Review: ‘This Is Not the Jess Show’ by Anna Carey
Subverting the passive female trope and television culture
I’m so over it. How many times can we be fed a female protagonist who does her very best (and she does, she tries) but we get halfway through the sandwich only to realise that she hasn’t made a single decision for herself yet.
I complain about this in my article ‘Women’s Choice in Netflix’s ‘The Witcher’ where again, we’re shown these badass, powerful females who are actually robbed of their agency and forced along a path some bloke in a robe has shown them. (Also see: Alina in ‘Shadow and Bone’ - Netflix did her dirty…)
There is nothing more frustrating than a passive protagonist. Things just happen to her and she reacts rather than creating any of the action herself.
So thank goodness for writers like Anna Carey who have the wherewithal to create a character that actually does something.
Am I trolling hundreds of other female protagonists? Fondly, but yes. It’s tricky because internalised misogyny is an insidious, grubby little fiend; it’s difficult to know what kind of decisions you’re making for yourself, or for the male gaze.
Why do we advertently or inadvertently create action-averse characters? Because women are so used to being side-lined. We’re always overcoming some kind of male oppression. It’s our default position. We watch. We wait.
But slowly, more surely, we’re waking up and choosing violence. Thank goodness.
What does this have to do with a book like ‘This Is Not the Jess Show’? I’m so glad you asked.
I actually read this as an ARC from NetGalley before it was released and ever since then there has been something about this book that has haunted me.
This is for many reasons; the first part being the 90s setting because hello! Middling Millennial here, the 90s were my childhood. Secondly, the change of gear this book makes part way through and it is an absolute STUNNER. I saw something coming, but not that.
SPOILER ALERT BELOW THIS POINT
In a world of reality TV and social media influence, it isn’t a new concept that someone should be starring in their own sitcom. But to be unawares? I love that concept. ‘The Truman Show’ is an immaculate piece of storytelling, and shows like ‘Wandavision’ have carried on the tradition.
The way television is curated to resemble real life, but it’s so incredibly fake at the same time, creates a very strange place for nostalgia to come from. How does television perfection effect our memory and recollections? Is there anyone alive now who keenly remembers life before TV?
It’s always with 50s vibes that TV nostalgia is coupled with. Those hammy adverts with a housewife stuffed into her many petticoats, an apron tied tightly around a tiny waist and a psychotic smile painted across her face. It was just one more tool to reinforce societal expectations; the woman’s place was at home, to perpetuate the capitalist American dream. She was a passive player. She would ask her husband for the latest product and he would work hard to provide it. He created the action.
So with ‘This Is Not the Jess Show’ I think it’s really interesting that the decade chosen is the 90s.
What’s so special about the 90s? The PC and the Internet started to become mainstream.
‘Clarissa Explains It All’ - and she really did… and still does… legend.
Internet culture wouldn’t fully take off until the 00s but just as the 50s was the “innocent” precursor to a boom in TV entertainment, the 90s were the warmup decade. The one where photoshop began its ugly mission on models in magazines, and we were asked to shrink ourselves to a size 0.
Women were being asked to be smaller. Be little. Be passive.
In ‘This Is Not the Jess Show’, the main character is literally the main character. It’s meta, right? This girl is starring in a reality show; her whole world a studio set, and everyone is in on it apart from her.
But there is always an audience. And I think the most disturbing part is that they remove her agency further. The audience has a say in what happens to Jess and her world. This feels like a parallel for influencer culture. We stare at people on our phones and feel like we have a say in what they say, what they do, how they should act.
A woman decides to put a cute photo of herself up on Instagram, and she’s told she shouldn’t wear that, or pose that way because she has cellulite, fat knees, cankles, a streaky tan, a belly, saggy boobs, acne. Because she has a body.
Didn’t ask for your opinion. Thanks.
‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ is another example of a young girl being stripped of her agency then seriously sticking it to them (literally, sometimes, shout out to Mr Pointy!)
Jess takes back her power by the end of the book, and I love that to the moon and back. But it’s still not without the shadow of her old life, of that online culture, still looming in the background. She still has to make choices to protect herself from being found and forced to capitulate again. Even if this wasn’t a physical outcome (in having to go back on set, for example), the comments and actions of others would remove her sense of freedom psychologically. She would be mentally held captive again.
For me, ‘This Is Not the Jess Show’ was too short. There was so much more I could see explored within it and I was sad that it was over so soon! But it is a good conclusion, and I was glad to see it all tied up in a very satisfying way.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes YA, or anyone who is interested in the themes I’ve talked about above. Basically, if you want a good book to sink into, choose this one.
You can check it out here → ‘This Is Not the Jess Show’ by Anna Carey
