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A review by bethreadsandnaps
I Need You to Read This by Jessa Maxwell
2.0
Despite its title, I think you will be okay if you don't read Jessa Maxwell's latest I NEED YOU TO READ THIS (publishes August 13, 2024).
The book blurb did pull me in, but the reading experience devolved for me from the beginning. Alex Marks leads a lonely life as a remote pharmaceutical copyeditor in NYC, and she goes to the local diner Bluebird for breakfast every morning as her only social activity. After the advice columnist Francis Keen (Dear Constance is the advice column) from the Herald passes away, the newspaper advertises the position, and Alex applies. She gets the job! It's $125,000 per year to read Dear Constance letters and reply to ONE per WEEK. Now, I don't know much about the newspaper industry, other than it's not high paying these days and you have to work your butt off. So the plausibility of being responsible for writing 300-500 words per WEEK for $125,000 per year, even in NYC, befuddles me. And she gets an assistant?!
Then the setting and vibe really threw me. Yes, it's summer in New York City, but the huge office building where Alex now works (why doesn't she work remotely?) is dead. Apparently she only sees the receptionist Jonathan, the head honcho Howard, and her assistant Lucy. I guess no one else works in this 45 story office building. I've never read a book set in a city that felt so lonely.
And then the dialogue bugged me. It was cheesy and amateurish.
Interspersed within the narrative, the reader finds out that Alex used to write to Dear Constance herself and that she's experienced trauma from a past partner, which is easy to figure out based on the novel itself, so it felt repetitive. Aside from Alex's new job and her traumatic past, we don't know much about her as a person. I suppose Alex's loneliness is a point the author is trying to make, but what about her family? Any friends other than the server and the other regular patron at the diner? Does she have any personality other than her past trauma?
As for the plot, it is slow, but I don't mind a slow plot. It was everything else, from the premise to the execution of dialogue and even scene structure, that made me roll my eyes. The police non-involvement in Francis's death seemed odd. There was ridiculousness toward the end that I could have taken more readily had not so many things bugged me and compounded on one another.
I really enjoyed this author's first novel THE GOLDEN SPOON. This follow-up was a big disappointment.
Rating: 2 out of 5
The book blurb did pull me in, but the reading experience devolved for me from the beginning. Alex Marks leads a lonely life as a remote pharmaceutical copyeditor in NYC, and she goes to the local diner Bluebird for breakfast every morning as her only social activity. After the advice columnist Francis Keen (Dear Constance is the advice column) from the Herald passes away, the newspaper advertises the position, and Alex applies. She gets the job! It's $125,000 per year to read Dear Constance letters and reply to ONE per WEEK. Now, I don't know much about the newspaper industry, other than it's not high paying these days and you have to work your butt off. So the plausibility of being responsible for writing 300-500 words per WEEK for $125,000 per year, even in NYC, befuddles me. And she gets an assistant?!
Then the setting and vibe really threw me. Yes, it's summer in New York City, but the huge office building where Alex now works (why doesn't she work remotely?) is dead. Apparently she only sees the receptionist Jonathan, the head honcho Howard, and her assistant Lucy. I guess no one else works in this 45 story office building. I've never read a book set in a city that felt so lonely.
And then the dialogue bugged me. It was cheesy and amateurish.
Interspersed within the narrative, the reader finds out that Alex used to write to Dear Constance herself and that she's experienced trauma from a past partner, which is easy to figure out based on the novel itself, so it felt repetitive. Aside from Alex's new job and her traumatic past, we don't know much about her as a person. I suppose Alex's loneliness is a point the author is trying to make, but what about her family? Any friends other than the server and the other regular patron at the diner? Does she have any personality other than her past trauma?
As for the plot, it is slow, but I don't mind a slow plot. It was everything else, from the premise to the execution of dialogue and even scene structure, that made me roll my eyes. The police non-involvement in Francis's death seemed odd. There was ridiculousness toward the end that I could have taken more readily had not so many things bugged me and compounded on one another.
I really enjoyed this author's first novel THE GOLDEN SPOON. This follow-up was a big disappointment.
Rating: 2 out of 5