You should know that I have watched all but the most recent season of Vanderpump Rules (we’re waiting for it to hit Hulu, not stopping), and so I feel like I have the basic sense, if not at least intermediate sense of Stassi. If you don’t watch the show, I would not recommend this book at all, unless you’re specifically interested in the books and blogs of reality tv stars. I have to admit that that is an interesting reading/writing project, to look at tv show stars who write blogs (horizontal marketing) and come out with books. This book is both oddly chaotic and strictly ordered, like a blog.
So the other temptation would be to savage this book, but that feels intellectually dishonest, because a) I like Stassi, b) it’s an unfair and cheap way to approach a book that not that many people will read and that I am not the intended audience for. So I do think this book is pretty successful and somewhat simplistic in its message, but also empowering too. This is a book written by a 30 year old, probably addressing mostly women her age or younger, and the basic (ha!) message is that working to change yourself to meet others’ expectation, as opposed to your own, is wasted energy. But also, she talks about how she only knows this because she’s wasted so much energy.
Some takeaways: Stassi decided at some point that punctuating her works with constant “AF”s works, and it’s distracting.
She’s trying a little too hard to sell her as a dumb person who’s actually smart, when really, she’s a smart person who acts dumb but is actually smart, but wants you to think she’s a little dumb.
She talks about the saddest moment of the show, not a break up, but how cowed she felt watching her very douchebag boyfriend Patrick act like a complete jackass. And it’s satisfying.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Next-Level-Basic-Definitive-Handbook/dp/1982112468/ref=sr_1_1?crid=295NJFM669L71&keywords=stassi+schroeder+book&qid=1567595979&s=gateway&sprefix=stassi%2Caps%2C256&sr=8-1)