The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Book Review
How adorable are these puppies?? I’m obsessed 🥰🥰.
Shoutout to Celadon Books for sending me this advanced copy of The Plot. I knew nothing about this book going into it and was very pleasantly surprised. About halfway through reading I realized this is the same author who wrote You Should Have Known, which was adapted (and renamed) into the HBO Max series The Undoing (if you haven’t seen it yet, go watch it!! So good).
On sale May 11th, The Plot follows the story of Jacob Finch Bonner, a washed up writer teaching at an obscure MFA program. Once an accomplished novelist, Jake is less than enthused about the state of his current existence. One day, Jake encounters an arrogant student, Evan Parker, who is convinced he is writing the next great American novel… a sure thing, a book that simply cannot fail. Despite Jake’s disdain for this particular student, once he hears the plot of Evan Parker’s book, he begrudgingly admits that Parker is right. The plot of Parker’s work-in-progress is simply in a class of its own.
Two years later, Jake hasn’t seen or heard a peep about Evan Parker or his supposed masterpiece. After a quick google search, Jake discovers that Evan passed away shortly after their encounter and presumably never completed his novel. So, Jake takes it upon himself to write his story… one he feels the world simply needs to hear. Fast forward a few years and Jake is the author of the highly acclaimed novel, The Crib. A bestseller, an Oprah’s Book Club selection and everything Evan Parker expected… only with a different author. Jake is absolutely living his dream, until one day, he receives a note from an unknown source with one simple line, “you are a thief.” Upending Jake’s life completely.
I really enjoyed this one! Though I did guess the ending (or part of it anyway), I kind of enjoy being right about the direction of a novel… especially when it isn’t overtly obvious. While a few chapters in the middle of the book felt a bit slow to me, the ending was absolute perfection.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
