Note: I know the author of this book socially.
Man, this book inspired a whole lot of conflicting feelings for me, which isn't that surprising, given that it's a bit of a mishmash in terms of genre. It's a novel about events that take place in New York City in the fall of 1991, and a big part of the experience of reading it for me was the feeling of nostalgia and just recognition of that point in time. It's a deliberate period piece, with references to specific brands and cultural touchstones and political events in practically every sentence, and it's a look back on Gen X culture when they were the twenty-somethings discovering the world. I am either the youngest of Gen Xers or the oldest of Millennials, depending on which cutoff date you use, and so Gen X culture is baked into my experience of life and how I view the world, even though it was also something adult and unreachable for me. I learned what it was to be adult by watching Gen Xers though, and this book really drove home a lot of those unconscious lessons.
But what is the book actually about, you ask. Well, that's part of where my conflicted feelings come in. The story is about a girl, Taylor Schmidt, who moves to New York in the fall of 1991 and is murdered about a month later. The book's POV is her roommate, who's kind of obsessed with her and who reads her diaries and in general I found pretty unsympathetic, especially since we know from the first chapter (possibly even the first page) that Taylor is beautiful and young and perfect and also dies, and I am not actually that interested in stories about women with that plot trajectory, especially when told by a male protagonist. That's not my kind of thriller. However, the story is also a satire, and the story of why and how Taylor gets murdered involves an employment agency that has a secret method of getting its clients new jobs: there are too many baby boomers holding onto positions, so the only way for Gen Xers to get their foot in the door is to kill them off. I still wasn't totally sold while Taylor was shocked and horrified by how she got her job, but then she killed her first mark and loved it and suddenly Taylor became a character I cared about.
So basically: I don't care about beautiful young women who are killed and are viewed as objects before their death by POV characters, but I care a lot about a woman who decides that murder is the way to go. The end of the book holds together better than I thought it would, even if the twist made be a bit grumpy for similar reasons, but it was also remarkable reading this book, which was written in the late 2000's about the early '90's, and reflecting on the fact that the '90's will not die, politically or otherwise. Also it reaffirmed something I've been feeling a lot during this reading project, which is boy do I not give a fuck about what men think of women. So this book did well for me to get past that reaction at all, but I probably wouldn't have finished it if I didn't know the author. I'm glad I did, though. It was better than the setup suggested.
Grade: B
Man, this book inspired a whole lot of conflicting feelings for me, which isn't that surprising, given that it's a bit of a mishmash in terms of genre. It's a novel about events that take place in New York City in the fall of 1991, and a big part of the experience of reading it for me was the feeling of nostalgia and just recognition of that point in time. It's a deliberate period piece, with references to specific brands and cultural touchstones and political events in practically every sentence, and it's a look back on Gen X culture when they were the twenty-somethings discovering the world. I am either the youngest of Gen Xers or the oldest of Millennials, depending on which cutoff date you use, and so Gen X culture is baked into my experience of life and how I view the world, even though it was also something adult and unreachable for me. I learned what it was to be adult by watching Gen Xers though, and this book really drove home a lot of those unconscious lessons.
But what is the book actually about, you ask. Well, that's part of where my conflicted feelings come in. The story is about a girl, Taylor Schmidt, who moves to New York in the fall of 1991 and is murdered about a month later. The book's POV is her roommate, who's kind of obsessed with her and who reads her diaries and in general I found pretty unsympathetic, especially since we know from the first chapter (possibly even the first page) that Taylor is beautiful and young and perfect and also dies, and I am not actually that interested in stories about women with that plot trajectory, especially when told by a male protagonist. That's not my kind of thriller. However, the story is also a satire, and the story of why and how Taylor gets murdered involves an employment agency that has a secret method of getting its clients new jobs: there are too many baby boomers holding onto positions, so the only way for Gen Xers to get their foot in the door is to kill them off. I still wasn't totally sold while Taylor was shocked and horrified by how she got her job, but then she killed her first mark and loved it and suddenly Taylor became a character I cared about.
So basically: I don't care about beautiful young women who are killed and are viewed as objects before their death by POV characters, but I care a lot about a woman who decides that murder is the way to go. The end of the book holds together better than I thought it would, even if the twist made be a bit grumpy for similar reasons, but it was also remarkable reading this book, which was written in the late 2000's about the early '90's, and reflecting on the fact that the '90's will not die, politically or otherwise. Also it reaffirmed something I've been feeling a lot during this reading project, which is boy do I not give a fuck about what men think of women. So this book did well for me to get past that reaction at all, but I probably wouldn't have finished it if I didn't know the author. I'm glad I did, though. It was better than the setup suggested.
Grade: B
Missing your posts on books! Hope all is well in your world.
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