A failed actress must decide how much she will give up—and what lies she will overlook—in order to live a life of luxury in this irresistibly suspenseful and slightly surreal debut that is Talented Mr. Ripley meets Nightbitch.Ever since her year as a scholarship student amongst the ultra-wealthy at a Manhattan private school, El knows what it is like to feel rich—to feel chosen. And being not chosen is her current living at age 30, she has given up her dream of becoming a famous actress, she has no passions, no great love, nothing to look forward to.Then El meets a mysterious trust-fund Cambridge grad who holds the keys to the world she has long dreamed of. Bryce may not be particularly good-looking, charming, or interesting, but he has chosen her. El allows herself to be lulled by the ease and safety that his wealth provides, becoming Bryce’s little pet, and giving up her job, friends, and apartment in short order. But when a series of disturbing and slightly surreal events reveal that Bryce is not quite what he seems, but something entirely more sinister, El face the consequences when his darkness—and her own—are unleashed.
It was fundamentally humiliating to extend yourself to someone who almost liked you. How many times had El encountered this-with friends, fuckbuddies, casting directors-people who nearly liked her, but something held them back. Maybe if she showed her belly, how much she hungered for connection, maybe then she'd manage to convert doubters into lovers. Maybe she would have more friends who challenged her, rather than those who simply accepted her in her limited, emotionally anorexic state (because Navya did this, she knew, Navya enabled her avoidance by always being the one to reach out). Maybe she would have made it in acting after all had she learned to be vulnerable when it counted the most. The fatal ingredient in her personality was spite. Just that one little ounce of it, the part too bitter to show her need, had it kept her from a better life?
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