Imagine if Ted Lasso was about American lesbians instead of (predominantly) straight British men. Now imagine that Ted was a rookie player instead of Imagine if Ted Lasso was about American lesbians instead of (predominantly) straight British men. Now imagine that Ted was a rookie player instead of the coach, and that he and Roy Kent banged it out....more
I really wanted to love this, but it just didn't grip me. I struggled to keep the characters separate and it made it harder for me to lose myself in tI really wanted to love this, but it just didn't grip me. I struggled to keep the characters separate and it made it harder for me to lose myself in their stories.
Maybe I'll try it again when it hits the shelves....more
Elissa Sloan's second novel, Hayley Aldridge is Still Here is a thinly veiled fictionalization of Britney Spears' conservatorship drama. To be honest,Elissa Sloan's second novel, Hayley Aldridge is Still Here is a thinly veiled fictionalization of Britney Spears' conservatorship drama. To be honest, I never followed Britney's story all that carefully. Sure, I was aware of the #freebritney movement online and knew it was good news when I saw that the conservatorship ended, but I wasn't paying a lot of attention. Still, I thought this might be an interesting novel, but I don't know, this one just fell kind of flat.
Instead of a pop princess, Hayley is an actress who got her start as a child star, playing the little sister on a network family drama that ran for more than a decade. As you'd likely expect, Hayley's parents put an intense amount of pressure on her to succeed and that drove her toward some unhealthy coping mechanisms: casual sex, drugs, and booze. Like Britney, Hayley finds success in an industry that objectifies her and ignores her right to bodily autonomy (multiple adults found nothing wrong with asking her to do sex scenes with a 20-year-old costar when she was 15). After getting married and divorced, giving birth to twins, receiving a bipolar diagnosis, and going to rehab, Hayley becomes trapped in a conservatorship that doesn't serve her interests. After 15 years, public attention has led to the #helphayley movement on social media, finally giving her a chance at true independence.
It seems like this book should have been full of emotional exploration, but it just wasn’t. I think that’s because, weirdly, there actually isn't much about the conservatorship here. Most of the book focuses on the challenges of her childhood in the spotlight, from body shaming and sexual harassment to deep anxiety and unaddressed grief. The legal troubles only come into play fairly late in the story. All that backstory is certainly important because it gives a glimpse into what Hayley endured at a young age and why she might come to lean on alcohol and unhealthy sexual relationships. But we don’t really see much about the effects that the conservatorship has on her. She can’t use her phone or leave home without permission and a guard. She mentions that she’s lonely and she doesn’t get to make decisions about the roles she takes, but she’s just telling her daughters these things (the novel is narrated from the POV of thirtysomething Hayley telling her teen daughters her life story). We’re not really seeing them.
The book also doesn’t really seem interested in exploring why Hayley’s parents would want this conservatorship for their child. Sure, Hayley develops a drug problem and shows some poor decision making, but that doesn’t explain why they’d legally control her for 15 years. It’s sort of assumed that it’s because of greed – they want the financial benefits of her success for themselves – but the book never goes beyond Hayley saying that to her daughters. Weirdly, it’s her father who controls the conservatorship when it was Hayley’s mother was the one directing her career throughout her childhood – I guess this is like what happened with Britney, but in the context of a novel, it seemed like it was just happening with little explanation.
In the end, I guess this novel’s biggest flaw was that it was all telling and now showing, in a way that just left me wanting more. ...more
I think this book is very well written - it's smart, it's funny, and it's insightful. It's just not the right book for me at this point in my life, soI think this book is very well written - it's smart, it's funny, and it's insightful. It's just not the right book for me at this point in my life, so I had trouble engaging with the main character. ...more
A few weeks ago, I got together with my Any Book Book Club (where instead of reading and discussing the same book, we just talk about what we've been A few weeks ago, I got together with my Any Book Book Club (where instead of reading and discussing the same book, we just talk about what we've been reading lately - it's brilliant and everyone should do this) and we got into a discussion about books that are marketed as romance novels and have all the hallmarks of romance novels (ie, the Happily Ever After) but do not feel like romance novels because the "couple falling in love" part of the story doesn't feel like the most important thing happening.
The topic came up because one woman felt like the book she'd read wasn't a romance novel because it focused too heavily on the protagonist's relationship with her sister; I'd felt like the plot with the sister was secondary to the romance with the handsome fella. But it also got me thinking because I'd also recently read a book that was marketed as a romance novel but whose primary emotional core came from the protagonist's relationship with her sister. And funny enough, that same basic theme came up again in Thank You For Listening, which was a romance novel that fell short of my expectations because the love story wasn't the primary focus. Full circle, y'all.
I think it's safe to say that Julia Whelan is everyone's favorite audiobook narrator. Which makes sense, because she's great. She narrates a ton of books each year, but she might be most well-known for her romance and "women's fiction" catalog. So of course it makes sense that she would pen a romance novel(ish) about a woman who makes her living as an audiobook narrator. Write what you know, eh?
Sewanee Chester is the protagonist here. She and her friend Adaku both aspired to be actresses; while Adaku's career has taken off like a rocket, an accident left Sewanee with a career-altering injury and she has turned to audiobooks instead. She built her career on narrating romance novels but she grew weary of the genre in recent years and has shifted her focus elsewhere.
As the novel opens, Sewanee is attending a BookCon-style convention at the behest of her boss/landlord. When Adaku bails on a girl's night out in Vegas, Sewanee finds herself flirting with a hot Irishman at the bar. Sewanee gives him a fake name and backstory, but one thing leads to another and the two share a single, steamy night together. Fast forward a couple of months and Sewanee receives a proposal: one of the most beloved romance authors in the world has passed away and she wanted Sewanee to narrate her final book with Brock McNight, the secretive pseudonymous male narrator who is undoubtedly the biggest name in romance audiobooks.
Sewanee is hesitant, but the proposal comes with a huge paycheck. Sewanee needs that money in order to pay for her grandmother's transfer to a dementia unit in a senior care facility, so she eventually agrees to narrate the book under her own pseudonym (who knew so many narrators don't use their real names!?) As they get to work on the book, Sewanee and Brock begin exchanging emails and eventually texts. At first, it's all about the logistics of their work, but there's a real flirty vibe between the two of them and Sewane finds herself revealing parts of herself she's been hesitant to share with anyone else. It all forces her to be honest with herself about the reasons that she pulled back from so many things in her life.
And, I don't know. The behind-the-scenes details of the audiobook world were truly fascinating and Julia Whelan has written some great chemistry between Brock and Sewanee, but there are honestly just too many other threads going on in this story. Sewanee has conflict with her father over her grandmother's deteriorating state, conflict with Adaku over her acting career, self-confidence issues pertaining to her injury, turmoil because her boss might be ready to close down the audiobook production company, an encounter with an ex that leaves her feeling shaken, and she's trying to sort out her feelings about this man whose real name she doesn't know. Because there's so much going on, it doesn't feel like any of these issues are really explored with the kind of depth they deserve and the resolutions to these various storylines don't always feel earned. I think that's why it ended up feeling less like a romance novel than a novel about a woman going through some shit who just happens to catch feelings for a dude along the way.
Maybe that was Julia's Whelan's goal? I'm not sure. It's definitely marketed as a romance novel, but the characters do spend a not-insignificant amount of time debating the difference between romance and "women's fiction" (I think we can all agree that's a stupid term, right!?) so I do think she wanted to at least explore the limits of genre with this one. Maybe if she had just narrowed her focus just a little bit and trimmed some of the plot threads that didn't really feel so vital to Sewanee's journey of self-enlightenment, I might have enjoyed this more. As it is, though, I found Thank You For Listening to be just very run-of-the mill....more
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