A candid, unexpected critique of celebrity, hanger-on, and enabler culture.
Both an ad for the real deuxmoi, a pseudonymous celebrity-gossip Instagram account, and a surprisingly good read.
For eight years, Cricket Lopez has been the abused assistant of Manhattan celebrity stylist Sasha Sherman, the former queen of reality TV. After one particularly humiliating day and very boozy evening, Cricket restarts her anonymous Instagram account,deuxmoi, airing the dirty laundry about her firm's new influencer client and asking fans to spill the tea about their celebrity encounters. The account goes viral, and soon everyone is talking about the unverified blind items detailing celebrity sex habits and restaurant sightings as well as guessing who the anonymous creator is. Cricket navigates the tidal wave of secret notoriety alongside Leon, her snarky but sweet co-worker, and Victoria, her BFF since high school who married out of the fashion industry and into the country-club world of the Upper East Side. But as the account grows in its influence, Sasha's firm flounders, and their main A-list client may be the next to fall prey to his own history of sexual misconduct and predatory behavior. Sasha grows even more out-of-control, an internet tycoon wants to buy deuxmoi, a reporter is ready to out her, and Cricket and her friends can lose even more than they thought possible. And then there's Ollie Snyder, the editor-in-chief of a Billboard-type entertainment magazine, who is as hot as Hollywood and slides into Cricket's DMs, offering advice and very steamy sex. For deuxmoi fans, this novel will be a solid extension of the brand's coming-of-age story, and they'll especially enjoy the inside jokes and liberal quotes from the real-life account, which helps create the tantalizing-yet-relatable tone. For nonfans, this autofiction is reminiscent of other of-the-moment bad-boss books like Leigh Stein's Self Care.
A candid, unexpected critique of celebrity, hanger-on, and enabler culture.Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-325780-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
A moving, realistic look at one woman’s post-divorce family life that manages to be both poignant and funny.
A recently divorced writer juggles a chaotic full house, a struggling career, and a confusing romantic life.
Lila Kennedy thought she had the perfect family—a loving mother, a doting stepfather, two wonderful daughters, and a great husband. She even wrote a self-help book about repairing a marriage, which was published a mere two weeks before her husband left her. After her own mother’s sudden death, Lila finds herself an unexpected single mom with her health-nut stepfather, Bill, for a roommate. When her long-absent actor father, Gene, moves in, things go from crowded to chaotic. When Gene isn’t talking about his memories of starring on a Star Trek–like television show, he’s starting fights with Bill. Perhaps the worst part is that Lila’s supposed to produce a new book about the unexpected direction her life has taken. She quickly finds that writing about her real-life romantic exploits (including the kind gardener Bill hired and the sexy single dad she lusts after at school pick-up) and the actual heartbreak that upended her family is easier said than done. Moyes creates a world that is believable and funny. It’s hilarious to read about the distinct characters in Lila’s life—such as her lentil-loving stepfather and egocentric biological father—interacting with each other. There’s plenty of drama here, but none of it feels forced. It all comes from flawed people doing their best to coexist and making plenty of mistakes along the way. Moyes combines the warmth of an Annabel Monaghan rom-com with the humanity of a Catherine Newman novel, creating a story that will provoke tears and laughter.
A moving, realistic look at one woman’s post-divorce family life that manages to be both poignant and funny.Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781984879325
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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