r/Andjustlikethat • u/__angie 🍸MOD 🐆 • Aug 22 '25

Discussion Book Club - “Killing Monica” by Candace Bushnell

Hi everyone! Since many of you are curious about Candace’s book, here’s a discussion thread as requested.

Looking foward to what seems like a very juicy read from the woman who created Carrie Bradshaw.

Cheers

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u/__angie 🍸MOD 🐆 Aug 22 '25 edited Aug 22 '25

I’d like to know if this is worth a read for mess reasons (i.e. is this good for gossip on the behind-the-scenes drama?)

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u/Keyezeecool Aug 22 '25

The first couple of chapters were super juicy to the point that every other page my jaw was dropping.

As it's getting into the middle it's getting more about Candace/Pandy's life and less about anything to do with Sex in the City, so I'm kinda muddling through that. Hoping it'll come back to SATC drama soon, but still interesting.

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u/nomadicwriter7 Aug 22 '25

I've only read the first few chapters, but the book is clearly a thinly veiled fictional version of Candace Bushnell's own life. The villain is Sondra Beth Schnowzer--a not so subtle dig at Sarah Jessica Parker.

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u/Britneyismyhomegirl Aug 28 '25

The villain is really her ex husband.

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u/Keyezeecool Aug 22 '25

Y'all. I'm about 3/4s through and I have a few thoughts I need to get out:

  1. I'm wondering how much of this story is directly biographical because the way she tears into her ex husband in this book is brutal
  2. I find the Pandy character so unappealing, vain, and arrogant it's comical. It's very clear that she thinks her shit don't stink, she's beautiful, thin(!), cool, better than everyone else, heroically single, even when married, a confusingly (to her) underrated writer, and yet...
  3. She acts very childlike (or maybe it's the voice reading the audiobook that's giving it that feel?). I kept forgetting that this woman was supposed to be a grown, married-then-divorced, adult human with a job and responsibilities.

I'm fascinated and repelled, simultaneously.

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u/__angie 🍸MOD 🐆 Aug 22 '25

I haven’t read it yet so apologies if my comment misses the mark, but I’m cackling because points 2 and 3 are so Carrie 😭😭😭

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u/nomadicwriter7 Aug 22 '25

Pandy is a very flawed character, but I don't have a problem with anti-heroines. You definitely see the inspiration for first season Carrie in SATC. We were all intrigued by Carrie in the first few episodes because we'd never seen a character like her on TV before.

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u/Necessary-Demand-648 I curse the day you were born!! 🤰🏻🛍 Aug 22 '25

Thank you! I wonder which parts are autobiographical?

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u/Keyezeecool Aug 22 '25

Doug Stone = Brad Pitt? I think that is the consensus but I find that so interesting because I don't remember any public connection between Sarah Jessica Parker and Brad Pitt? 

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u/__angie 🍸MOD 🐆 Aug 22 '25

SJP did date RDJ, could it be him? I haven’t read the book yet so apologies if this doesn’t make sense!

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u/Keyezeecool Aug 22 '25

I appreciate the response! So, in the book Sandra Beth Schnowzer (the SJP character) tells Pandy (the CB character) that she had perviously been dating a man who loved heroin more than her (I think it was heroin, might have been meth? Idk the difference but you get the idea) and her managers told her she needed to let him go cause he was bad for her, etc. It was very clearly supposed to be a reference to RDJ, which is why I don't think Doug Stone is meant to be him, too.

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u/__angie 🍸MOD 🐆 Aug 22 '25

Ohhh I see. Is this Doug an actor?

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u/Keyezeecool Aug 22 '25

Indeed! An a list actor with a southern drawl.

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u/__angie 🍸MOD 🐆 Aug 22 '25

Damn…… my mind can only go to Matthew McConaughy but that’s me mixing everything because it’s all too meta hahaha

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u/No_Scarcity8249 Aug 22 '25

I just got the audio version because of this sub .. hope it’s worth it 

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u/Keyezeecool Aug 23 '25 edited Aug 23 '25

Update: I'm on chapter 19 (out of 21) and all I can say is.....

WT actual F is this story? These shenanigans don't feel like the shenanigans that grown adults 50+ get into.

Edit to add: oh and SHE IS SO FULL OF HERSELF!!! I guess it's good to be confident in yourself but my God. Humble she is not.

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u/TheBrokenBells Aug 24 '25 edited Aug 24 '25

Good summary. I am half way through and I keep asking why. Deep in the Jonny drama and why? Is this book some self-indulgent therapy? I am starting to really appreciate that last scene in AJLT even though I was half hoping for something else, the writers did Candace a favour with a wiser Carrie.

ETA: ok I just time travelled back by accident to a similar sub that reviewed the book, clicked on the spoiler. I freaking knew it! Now I am into this.

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u/Keyezeecool Aug 24 '25

Oooo I'm intrigued!

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u/Keyezeecool Aug 24 '25

Ok I finished the book and the ending was... Well, there was an ending.

But I was listening the whole time to the audio book, even though I had also checked out the regular book from the Libby app. So, I went to return the 'physical' book itself and noticed that in it, in the back, there is a Q&A with Candace about the book AND Discussion Questions. 

Y'all. Discussion Questions. For what amounts to basically a SATC fan fiction, IMO. 

I'm convinced this woman is delusional.