Title: The Plot

Author: Jean Hanff Korelitz

Publisher: Celadon 2021

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 336

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Jacob Finch Bonner was once a promising young novelist with a respectably published first book. Today, he’s teaching in a third-rate MFA program and struggling to maintain what’s left of his self-respect; he hasn’t written―let alone published―anything decent in years. When Evan Parker, his most arrogant student, announces he doesn’t need Jake’s help because the plot of his book in progress is a sure thing, Jake is prepared to dismiss the boast as typical amateur narcissism. But then . . . he hears the plot.

Jake returns to the downward trajectory of his own career and braces himself for the supernova publication of Evan Parker’s first novel: but it never comes. When he discovers that his former student has died, presumably without ever completing his book, Jake does what any self-respecting writer would do with a story like that―a story that absolutely needs to be told.

In a few short years, all of Evan Parker’s predictions have come true, but Jake is the author enjoying the wave. He is wealthy, famous, praised and read all over the world. But at the height of his glorious new life, an e-mail arrives, the first salvo in a terrifying, anonymous campaign: You are a thief, it says.

As Jake struggles to understand his antagonist and hide the truth from his readers and his publishers, he begins to learn more about his late student, and what he discovers both amazes and terrifies him. Who was Evan Parker, and how did he get the idea for his “sure thing” of a novel? What is the real story behind the plot, and who stole it from whom?

Our book club selection for January. I wasn’t convinced that this was going to be my book from the overall impression I got from people who loved it. And it turns out, that I was right about what my review would be. This just didn’t landed with me. I rarely love thrillers and this one felt very obvious and yet very slow and ponderous throughout. Right away I did not care for the main character. I understand that he’s not to well-loved, but I struggled to find anything redeemable about him. So no good connection the characters. From there, we spend way too much time slowly moving through his life. I was thoroughly bored. We don’t even get to the thriller part of the mystery until way after the halfway mark. I just couldn’t deal with the pacing at all. And then the actual reveal is a giant multi-page monologue from the “villain.” The story becomes so convoluted that we needed the villain to monologue for that many pages to explain their actions. I just didn’t really care at that point. Thrillers… just not my thing at all.

Next up on the TBR pile: