Book Review: "The Fiction Writer" by Jillian Cantor

Have you ever read a book that you didn’t really like but you needed to read it in its entirety to see how everything was tied up in the end? Asking for a friend.

“That’s what writing fiction was, wasn’t it? Processing your own life, answering all those questions in any way you wanted to, since fictional worlds operated with their own language and their own rules and their own timelines. They offered their own answers.”

Olivia’s first novel was published to some acclaim, but her second novel, which was a retelling of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, was panned by critics. When editors pass on her third novel, she’s in need of money and, perhaps, a new career choice.

Then her agent calls with a sweet deal. Apparently megabillionaire Henry “Ash” Asherwood wants Olivia to write about his grandmother, and is willing to pay quite well. Intrigued by the opportunity and the client (named People magazine’s sexiest man alive twice), Olivia flies to Malibu to learn more.

Ash tells Olivia that his long-dead grandmother originally wrote the story which became Rebecca, but du Maurier stole it. But the more Olivia asks for proof, the more Ash seems to stall her and try to distract her in all sorts of ways. At the same time, Olivia is curious about Ash’s young wife, who died in a mysterious car accident.

The plot of this book was definitely an example of if it seems too good to be true, it is. Olivia stupidly gets led on by Ash for far too long, and then the story takes so many tangents I didn’t quite know what to expect. There was lots of stuff left unresolved and I was hoping for so much more out of this book. And since I never read Rebecca, I don't know if that knowledge would have made a difference to my enjoyment.