I quiet enjoyed this book. Although I found Cel's narrative thread less compelling than Semi's, I did appreciate the way these two very different characters speaking from two different time periods gradually reveal to the reader a clearer and clearer picture of who Matty M is and how his life has unfolded. I can see how these two threads could, in theory, have been their own books perhaps in a duology. But I appreciated the risk the author took in playing with the flow of the story this way.

I was drawn into this well written involving novel.A book of so much darkness so much emotion ,characters that come alive.I will be recommending .#netgalley#randomhouse

An Ambitious, Depressing Story Early in the Aids Crisis and at the Cusp of School Shootings

Sounds fun, right? Descriptions of of gay friends dicking around New York in the seventies and a young woman working on Jerry Springer-type show a decade or two later during the first school shootings dovetail in this the third novel by Jennifer deBois. She has moments of astounding beauty and pain but uses tremendously clunky vocabulary words that would often bring the narrative to a screeching halt: “I listened on a mostly looted bench one day when the light did something strange to the mansard roofs in the distance–turning them nacreous, subaquatic, in a way I’d never seen before in New York City and never would again,” “adamantine professionals; the farcical rigamarole,” “nearly uxorial,” “we aver as a chorus,” “nice escritoire.” I mean, com’ on.

Wendy Ward
http://wendyrward.tumblr.com/

An ambitious undertaking, with moments of beauty and insight, but overall the explicit repetition worked to underscore the themes in a way that distracted rather than illuminated. Even with intelligent prose and complex characters, I struggled to finish.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book. I made the mistake of reading reviews before I started this one, which gave me an impression of this book, that me unsure I wanted to read this. I am glad I decided to continue reading, because I really enjoyed this one. This takes place on two timeline with two main characters. The earlier timeline, is about a gay man living in NYC pre-aids epidemic and hoping well into the epidemic. The second timeline is later and works real shows how media works. The two stories do intertwine in the last portion. I thought it was well written and I only enjoyed this more as I continued the story.

I was excited about this book but it never clicked with me. I gave up about 25% in and as a result, would prefer not to give it a rating. However, I have to in order to submit this review, so I'm going to be stuck with giving it one star.

I am very appreciative of being approved to read this novel, even though it's a DNF I thank the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the OK!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

I had very high hopes for this novel based on the publisher’s blurb. However it took me nearly four months to finish this book because the writing and story telling never held my interest. I found the characters flat and the author’s tone pretentious and condescending. I also felt like the author was trying to hard to tackle too many issues and instead it just floundered.

I’m not sure who this book is aiming for, but I was certainly the wrong reader.

Pretentious much? duBois wants you to know that she took a SAT prep class and remembers those vocabulary words.

Joking aside - I bailed at 25%. The Spectators reads like two different books slammed together by one tiny thread. I enjoyed the present day story a bit more and wish that was the focus of this book.

The Spectators is literary fiction but the two portions of the plot make strange bedfellows.

Mattie M. is a talk show host (think Jerry Springer) in the late 1990s. When a horrific school shooting is determined to be by hard-core fans of Mattie’s show, it opens a national discussion on the pros and cons of sensational television. It also reveals Mattie’s history as a disgraced NYC politician. In separate chapters, Mattie’s former lover, Semi, tells the story of the carefree 1970s NYC gay culture and how the 1980s’ AIDS crisis effected that culture.

I’m not sure who would be the perfect reader of this clearly divided book. The discussion on the talk show phenomenon appeals to me but not the gay culture portion of the book. Others will feel the other way, I’m sure. The Spectators was not for me but perhaps it will be for you. 3 stars!

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

I hate the feeling of dread you get when you are reading about the 70s and 80s and you know what is coming for the characters. That’s not to say I hated this book. I quite enjoyed it. We have a back and forth between Semi and Cel. With Semi we get to watch as he goes from free young gay man finding his way during a sexual revolution to man dealing with AIDS and watching his friends die, to man living and aging in a world he wasn’t sure he’d ever see as we see his journey from the 70s to the 90s. Cel is living in the 90s as a young, fresh from college woman trying to navigate a job she hates.

The tie that binds the two is Matthew, or Mattie, depending on the time and place. Is he an idealistic lawyer, a progressive politician, or a hack shock TV host on one of the millions of talk shows that permiated the early 90s?

I loved the way the flashbacks moved forward to the other storyline and we started to see connections and understand characters. I loved that we got to see both narrators through the eyes of the other. The story was moving and thought provoking. It takes you back to two different times in our recent history and reminds of how far we have come and yet how little progress we have made.

I did find some of the repetition to be annoying at times, but it served its purpose. It WAS repetitive and it WAS and endless circle at times.

Alternately narrated by Cel, his producer, and Semi, his former lover, this is the story of Mattie Miller, an obnoxious talk show host who is dealt a blow when school shooters are revealed as devotees. Cel's part of the story is set in 1993, when the event occurs. Frankly, she's a less compelling narrator/character than Semi. Semi chronicles not only his relationship wth Mattie, but also the changes and challenges to the gay community, most notably AIDS. At times, Semi's chapters include other voices (which can be a bit of a challenge to sort out.). DuBois has a lot to say in this perhaps overly ornate novel which might have been even better had it only focused on Semi. Nonetheless, an interesting read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

An excellent, very involving story with intelligent and moving writing, well-researched historical context and wonderful characters. I loved discovering how the characters were connected to one another. One of the narratives forms a beautifully written account of the AIDS crisis which I thought was very sensitively done. I also enjoyed the main story about a talk show host who becomes involved in the controversy around a school shooting. I loved "Cartwheel" but this is even better.

My only complaint is the very odd names of the main characters - "Semi" and "Cel"?! If these were supposed to mean something, I couldn't figure it out!

As a fan of Cartwheel, I was very excited to see a new title from Jennifer duBois. At the center of the novel is Matthew Miller, a gay NYC attorney turned Maury Povitch style talk show host. In alternating chapters, we hear from Semi, a playwright and Mattie's former lover, and Cel, a pr flak for the Mattie M show. Matthew's earlier life, before and during the AID epidemic is seen through Semi's point of view. In the present, as seen through Cel's world, Matthew's television show is at the center of a huge news story about a Columbine style shooting by two teenage boys.

To say this book took on a lot would be an understatement. It attempts to tackle the AIDS epidemic AND the coarsening of American culture and tie them together through these three characters. For me, it didn't really work. The storyline narrated by Semi that addresses the AIDS epidemic was far superior, and I think this book could have been so much better had it maintained that singular focus. Chapter 19 was beautifully written, and I think it represents what duBois can really do with her writing. She has an incredible vocabularly and can write in a poetic, but very fresh, way that makes you really think. This book doesn't spoon feed the reader a thing, and in some ways that is very intellectually stimulating.

Unfortunately, the portion of the story about the shooting, the blaming of the show, and Cel's attempt to handle it, was very dull. None of the three characters is really as fully developed as they need to be to stir empathy in the reader, but Cel's was the one that seemed especially flat.

If only the book had tightened its focus and kept it squarely on gay life in NYC and the devastation of the AIDS epidemic, it could have been something more special. If all the chapters were like chapter 19, it would have been a five star read for me.

This one was not for me. I couldn’t connect with the story or the characters. Ended up skimming quite a bit just to finish.

The Spectators is a story of something I failed to connect with. Too many obscure words with not enough engaging story line equals disaster. Unfortunately, I skimmed through this one. Definitely not my type of material. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Holy pretentiousness. I think I looked up more words in this book than I have in the past year, which really distracted from the otherwise solid story.

I wanted to enjoy this book as it has an incredibly compelling plot summary but wasn't able to connect with the writing. I appreciated the opportunity to review it.

I'm between 2.5 and 3 stars.

Both a commentary on the dysfunction incited by the sensational talk show culture of the late 1990s and a meditation on the gay community before and during the AIDS crisis, Jennifer duBois' upcoming book The Spectators is at times beautiful and lamenting, at others meandering and confusing.

Matthew Miller is a talk show host whose show, "The Mattie M Show," is a spectacle. With programs that focus on taboo relationships (including a man and a goat) and routinely feature fighting (a la Jerry Springer), the show becomes a cultural lightning rod, one of those programs that commentators like to point to as a sign that our society is in decline.

When a shooting occurs in an Ohio high school, and it turns out the students responsible were huge fans of the show, Mattie becomes an object of intense scrutiny, as does the show bearing his name. The more his critics debate the show's sensationalism, whether it is staged or authentic, and what its role was in the tragedy, the more people—even those who work on the show—realize how little they know about Mattie.

As Cel, the somewhat disconnected, disenfranchised publicist for the show, tries to figure out who her boss really is and how they might right this sinking ship (if she even cares to), she starts to hear rumors of Mattie's past, as an ambitious politician whose career was met with scandal. Does this explain Mattie's attitude toward the show's problems, or hint at what his next step might be should the show get canceled?

Meanwhile, Mattie's former lover, Semi, a playwright, tells a different story, a story of Mattie in the carefree yet politically tense 1970s in New York City, when he went from lawyer to idealistic politician. Through Semi's eyes, we see how the gay community transformed from one of merriment and freedom to one wracked by the horrors of AIDS, how it affected the culture, politics, relationships, everything.

While there was a link between Semi's relationship with Mattie in the past and the Mattie of current times, quite often it felt like The Spectators was two separate books. The chapters narrated by Semi—some of which felt like they were being told by a Greek chorus of those whose lives were touched by AIDS—were beautifully written, poignant, even emotionally searing at times, but when the narration shifted to Cel and the issues with the show, I started to lose interest.

The discussion about media sensationalism and its role in society's crises is certainly a relevant one, yet I didn't feel like the book was willing to stake out a position whether those who foment antagonism or appear to embrace spectacle and falsehood have any responsibility for prejudice, violence, or other actions taken by their viewers or listeners. But even more frustrating for me was the fact that Cel had very little charisma as a character let alone a narrator. Much of her interactions with other characters seemed stilted or stammering, and it seemed crazy that a popular show would employ such an inarticulate person as its publicist.

duBois' talent for imagery and emotion was particularly evident in those chapters narrated by Semi and others. There were many passages which I read more than once and thought were almost poetic. Sadly, the book as a whole didn't work for me. I almost wish the whole book could have followed Mattie, Semi, and his friends through the 1970s and beyond rather than get distracted by the whole issue with the television program. Oh well.

NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

I really wanted to love this book. The description sounded fascinating, and I had a gay uncle who lived in NYC in the 70s and 80s before dying of AIDS, so some of the subject matter was particularly near and dear to my heart (for example, I loved The Great Believers). And yet... this book did not do it for me. I absolutely hated the first half. HATED it. If I hadn’t agreed to review it, I 100% would have abandoned it, and even still I barely managed to force myself through it. It was so long and slow, and the writing just didn’t resonate with me. It seemed very... self-conscious? Overwrought? Like the author was extremely aware of the literary devices she was using and the implied subtext she wanted her readers to infer, and was too heavy-handed in her approach. Things did pick up in the second half, and I specifically appreciated her coverage of the AIDS crisis in New York, but even then the writing style just did not speak to me, and I had a lot of trouble figuring out what the point of it all was and how all the different pieces fit together. The second half was definitely light years better than the first half, but overall the book felt tedious to me, and the topic is interesting enough that that shouldn’t have been the case. This just was not the book for me.

Darn. DNF. This story had such promise but the characters felt too removed. I couldn't connect with any of them in a way that made me want to root for them. The writing was good, just not engaging enough of a story.