Book Review- Jessica Knoll's The Favorite Sister

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for providing me with a copy of Jessica Knoll's latest novel, The Favorite Sister, in exchange for an honest review.

PLOT- "Goal Diggers" is a reality show about a group of highly driven and successful entrepenurial women. All are successful in their careers, but the show creates a new format in which they can compete. The women backstab and lie in efforts to show that they are valuable enough for the network to cast them on the subsequent season of "Goal Diggers." Those who do not prove their worth by being entertaining enough are ruthlessly shown the door.

Long time cast member Brett, owns a chain of cycle fitness centers with her older sister, Kelly. This season, we learn that Kelly has been added as a full-time cast member. This shocks the cast because Kelly is a single-mom and being a mother had never been part of the plan for any of the other "Goal Diggers". Kelly's teenage daughter is beautiful, sassy and bi-racial. Stephanie, the only African-American and the oldest member of the cast, immediately feels threatened, thinking that Kelly's daughter might be her replacement. 

Early in the novel, we learn through a flash-forward that Brett is dead and there is something very fishy regarding her death. However, to figure out how Brett died and who is responsible, we need to sit back and enjoy the current season of "Goal Diggers": the most vicious and shocking season to date!

LIKE- I loved Jessica Knoll's debut novel, Luckiest Girl Alive and I was thrilled to be granted a copy of The Favorite Sister. Knoll has a fabulous writer's voice and excels at tone. The tone of The Favorite Sister is snarky and bitchy, there are so many cutting remarks. It's a black comedy and often very funny. I don't remember the exact line, but a memorable comment that made me laugh-out-loud, was when one character uses the term "Bae" and another character cuts into her fear of being old, by telling her that no one under thirty uses "Bae" anymore. Knoll's novel is filled with comedic moments.

The Favorite Sister made me feel stressed. All of the characters are constantly struggling to maintain their image and push their brand. Logically we know, and they probably know, that nothing that they ever do will be enough. It's a never ending hamster wheel. However, to a much lesser degree, this is what a majority of us do when we waste time on social media. I think this is why I felt anxiety reading The Favorite Sister, it touches a nerve.

The characters are successful in their careers, yet it seems like none of that success counts, unless they are able to prove their worth on "Goal Diggers". On the surface, "Goal Diggers" claims to be a show that lifts-up women and showcases their successes, but of course that is all a sham for a reality show that is just as dirty as the latest "Housewives of..." series. The participants on the show all willingly play into the charade, all desperate to keep in the spotlight. 

I'm a Reality TV fan, so the overall theme appealed to me and I loved Knoll's behind the scenes look at the fictitious "Goal Diggers." It's fun to see the manipulation on the production side. The ending was an unexpected surprise with great twists.

DISLIKE- The Favorite Sister was not an effortless read. It took me about half the book to really keep all of the characters straight. It didn't help that I was trying to read it during my vacation in England: not a distraction free environment. If you plan to read The Favorite Sister, I suggest setting aside a large chunk of time to really get into the story.

Also making it difficult was the pacing. I found the middle of the story to be sluggish. I think it may be in part due to the nature of the story with regard to tone. None of the characters are even remotely likable and their ceaseless negative attitudes is draining on the reader. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of funny moments that comes with this territory and the story world dictates this behavior, but it's also cumbersome. I couldn't call this a page turner, because I had to set it aside, not wanting to spend too many minutes in this world at a time. 

RECOMMEND- Maybe. I highly recommend Knoll's first novel, Luckiest Girl Alive, but I'm hesitant to recommend The Favorite Sister. That said, Knoll is a very gifted writer and I will absolutely read her next book. I appreciate what she was trying to accomplish with The Favorite Sister, but the negative energy drained me.

Book Review- Stephanie Danler's Sweetbitter

PLOT- Just twenty-two and ready to strike out on her own, Tess moves to New York City and lands a job at a prestigious restaurant. As she learns the ropes, trying to work her way up to being a server, she gets a crash-course in the restaurant industry. Tess discovers that the world is a bigger place than she had imagined as she becomes exposed to new foods, wines, and an eclectic group of co-workers. However navigating this new world is not easy, especially when she begins a relationship with a sexy bartender.

LIKE- Sweetbitter has been on my radar for a long-time. It has gotten a lot of buzz and has recently been turned into a television series on the Starz network. I finally caved and bought it, when it got a great review from Gina B, co-host of the Stories We'd Tell in Bars Podcast. It seemed like the perfect vacation read for my trip to England.

Gina was right, Sweetbitter is a page-turner. It's a bit salacious and soap-opera esque, an escapism read. However, this is not to undermine Stephanie Danler's writing skills. One of the pleasures in Sweet Bitter is the sensuous way that she describes food and drink. The joy of fine dining is not just in the taste, but also the presentation. There are so many vivid and beautiful descriptions in Sweetbitter. It's food-porn. The delight isn't just in the fine dining, but also how Tess and her coworkers steal away things to enjoy. For example, there is a scene where they steal fresh oysters and enjoy them on the sly in the kitchen. The message being that fine dining is not limited to the rich and that the pleasures of food are for everyone. Also, the pleasures of food are not only to be found in expensive restaurants, the characters eat at greasy spoon diners and create feasts in their own homes. Tess learns the need to develop her palate and experience a variety of flavors.

It's easy for me to fall in love with stories of protagonist who are starting out in the world. i love the idea of fresh starts and how everything is exciting. Tess fits this role perfectly and although she starts to spiral into a dark territory towards the middle/end, I always found myself rooting for her to succeed. I wish she had maintained her innocence longer.

I love the setting of a restaurant. My ex-husband worked in the restaurant industry and I found myself feeling a familiarity with the way the staff had shift drinks after closing and developed a family atmosphere. I also recognized the dysfunction. There is so much dysfunction and extreme behavior.

Simone is the senior waitstaff, a woman with a cool exterior who seems to always have everything under control. She's a great character. She's a bit mysterious and always teetering on being either Tess' friend or foe. I enjoyed the dynamic between Tess and Simone.

DISLIKE- I found Tess' slide into drug and alcohol abuse to be a little quick. It made the story take a heavy turn than dragged down the pacing. I felt like something else needed to happen with the turn in the story. For example when Tess sits down with Simone at the end, it wasn't a satisfying resolution, because I failed to believe that Tess had become strong enough to stand up to Simone. It needed another layer to make it believable.

RECOMMEND- Yes! Sweetbitter is a guilty-pleasure read that I fully embraced. I'm looking forward to watching the television series and I'm wondering how they will manage to capture Danler's rich descriptions. You should read the book, just for the beautiful sensory elements.

Book Review- Lisa Jewell's Then She Was Gone

Thank you to Atria Books for providing me with a copy of Lisa Jewell's novel, Then She Was Gone, in exchange for an honest review.

PLOT- Ellie Mack is a beautiful, smart, popular teenager, who seems to have everything going for her. One day, on her way to the library, she disappears and her case goes cold. A decade later. Ellie's mother, Laurel, begins to date a man named Floyd, whose daughter, Poppy, bears a striking resemblance to Ellie. Laurel begins to revisit her daughter's disappearance and discovers new facts of the case. Can Laurel finally find out what happened to daughter? Does Poppy hold the key?

LIKE- I've read several of Lisa Jewell's other novels and I was very excited to be granted a copy of Then She Was Gone. Jewell is masterful at crafting great suspense and mysteries. However, where she really shines is with her characters. She has a gift at tapping into the human psyche and creating relatable, multi-deminisional characters. 

Characters are what shine in Then She Was Gone. I was most drawn to Laurel, the grieving mother who not only lost her daughter, but also saw her marriage collapse under the weight of a missing child. Laurel is just getting her life back together when she meets Floyd and is shoved back down the rabbit hole of her daughter's case. Her anxiety and grief is palpable.  

We do not learn Ellie's fate until late in the story, but she is the narrator in some of the flashback chapters. Of course as a reader, our bond with Ellie is not going to be strong, like her mother's, however these chapters do serve to give us a clearer picture of Ellie and give us a chance to connect with her. Jewell is equally great at writing adults and children, letting us see Ellie's frame of mind and motivations. 

Then She Was Gone heads to some very dark places and is a story that made me anxious. I saw a blurb comparing it to Gone Girl, which was a little misleading. When I think of comparisons to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, I think that the story must have an unreliable narrator. Then She Was Gone has narrators under duress, but they are not unreliable. I read another that compared it to Alice Sebold's novel, The Lovely Bones, which is a much better comparison with regard to both theme and tone. 

DISLIKE- I anticipated the twist early on and kept hoping that it would not be what I was expecting. It's not that the story wasn't intriguing, but it's always a little bit of a let down when you manage to figure out the twist early on. I did not anticipate the creepy, disturbing aspects of the twist. It gave me chills. 

RECOMMEND- Yes! Jewell is such a marvelous writer that I have to recommend all of her novels, including Then She Was Gone.