Kira is a struggling actress who receives an opportunity to perform in a small theater production with talented and intense actor/director Malcolm Mercer, much to the chagrin of his business partner, Joanna. Malcolm is known for pushing his actor's to their limits, both physically and emotionally, and Kira is up for the challenge. Their relationship escalates quickly, taking the reader along for the ride.

The book alternates perspectives between Kira and Joanna, whose characters are well fleshed out and believable (though not especially likable, so if that's a necessary protagonist trait for you, skip this read). They're complicated women with complicated lives, and I liked getting to know them. On the other hand, Malcolm's character seemed a little shallow to me, and perhaps that's because we don't get inside his head. His edgy darkness feels, at times, stereotypical, if not a bit more extreme than your average controlling theater director character.

The alternating POVs keep what could be a slow story moving quickly, bringing the reader to a satisfyingly intense conclusion.

Unfortunately, I was not the right audience for this book. I just could not get into the story and I didn't really like any of the characters. I found them all selfish and quite disturbing in their actions. This book had such a great potential with all the mind games and psychological manipulations going on between the characters, however the plot was predictable for me. A lot of drama, violence, anger, egocentric behavior, and sexual tension in this psychological (thriller??) drama which left me feeling icky and quite disturbed.

Thank you Netgalley and Gallery Books for giving me an opportunity to read an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Temper tells the story of Kira, a Chicago theater actor who has finally be cast as the lead in a 2-person play called Temper. Joanne and Mal own the playhouse that is putting on the show and Mal is also starring in with Kira. Mal is known to drive his actors to the brink of sanity in order to get the perfect performance. Kira is willing to go to the brink to make it happen. Other than that, it is difficult to give a lot of details to the plot. This was giving me heavy Black Swan vibes only with actors in leu of ballerinas. The plot wasn't fantastic, the ending pretty obvious, but the writing had me there the entire time, right up until that very last scene. Temper was different and memorable.

*Gender bending roles, sexuality, violence, etc etc.

Instagram post July 2019.

Rage becomes her. Layne Fargo's debut, TEMPER, spins familiar archetypes and scenarios into a taut, relentless tale pitting ambition against manipulation. With a controlling and charismatic theater director, his professional partner and enabler, and an ambitious young actress, you can see what we're building toward early on, but the question was how we’d get there. Malcolm may be the center of Joanna and Kira's universes, but the story is singularly theirs.

TEMPER is a darkly gleeful exploration of power, manipulation, sex, and art. Theater nerds will love the behind the scenes detail and drama. I just have one word for it: delicious.

Temper is a master class in milieu. The ambiance that Layne Fargo throws the reader into is so dark, disturbing, and enigmatic it feels as though one has been sucked into vortex from which there is no escape. The less you know, the better. This will be a polarizing read, but there is no doubt that it will have readers talking.

Wow. I read Temper in one sitting and am left a little breathless by the ending. The plot centers around a play also called Temper that is going to be performed in Chicago. It’s a small play - only 2 characters in the production and minimal props/scenery.

Reading this book felt a lot like watching that type of intimate, small theater play as well. It really makes you question - how far could you be pushed to go? How would you react if someone was pushing all your buttons?

This is not a feel good read. I didn’t like any of the characters at all - but was still compelled to keep reading and see what they would do next. And then that ending. I wish this had been a play - and I could walk out into the real world with my companions and discuss what we just saw.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance reading copy.

Temper has an affecting tone and atmosphere that borders on erotic menace. It was compelling in an unexplainable way that kept me engaged even though I wouldn't consider it action-packed.
On the other hand, I feel like I might have missed something after finishing. I can't quite put my finger on Kira's motivations for her actions at the climax of the book. Given the animosity between all of the characters, I was taken aback by the identity of the actual malefactor and that of the actual victim. There were more contentious feelings between other pairs within the story. On the bright side, that means the ending took me by surprise and I can't honestly come up with a better alternative.
This book will likely draw the biggest audience among readers who value tone and characterization though, as a reader attracted to a well-constructed plot, I feel a lack of resolution and an excess of ambiguity.

Received a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.

I’m unsure how I feel about this book. I didn’t really care for it but I couldn’t stop reading it either. The beginning starts off okay more like a drama. I can see some similarities to Jessica Knoll’s The Luckiest Girl Alive—drawn out narrative before it reaches the meat of the story. Kept waiting for some sort of major climactic moment. Still don’t know how I really feel about this one.

Kira Rascher is a struggling actress in Chicago, living with her best friend and sometimes lover Spence, a popular professional fight choreographer.
She tries out for Temper, a play put on by Indifferent Honest Theater, and lands the leading role, alongside the famous actor/director Malcolm Mercer. His roommate Joanna Cuyler is the executive director.
Kira and Mal Begin intense rehearsals, they are caught up in a dark obsession, pushing each other to excessive limits as they refine their performances. The fight scenes choreographed by Spence, become too real and physical, drawing blood.
Joanna is jealous of the hold Kira seems to have on Mal as the tension builds to the explosive finale.
This dark, gripping thriller is full of twists, the suspense will keep you glued to the pages.
A seductive and compelling read!
Thank you to Gallery/Scout Press and NetGalley for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Ambtion. For actor Kira Rascher, it’s a way of life. It doesn’t matter how many times you hear “no” at an audition, you still have to go to the next one and do your best. And Kira is up for that.

And then when she gets the audition for Temper at Chicago’s famous Indifferent Honest Theater Company. A two-person play about a relationship in crisis, Temper would mean Kira alone on the stage with the talented actor and director Malcolm Mercer. The unpredictable Malcolm Mercer. The possibly dangerous Malcolm Mercer.

Mercer’s partner in Indifferent Honest, Joanna Cuyler, is not a fan of Kira. She doesn’t think the actress can fulfill the role. But she knows that no one can tell Mercer what to do. Once he’s made his mind up, that’s it.

And he’s made his mind up about Kira.

Layne Fargo’s powerful novel Temper is about what happens when ambition meets opportunity. And jealousy. And a manipulative narcissist who is willing to push his actors far beyond their breaking point to get the performance he wants.

This novel is intense! It’s good, a captivating novel that pushes the reader almost as far and as hard as it pushes the reader. The psychological warfare is difficult to read at times, but the characters are fascinating. This novel isn’t for everyone. I think it would be too much for a casual reader. But if you’re up for a crazy, fierce, astonishing ride of a thriller, then Temper is just what you need to read. And you won’t be able to put it down!

Galleys for Temper were provided by Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books through NetGalley, with many thanks.

I received a copy of this book from netgalley in return for my honest review. This book was so good. It kept my attention and really kept me guessing!!!! I never knew what was going to happen next!!!! I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery!!

I haven’t read many thrillers set in the theatre, but Layne Fargo’s debut “Temper” brilliantly illuminates that world of creativity, ambition, competition, and desire. In the staging of the play “Temper,” a dark and twisted relationship triangle develops and volatile emotions and manipulative and unpredictable behaviors escalate to shocking levels. The character development is well done in this dark psychological thriller and the level of suspense continually intensifies. While there were some portions of the story that didn’t quite hang together for me (particularly why Kira and Joanna would continue to tolerate Malcolm’s abuse), I think Fargo is a writer to watch.

My review was posted on Goodreads on 7/7/19

Dark, intense, taut, riveting, scary, sexy, a train-wreck you can't turn away from - all are accurate but insufficient descriptions of Layne Fargo's Temper. This is a read that you don't want to miss and won't soon forget!

While a review is supposed to include the reviewer's synopsis of the story to add to the publisher's description, for this book, I'm not going to do that. Honestly, it's much better for you to go into this one cold. The fewer clues you have as to what will happen, the more you will enjoy this book.

For those who are fans of psychological suspense or who like to glimpse the dark side, put this on your TBR list NOW!!! This should be one of the best books of the year.

My thanks to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book shows how manipulative a person can be and how our imagination in general is a lot worse then the truth of what is actual happening. It takes a bit getting used to the jumping from character to character but once you get into it you really are going to keep reading wanting to know what each person is thinking. It also gives a bit of insight on what is needed to put a play into production. We al have gone to a play and marveled how everything just was perfect not even having a clue about all the work went into it to get it to this point.
This isn't the kind of book where you love the characters. Most of them are manipulating somebody else in one way or other. This book is fairly open about free sexual relationships and same sex relationship so if that bothers you skip this book.

Maybe it's me, but the number of books calling themselves psychological thrillers is much higher than the number that actually are. That's where I am with Temper. It is a drama, but I didn't find anything even remotely thriller-like. As far as the story, it's quite possible that this one went over my head, but I really didn't get it. We have a bunch of characters, none of which are particularly likable, having sex and hating on each other. Okay, I did get that part, I didn't really like it, but I got it. The story is also completely predictable, from the twists to the ending, which is one more reason I don't consider this one a thriller. All of that aside, I think I may have been able to get some reading enjoyment out of this one if someone had told me not to think for myself or ask why during the process. However, I did ask why, particularly where Malcolm was concerned. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why these women wanted him so badly, and why they tolerated his treatment of them. Whatever this mystery allure was, it didn't come through very well, at least not for me. In the end, I was left with a well-written story of unlikable characters that I couldn't find much interest in.

I like dark and literary thrillers with unreliable and/or "unlikable" female protagonists--think Megan Abbott, Gillian Flynn, Tana French--but if books were chocolate this one would be in the 70%+ range: definitely still dark, but my preference is 85% or higher. (To give you some context, I once described Alissa Nutting's Tampa as a beach read, because for me it WAS.) Which isn't to say I wouldn't recommend this book! The details of the regional theater scene were great, I appreciated all the bisexual representation and that it wasn't just limited to the villain(s?), and overall I enjoyed reading it even though it was clear from the beginning exactly how it was going to end. It's just that I loved the concept enough that I wanted even more here, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the author does next.

WOW.. this is an EPIC read for the psychological thriller genre!

I have never experienced a plot LIKE this.

The summary of this book doesn't even remotely come close to giving the book justice. This was sexual, HOT, and psychological manipulation at it's finest.

This book was initially a little hard for me to get into and was a bit slow. I was thinking ok... these characters are crazy and this book is boring. But, MAN was I completely wrong. Layne Fargo you're a psychological thriller GOD.

ONE of my top favorites for 2019!! What a stellar debut that you don't want to miss. I can't wait to see what Fargo has up her dark sleeve next.

Dark, sexy, hot, sexy... did I say sexy?

What a book!!

4.5 stars.

Publication date: 7/2/19
Published to GR: 6/30/19

Thank you so much to Gallery/Scout Press and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

When I started reading Temper I wasn't sure I was going to like it. I instantly hated every character. They were trying way too hard to be cool and way too hard to be judgmental of everyone who just wasn't as cool as they were. I even hated the name of their theater company- Indifferent Honest Theater Company. I kept wanting to switch words around to make the acronym ITCH because everyone loved getting under everyone else's skin. Get it? This is why I am not a writer myself, I guess.

So everyone was irritating, except maybe Spence. And he has his moments. That's what made it so satisfying when everyone started messing with everyone else. Everyone thought they were right and knew what was going on...and everyone was wrong.

We spend the novel going back and forth between the POV of Kira, the struggling (aren't they all) actress, and Joanna, the co-owner of a theater company. Kira is living with her best friend, Spencer, with whom she sometimes has sex, and barely making it in Chicago. He is much more successful than she is in his work as a fight choreographer. Joanna lives with her partner, platonically, in the theater company and is the behind the scenes person. Everyone focuses on Malcolm and that is just how he wants it. So, even though he is her partner, he appears more successful than she does. These women have so much in common. They should realize to sooner because they are both so self-centered that they don't even seem to be in the same novel sometimes. Of course, all narrators should be assumed to be unreliable.

I wish the ending could be said to a surprise. It was going there from the beginning, though. After, as I think about it, I'm not sure it could have gone any other way. It didn't need to be a "twist". It just needed to make sense. To follow the story to its own natural conclusion. I don't know if it was meant to be or not, but this one wasn't full of twists. Just plot points that had to be there and weren't really surprising. Watching these people try to one up each other was the whole point. Not who wrote the play, who Malcolm was sleeping with, what Kira was willing to do...those were all pretty obvious and needed for the plot.

Temper, by Layne Fargo

Short Take: Frailty, thy name is woman!! (or not)

(*Note: I received an advance copy of this book for review.*)

Y’all, this is where I would usually say something catchy, followed by a super-clever segue into whatever I’m reviewing, but you know what? This book has left me with my mouth hanging open and my usual sparkling wit has left the building. It’s that freakin good. So… uh… let me just tell you about the book, k?

Malcolm Mercer has a Reputation. He’s known in the Chicago theater world for two things: making incredible art, and driving his cast members to nervous breakdowns. That’s not an exaggeration. He believes that in order to portray a character most effectively, the actor needs to feel the anger, pain, humiliation, or whatever other awful emotion the character feels, and if the actor doesn’t already have issues, Malcolm is more than happy to give them some.

His biggest supporter/enabler is Joanna Cuyler. Their relationship is… complicated. She’s obsessed with him, but they aren’t lovers. They are equal partners in the business, but he makes all the major decisions. They have a shared living space, but separate lives. It’s an intensely combustible situation, needing only the barest hint of a spark to explode.

Enter Kira.

She’s a cliche struggling actress when she auditions for Malcolm and Joanna, for the starring role in their upcoming production of Temper (more on that in a minute). But she’s also a deeply hurt and angry person, an expert at keeping people at arm’s length even while she’s seducing them, in making sure anyone who loves her hates her a little too.

In other words, she’s like catnip to Malcolm.

And when these three come together, it’s more like waves of boiling oil than sparks flying - sometimes unintended targets are hit, and the scalding burns just keep deepening. Each of them has their own ends, their own means, their own secrets, and their own detonation switches. Each of them wants to destroy and/or overpower at least one of the others. And I am wildly in love with all of them.

Our leading ladies, Joanna and Kira, are our narrators, and it’s definitely been a minute since I’ve been treated to such incendiary female voices. Ms. Fargo’s characters are perfectly imperfect, passionate even in the ugliest of ways, and so very real. Joanna, in particular, is an accurate (if stinging) reflection of the ways women frequently make unkind snap judgments of one another, and how wrong and hurtful those things usually are.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the unofficial fourth main character - the play itself. Temper, a two-person production about a toxic marriage, is a debut work by a playwright nobody’s heard of. Its scenes of raw vitriol are a catalyst and a catharsis for all three of them, their own most deeply buried impulses on display for the world to see.

And oh, my darling nerdlings, what an incredible ride it is. These beautiful, passionate, talented people are stripped down to their ugliest, most primal core, raging against the man pulling the strings even as they are destroying themselves to win his approval.

I still don’t have anything clever to say. Just read this one.

The Nerd’s Rating: FIVE HAPPY NEURONS (and a ticket to my local community theater, cause hoo boy, I’m craving some drama right now!)

Temper by Layne Fargo is a psychological thriller. Kira, an ambitious actress has finally landed a good role. She will be working for Malcom, a director who pushes his performers past their limits. Though Kira is warned she feels she can handle Malcom. She learns exactly what she is capable of in handling Malcom.

I found this to be a compelling story though I didn’t really like any of the characters. They were all so manipulative! I often felt like the sorry was like driving past a car wreck where you just can’t help but look. I found the plot to be an interesting idea with crazy enough characters to pull it off but there was just to much casual, thoughtless sex and bad language for me to really enjoy the story.