June 1, 2020
In Berman’s debut, a young actor struggles to break free from a famous Hollywood director. Grace Turner, 23, has been living in her parents’ house in Anaheim, Calif., in the year since she disappeared on the eve of the Golden Globes. Grace is newly sober and out of the spotlight that has followed her since she was a 15-year-old British schoolgirl handpicked by director Able Yorke for the starring role in a trilogy. Able, widely respected in the industry and by the public, changes Grace’s life at the cost of years of emotional manipulation and, eventually, sexual abuse. When Grace finds out that her younger sister, with whom she’s long had a rocky relationship, is moving back home, she decides to return to Los Angeles and find a way to move forward with her life. But going back also means confronting all she left behind, including her estranged, still beloved husband Dylan; the paparazzi, always hungry to document her slip-ups; and, of course, Able, who still casts a long shadow over her life. While a slow first half wears on the reader, the late scenes of confrontation are electrifying. Berman’s searing psychological portrait shows how Grace’s girlhood is corrupted by Able’s rampant ego and the industry’s unencumbered patriarchy. Agent: David Forrer, Inkwell Management.
August 1, 2020
A 22-year-old Hollywood star--discovered in London as a young teen--tries to come to terms with the molestation and bullying she experienced early in her acting career. Grace Turner seems to have it all--beauty, wit, acting chops, and a reputation as the muse for famous Hollywood director Able Yorke. However, behind that public facade, she is spiraling out of control as she uses alcohol and drugs to escape her life. And then, on the cusp of awards season, she disappears from the public eye. She spends the year quietly--and soberly--going through the routine that life at her parents' house in Anaheim allows. She has a complicated relationship with everyone and everything: her parents, whom she distanced herself from as her star was rising; her sister, who was too young when she left home to be a friend; her husband, whom she holds up as a saint; the various women who try to become her friends but might only be pretending; and the drugs and alcohol that allowed her to distance herself from Able and the ugliness behind the glossy, picture-perfect scenes. When Grace returns to Los Angeles after her year away, she struggles with her future. Able and his wife, Emilia, loom large in her psyche--he as her tormentor and benefactor, and she as the woman who was supposed to look over her, but didn't. Is Grace seeking revenge and an opportunity to destroy Able completely? A comeback? She isn't sure herself. Readers familiar with the downfall of film producer Harvey Weinstein will see the influence of current events on this story, which is filled with tension and stress as the reader tries to predict what will happen next. Not all readers will be pleased with the ending. A raw look at the toll that molestation takes on victims.
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August 1, 2020
Grace Hyde was plucked from her London school to star in a series of kid-spy movies; renamed Grace Turner, she became the muse of director Able Yorke. Ten years later, she is living, numb, in her parents' stifling house in Anaheim. When her good-girl sister is suspended from boarding school and returns home, Grace rents a tiny bungalow in Malibu and reconnects with her best friend and her management team, but she is hardly poised for a comeback, since she lacks the life skills she should have learned while she was making movies. Grace is selfish and self-destructive, and her narrative voice reflects her inability to process her trauma, the details of which are not necessarily surprising in light of the #MeToo movement. But Berman reveals the gaslighting, emotional abuse, and sexual assault Grace endured with terrifying, heartbreaking clarity, free of gratuitous details. Grace's frustrating inability to pull herself together is exactly what makes this debut so compelling; it is an ultimately hopeful exploration of dealing with trauma that will have readers looking at celebrity gossip differently.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)