my interest and eventually I decided to call it quits. Madeleine is described as “smart-mouthed”, “precarious nine-year-old” and “an aspiring jazz singer”—and she does sing, but she was also incredibly rude. After all, she describes herself as being a “jerk” and is consistently mean to those who would have liked to be her friends. However, the people around her—namely at the school she attended—were two kinds of terrible as well. There were a lot of characters, and plenty of perspectives all crammed into the 99 pages that I read, but despite this I couldn’t get into the story.

This book will have an audience—people who will enjoy it—but sadly, in the end, I was incredibly disappointed.

Rating DNF

I received this book from Blogging for Books (Publisher) for this review, thank you!

About the Author...

Marie-Helene Bertino's debut novel 2 AM AT THE CAT'S PAJAMAS will be published by Crown in August, 2014. Her collection of short stories SAFE AS HOUSES received The 2012 Iowa Short Fiction Award and the Pushcart Prize and was long-listed for the Frank O'Connor Short Story Award and The Story Prize. She hails from Philadelphia and lives in Brooklyn. She was an Emerging Writer Fellow at NYC's Center for Fiction and teaches at NYU, Sackett Street Writers' Workshop, The Center for Fiction, and One Story's Emerging Writer's Workshop, where she was the Associate Editor for 6 years. She has received fellowships from The MacDowell Colony and Hedgebrook and currently works as a biographer of people with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).