Killing Monica is a weak imitation of Carrie Bradshaw

Candace Bushnell’s new book is about a 40-something author who, tired of the protagonist she has created and dragged over sequel after sequel, is determined to publish an entirely different novel. Sounds like something Bushnell might have had first-hand experience with. If Bushnell ever felt weighted down by the writer’s burden with Carrie Bradshaw and Sarah Jessica Parker, the actress who played the role in the Sex and the City movies, it is Pandemonia James Wallis (or Pandy) who suffers the same fate with Monica and Sondra Beth Schnowzer in Killing Monica. Strangely Bushnell has flatly refused to acknowledge the similarities between the characters or with her reality in recent interviews. Is this refusal all part of the game?

Well, she has, in the past, called Carrie her alter-ego and while Pandy doesn’t have the spunk, spine or sense of humour of Carrie Bradshaw, we certainly spot a lot of similarities between the two Bushnell creations:

They’re both New York-based writers originally from Connecticut: Let’s get the most obvious one out of the way. Carrie is a New York City loyalist who hates LA, and although Pandy might not share the revulsion for the city she does try to keep an arm’s length from showbiz. Both grew up in small towns in Connecticut.

They’ve got terrible luck with men: Both Pandy and Carrie have had their share of boyfriends and heartbreaks. Pandy is a bit of a cynic when it comes to love, until of course she finds herself in love (with the wrong man). Carrie’s story was never a traditional girl-meets-boy tale of love, and it took her a string of bad ones before she found "the one".

Find a rational voice in their girlfriends: Carrie and Pandy both have a gang of girlfriends they fall back on. Miranda is Carrie’s go-to-person in the worst situations. Even among the herd of Pandy’s posse, Suzette stands out as the rational one, with opinions that could well be Miranda’s.

They’ve both had serious relationships with restaurateurs that go caput: While Carrie’s Aidan, the furniture maker turned pub owner, is extremely sensitive and caring, Pandy’s celebrity chef-cum-restaurateur Johny Balaga is anything but.

Cooking is not a skill they possess: At least Pandy can recreate a lamb recipe she had once learnt while at school in Paris, but Carrie is notorious for using her oven as storage space for her clothes.