FIRST TIME, LONG TIME

A young woman grapples with her brother’s death while starting a relationship with an older man in this debut novel.

Allison is 28, living in Los Angeles, teaching writing at a community college after having dropped out of graduate school when her brother died two years earlier in what may have been an accident. She feels directionless as she tries to decide what she wants to do in life and whether she wants to pursue a writing career. One night at a bar she meets Reid Steinman, a shock jock famed for crass jokes about women and beloved by dads, including her own volatile father, whom she calls “The Problem.” She and Reid, who’s much kinder than his radio persona would suggest, start dating, even though he’s about her father’s age. But when Allison meets his daughter, Emma, she finds herself falling for the aspiring comedian, throwing her into even more turmoil over the direction of her life. As Emma begins returning her feelings, Allison finds herself in a love triangle just as news of her relationship with Reid hits the tabloids. This hard-to-pin-down novel tackles too much—a tough childhood, difficult parents, an age-gap romance with a famous person, questions of sexuality, mourning—without enough charm or depth to pull it off. While a few of these topics might have made for an engaging quarterlife-crisis novel, none of them has room to breathe here, and the author gives too much space to subplots that don’t add much, such as Allison’s side gig facilitating book clubs for rich women. Allison often seems much younger than 28 as she fumbles and passively engages with her own circumstances. Combined with frequent flashbacks, it adds up to a story that falls flat.

A novel with many threads that never quite come together.