I only picked this book up because Quinta Brunson is adapting it. I hope she does.
At any rate, I’m glad I did. Until the end, it was very good.
I remember liking the story Emma Cline told in The Girls but not the way she did it. It was a compelling tale but painfully overwritten. I didn’t think I’d find myself coming back to her work and, even with its interesting premise, I avoided it last year despite its popularity.
But once I started, I couldn’t stop. I was enthralled with Alex’s maneuvering. I’ve got a fascination for watching operators operate and seeing her shift from con to con without any oxygen, just moving lest she be caught (and maybe killed?). It has a bit of an Uncut Gems vibe in that you know this is a horrible person doing horrible things and yet, she’s surrounded by horrible people and you can’t help but watch.
And this leads to my favorite thing about the book: subtext! Oh how I love someone who masters their subtext without having to spell it out for the reader like a celebrity reading a child’s picture book for elementary school kids. There’s a bad version of this where Alex’s inner monologue reads something like “I’m making my way through all of these one-percenters. Do they even know what it’s like to be poor? I’m poor. Eat the rich.” The book shows that without telling it. Huzzah!
But that ending. No. Just no. There are books for which that ending works but this ain’t one. It’s not “clever.” It’s not “open to interpretation.” It cheats the reader. It took one of the best things I’ve read in 2024 down a peg. Alas. Still good. Still hoping I get to see Brunson’s take on it some day.