Kardashian ‘Dollhouse’ Book Review: Dare We Ask for a Sequel?

It's no surprise that the Kardashian clan decided to release a novel, titled Dollhouse. Celebrities have done it before -- Pamela Anderson, Lauren Conrad and Nicole Richie, to name a few -- and the plots of such novels tend to be reflective of the celebrities themselves. Dollhouse is no different. The three main characters -- Kamille, Kass and Kyle Romero -- are sisters. Their mother, Kat, runs a restaurant and their stepfather is a retired baseball player with kids of his own. Their biological father has long passed away.

The real Kardashians are not getting the best press these days.

A petition to boycott all things Kardashian is gaining traction and the recent split between Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries has skeptics of the family crying foul. But credit must be given where credit is due. Dollhouse is entertaining chick lit that accomplishes the unexpected: making the Kardashians bearable, at least on paper.

The book has a few disturbing scenes. There is the scene where Kyle hooks up with her stepbrother during a study session. There is the scene in which Kamille's boyfriend -- and later fiancé -- takes advantage of a drunk and incoherent Kass and ends up impregnating her. There is also a passing moment in which the girls' mother, Kat, and her friend have a competition during Kamille's bachelorette party: The party really hit rock bottom around midnight, when Pippa and Kat started teasing each other about their 'double-decker bus' vaginas and having a contest to see whose was bigger by stuffing ice cubes into them. By the time Kamille left (or rather, ran out of there as fast as she could, pleading exhaustion), Kat was winning, with twelve cubes and counting.

Disturbing scenes and storylines aside, there are more lighthearted moments in the narrative, such as when Kamille saves the day by showing up to help Kass give birth (and thereby forgiving her for sleeping with her ex and disrupting the wedding plans). A storyline involving Kass and a nice young man named Eduardo made for sweeter reading, although that relationship was scrapped due to the pregnancy.

There is also humor. The book's opening scene features Kamille right after an expensive spa appointment, justifying the expense to herself. As far as Kamille was concerned, these were all necessities. Kat herself had taught Kamille and her sisters to take pride in their appearance and maintain a strict grooming ritual, including regular hair removal. Just because they were poor now didn't mean they had to be furry and ugly, did it?

The book also takes jabs at the media and the complications that come from being followed by the press. Kamille is the one to experience this firsthand: She had been mentioned in other magazines and in the blogs, too -- some of it was positive, some of it was not so positive (did that blogger really have to call her fat just because she had curves?), but who was she to be picky? It was all good. Giles had told her that by this time next year, with hard work and luck, she could be right up there with Gisele and Heidi.

With the exception of the weirder scenes -- including the whole drunken sex and pregnancy storyline -- Dollhouse makes for a fun, entertaining read. Skeptics will surely feel some doubt as to who sat down and actually wrote this book, but this is not the issue. Dollhouse is a fictionalized account of the Kardashian family that draws heavily from their real lives. Getting them in book form -- as opposed to watching them on television -- makes for a much easier pill to swallow.