Author: Lauren Weisberger
Pages: 381
Score: 3/5

Lauren Weisberger’s new book, Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns, picks up about ten years after her book, The Devil Wears Prada left off. I was excited when I heard this book was coming out, and very much was looking forward to revisiting the life of Andy Sachs to see if she had acquired the writing career of her dreams and to see what kind of  life she made for herself after she had regained her independence from magazine editor and fashion warlord, Miranda Priestly.

When I read a book and love it, I feel that when the book ends I am cheated out of knowing what happens in the futures of the characters (I know, it’s not the author’s fault). I want to continue on with them, watching their lives evolve as friends do. The sequel is a temporary fix for this. When a book is finished, it’s usually just finished. The characters go buh bye, and the reader moves on to the next literary peephole to spy on new characters. Then, the cycle continues…

Catching up with Andy years later was like a treat, but also somewhat like a curse. I had higher expectations for it. I read The Devil Wears Prada not long after it came out in 2003. I should have maybe read that again before reading the sequel to refresh my memory, as it is not the same as the movie and the differences kind of blur together for me years later. Anyway, the sequel filled in some of the memory gaps of mine. In short, the first book ended with Andy quitting her assistant job at the prestigious Elias-Clark glossy magazine, Runway, which was run by the boss from hell…Miranda Priestly. Oh, the shit Miranda made Andy do!

In Revenge Wears Prada, it begins with a nightmare Andy is having the morning of her wedding to Max Harrison, heir to the Harrison Media Holdings empire. In her dream, she is again in indentured servitude of Miranda Priestly and Max rescues her. She awakens from this nightmare realizing that today is the happiest day of her life. She is marrying the perfect man, has her own wedding publication with best friend and former first assistant to Miranda, Emily Charlton. She has only happiness and success in front of her. Or, does she? Was this Miranda nightmare some kind of bad omen?

In the world of popular fiction–yes.

While I loved catching up with the old characters and meeting the new ones, I felt very strongly that this book did not live up to its predecessor. First of all, I was shocked to learn Andy’s magazine venture was a wedding publication called The Plunge, and not some harder hitting type of journalism, and that her business partner was Emily. I thought it seemed out of character for Andy. I thought the level of friendship was unlikely based on Emily’s snide, sarcastic, and downright insulting attitude. Andy also seemed to be overly paranoid–about everything. Honestly, I was getting frustrated with her because I thought she was being paranoid over things which could have been resolved with a simple conversation. She had also become a bit of a whiny doormat. She didn’t seem to have the kind of independent woman mindset I had anticipated.

Obviously, being in the magazine business, she runs the risk of running into Miranda at various events. How she had escaped bumping into her for so many years surprised me, especially since Andy’s husband, Max, was in the media business as well. Miranda’s character remained pretty much the same; she was aloof, rude, inconsiderate, calculating, domineering, and bitchy in all her Runway glory. She makes her initial appearance at a yacht party, and seems to not recognize Andy or acknowledge her. Not long after this encounter, Miranda’s “people” contact Andy and Emily with an offer for Elias-Clark Publishing to acquire The Plunge into their high fashion fold of print media. This would put the women back in a position of working under Miranda once again, as she is the editorial director of all the publications this media mogul company encompasses. You can about imagine what kind of nightmare that would turn out to be!

The writing of the book didn’t have the same punch I remember from the first book. Maybe it is my age talking here! I am a bit more critical of writing style than I was years ago. I seem to remember finding more humor in The Devil Wears Prada, liking Andy and Emily more, and feeling more involved with the story overall. Andy lost some of her relatability for me this time around.

The most humorous line I highlighted in the book was:

“I simply had to meet the girl Max can’t stop talking about,” Mrs. Harrison said in some kind of crusty, not-quite-British, probably-just-too-many-years-on-Park-Avenue accent. “You must be Andrea.”

-Weisberger, Lauren (2013-06-04). Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns (p. 33). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

I expected more lines and character descriptions like this, and I thought they were few and far between. This line reminded me of the style in which the first book was written.

I gave this book a score of 3 out of 5. It was good enough, but fell short of the initial hit. If you like to be reunited with characters, I think you will get some sort of pleasure reading it. However, keep in mind it may not be what you think it should be. I was sort of satisfied with the ending…moderately. That part was at least a bit rewarding after the exhaustive paranoia and frustration with character communication between one another.