Rating: 1 star

Annie and Duncan have lived together for 15 years in an old seaside English village. A relationship of convenience, Annie has tolerated Duncan’s obsession with a reclusive American musician, Tucker Crowe, and his claim of being a “Crowologist”; while Duncan just seemed to go with the flow.

Now with years of regret behind her Annie yearns for a child, knowing if she stays with Duncan that dream can never be realized. When a new Tucker Crowe album is about to be released, conflicting reviews (Duncan for, Annie against) sparks the beginning of the end.

Juliet, Naked was my first Nick Hornby book. I’ve seen High Fidelity and even though it took two viewings, I was able to see the genius in the writing. Lately, I had been hearing little snippets about Hornby's writing--and always in a positive light--so I was actually very excited to read Juliet, Naked and finally have the chance to see for myself what all the talk is about.

From the first chapter I wondered what I had gotten myself into; but assured myself things would pick up and get better--sadly, that never happened. The story of Duncan and Annie was not only depressing, it was pointless.

Instead of simply breaking off the relationship, Duncan and Annie forge ahead and the reader is left to suffer the mundane, unhappy union of two of the most boring and inane characters that ever graced the pages of a book. Despite a few glimmers of opportunity, the story never gains any momentum.

Not that every plot has to have a cut-and-dry point, but there has to be some type of goal to be reached. Not only did the characters have zero motivation to do anything, but there was even less motivation for me to continue subjecting myself to a book that was aimless and unnecessary.

At one point I even skipped ahead to the last three chapters in the hope that something interesting had come up—and strangely it was almost an exact continuation of where I had left off. That’s when I knew…

Although I feel horrible about writing such a negative review of a book written by an amazing writer such as Nick Hornby -- although sometimes even the best fall short. Despite my first Hornby literary experience being nothing short of a disaster, there only a nine-percent chance that I'll give up on him (High Fidelity fans should know what I mean by that).

Perhaps I’ll just read a different Hornby book and pretend Juliet, Naked never happened.
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Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Riverhead Trade; Reprint edition (September 7, 2010)
ISBN-13: 978-1594484773