This novel follows two women, Cherry and Helen. They are, at times, best friends. As a part of an exclusive writer’s program called Heyward House, they are both colleagues but also competitors. Helen comes across as extremely self-centered, entitled, with a terrible attitude. Cherry comes across as a fighter and a good friend. The story is very meta as it appears to be about real life events and it makes you wonder how much is about real life. Helen and Cherry both plan to publish a novel and they assume they will be successful. Helen gets very angry, condescending and jealous of Cherry’s success. Helen looks up to a woman named Tess because she is wealthy although she struggles with mental health and addiction.
Jealousy is such a gross, pitiful emotion. Helen uses Cherry’s likeness in her fiction and really paints herself as being a better person than she is. Helen is super unlikable. But because the book is about fictionalized accounts of frenemies, it makes you really wonder if this is the author’s own attempt to do the same. This is not a feel-good, heartwarming tale, and it is not dramatic, over the top. The negativity that Helen brings Cherry is mostly academic. There are no thriller-type plotlines. This is really a book about female friendship and how awful women can be. I did find it to be slightly misogynistic, I think women are better than this.
Audiobook review- the performance was great, the narrator was engaging and the narrative was easy to follow. This is great on audio and produced well.
Thanks to NetGalley and Brilliance Publishing for the ARC. Book to be published 9/9/25
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