Recent Reads: Art Boss by Kayla Cagan

Source: From Netgalley and Chronicle Books in exchange for an honest review. This in no way alters my opinion or review.

Art Boss by Kayla Cagan
Series:  Follow Up to Piper Perish
Publisher:  Chronicle Books
Publication Date:   October 2, 2018

 

Format: Ebook

Rating:  
DNF


Goodreads Synopsis: 

Artist Piper Perish has moved from her hometown of Houston, Texas, to New York City. Her days are spent exploring; her nights are filled with painting. It's her lifelong dream come true . . . . Except life in the city isn't as glamorous as it looks from afar. Piper's high-pressure work as an assistant to a famous modern artist takes away time from her own art. And Piper's new friend Grace, a budding activist, has Piper beginning to wonder if making great art is really enough.

In a story that stands alone but can be read as a companion novel to Piper Perish, acclaimed author Kayla Cagan returns with Piper's powerful and utterly authentic journey of growing up into a strong, independent young woman—as she learns how to make life about art, and how to make that art matter. Art Boss will have readers asking big questions along with Piper. What is art for? What can art do? And how can a young artist change the world?

Review: 
I saw this gorgeous cover and the synopsis and was really excited to request this book for Fall reading ... sadly I was disappointed and I could not finish it.

If you don't know, Art Boss is actually a follow up novel to Piper Perish, another book by this author.  I didn't realize this until I started writing this review and doing some more research, so that may have been the biggest and first flaw. I found the main character to be pretty flat, I didn't really click with her and I didn't feel the need to keep reading about her experiences. I also felt like I was missing a lot of information. 

Since I had no idea that this was a sequel, I didn't know about Piper or her artwork, so when the author jumps right in talking about art pieces she assumes that I know which ones she is talking about (I am guess that was in the first book), but I had no clue and immediately felt lost. I was thinking that it was being kept secretive for a reason, but then the character starts to reproduce them and then I got more information but the full one never came.  I made it through a quarter of the book before I gave up, between the lack of information that I felt like I needed, and my lack of connection to the main character I just had to put it down. 

I was also feeling some strong anxiety about what was to come in the plot, and while that is normally a good thing for a book to do, since I was not enthralled with the book itself, I felt like I was riling myself up for nothing. 

I always feel bad about not finishing a book, but this one just was not for me, maybe if you have read Piper Perish and really enjoyed it this would be a good one for you, either way, I would suggest reading that book first so you have more context if you pick this one up.