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Without spoiling anything for readers who havent finished yet, what did you think of the book overall?
Allison P. Davis: I was so stressed, it was like I wanted to go back on Xanax.
My friend described it asUncut Gemsfor girls, and I agree with that.
I had to speed-read it just so I wouldnt be so anxious.
Or,Dont steal thatanything, actuallyjust stop stealing things.
Matthew Schneier: I felt compelled to finish it out of a combination of stress and interest.
To me, the structural analog seemed much more familiar as a prestige TV show.
Emily: Can we transcribe that we all just nodded?
I liked the propulsivity of that.
Its constantly teetering on the verge of disaster.
Also, every time she steals something I was rooting for her to steal it …
I was kind of hoping that this was all going to work out in the end.
New York is filled with these types of characters.
Emily: But theres always a price.
Brock: Unless youre really good at it.
Emily: Unless you have no soul or conscience whatsoever.
Sometimes its really boring and annoying to be around rich people and thats the price you pay.
Allison D.: Alison, when you described her as beautiful, I had such an immediate reaction.
I never for a second thought that this girl was beautiful.
Shes artful about how she pulls herself together, but I assumed she was wonky looking.
Am I the only one?
Brock: Also, shes 22.
So the people around her are jealous.
What else do we know about Alex?
How do you envision her?
I imagined those people when I was reading her.
Its an authorial choice were denied a lot of information about who she is on a deep level.
I felt like I understood Alexs sense of self so well from her passing moments of observation.
Matthew: I like how opaque Alex was, though, because shes fairly opaque to herself.
She understands that she is attractive enough to make this work and it doesnt matter what she looks like.
Shes almost all plot; the book is almost all plot.
Matthew: Keep the breath sweet.
Something about that phrasing is very perfect and underdone.
Alison W.: I feel like she worries about her armpits as well.
Allison D.: Her roommates hate her ass.
Alison W.: She essentially shrugs off the idea that she has some core origin story or trauma.
This is kind of likeMy Year of Sex and Relaxation,except its not at all relaxing.
Brock: It never says the wordssex work, but shes obviously a sex worker.
It was a process.
In the first section, were introduced to two men, Simon and Dom.
What did you make of those two poles of masculinity in this characters life?
Brock: Do you guys hate them as much as you hate her?
Allison D.: I dont like anyone in this book!
Brock: I mean, Simon really sucks.
Matthew: I want to be clear that I dont hate Alex.
I wish Alex could sort of figure it out.
Alex is a character who is so passive that she is then molded in the complementary image to that.
Emily: Shes not that smart.
The way that the author chooses to withhold intelligence or good decision-making from Alex feels like a choice.
I also dont hate her, its more like I dont know her.
But on the page theres just a dead-soul quality.
Simons like a nonentity basically.
Someone who wants to wear a 22-year-old as an accessory in the Hamptons.
It becomes a pattern where Alex is just like, I dont know what happened.
With Dom you get how she will elide half of what happened in an incident from herself, even.
Shes pushed it out of her own recollection.
In these first three chapters, you kind of understand her.
But then, in both of these situations, she has impulsively blown things up.
But youre like,No, you made those choices.
Allison D.: Hes so pathetic, Dom.
Those text messages are so sad.
Or hes just like some really heartbroken bad boy she was with whos not that bad.
