An entertaining but disjointed send-up of Hollywood shenanigans and clichés.
Readers follow the increasingly deranged production of a Hollywood film headed by a notoriously troubled director.
Fashioned as a nonfiction account of a doomed Hollywood production, the novel focuses on the bizarre antics of Director (a famously problematic but talented man clearly fashioned after Stanley Kubrick) and the two married leads (stand-ins for Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise) starring in an 8-years-in-the-making movie based on an erotic novella entitled “Tre Noi” (“The Three of Us”). But as Writer soon discovers, updating the tale from 19th-century Italy to modern-day America proves more challenging than previously thought. Add to that the marital aggressions between Actor and Actress, copious drug use, and the tragic personal sacrifices Director makes in the name of art, and the entire production seems to be hurtling toward imminent disaster. While fictional, the novel incorporates occasional real-world happenings, such as the introduction of a Covid-like virus that is rumored to be spreading. Readers are also introduced to various real-life film-making insights, including insider slang (“NG” as shorthand for “No Good,” for example) and the sheer number of people need to make a production work. Strick’s deep dive into an ill-fated film reflects a love for movies that hardcore film buffs may enjoy tackling. Unfortunately, stilted dialogue (“Cut to the chase, bitch”) and a lack of any character development combine to create a cast of caricatures (the eccentric director, the beleaguered writer, etc.). This point is driven home by the fact that nearly all characters don’t have names, just designations (Agent, Assistant, etc.)—a choice that also makes the narrative particularly choppy: “CAMERA slowly PANS the COURTROOM, past the TWELVE attentive JURORS (and one ALTERNATE) to the SPECTATORS and INTERESTED PARTIES in attendance. OVER, we HEAR the OFFSCREEN VOICE of a MAN whom our movie audience will recognize as belonging to ACTOR.” The novel, while often clever, ultimately reads as both a parody and homage to filmmaking without actually landing on either one.
An entertaining but disjointed send-up of Hollywood shenanigans and clichés.Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 463
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.
A year in the life of the No. 2 boarding school in America—up from No. 19 last year!
Rumors of Hilderbrand’s retirement were greatly exaggerated, it turns out, since not only has she not gone out to pasture, she’s started over in high school, with her daughter Shelby Cunningham as co-author. As their delicious new book opens, it’s Move-In Day at Tiffin Academy, and Head of School Audre Robinson is warmly welcoming the returning and new students to the New England campus, the latter group including a rare midstream addition to the junior class. Brainiac Charley Hicks is transferring from public school in Maryland to a spot that opened up when one of the school’s most beloved students died by suicide the preceding year. She will be joining a large, diverse cast of adult and teenage characters—queen bees, jealous second-stringers, boozehounds young and old, secret lesbians, people chasing the wrong people chasing other wrong people—all of them royally screwed when an app called Zip Zap appears and starts blasting everyone’s secrets all over campus. How the heck…? Meanwhile, it seems so unlikely that Tiffin has jumped up to the No. 2 spot in the boarding-school rankings that a high-profile magazine launches an investigation, and even the head is worried that there may have been payola involved. The school has a reputation for being more social than academic, and this quality gets an exciting new exclamation point when the resident millionaire bad boy opens a high-style secret speakeasy for select juniors in a forgotten basement. It’s called Priorities. Exactly. One problem: Cinnamon Peters’ mysterious suicide hangs over the book in an odd way, especially since the note she left for her closest male friend is not to be opened for another year—and isn’t. This is surely a setup for a sequel, but it’s a bit frustrating here, and bobs sort of shallowly along amid the general high spirits.
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780316567855
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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