I've seen The Comeback in a lot of places, but now that I think of it, I haven't seen many reviews. Maybe that's because this book is not nearly as exciting as it is made out to be. I spent most of this book bored and waiting for something to happen and then it did, in the last 20%. ⭐⭐⭐ Really, this book was just fine, but not too special.

"I was untouchable, unstoppable, hurtling down a path to immortality so rapidly, so immaculately, that not one person stopped to question how it all worked so well, a fortysomething man and a teenager being so inextricably linked."
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A HUGE thank you to Berkley for this e-arc - I am SO happy that I read The Comeback and I absolutely recommend this book to EVERYONE!
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If I chose one word to describe this book, it would be HONEST. This book is so real, raw, and honest. I do not know the author's own experiences, but Grace Turner felt so very real to me - I was so emotionally attached to her and HAD to know what would happen to her. This made it really hard to put this book down for any amount of time.
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Grace Turner lands a major acting role at the young age of 14. Her parents move across and ocean to cater to her new career and Grace essentially grows up on set - virtually void of any parental figure. To the outside world she is a successful actress, worthy of awards, and effortlessly beautiful. But Grace holds a secret, a terrible truth that utterly destroys her.
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Is this book dark? Yes. Are there heavy parts? Absolutely. But look at the title :The COMEBACK. There is a strong message of hope and persistence that made this book so very endearing and so important to the #metoo movement. READ IT!!

Ella Berman's debut novel shows the pain and confusion of a victim of sexual and emotional abuse. Former child actress Grace Turner is just trying to survive after being chewed up by Hollywood. When she is asked to present a lifetime achievement award to her former director Able Yorke, she wonders if she has the strength to finally reveal the truth about the manipulative director. An important topic in the #MeToo era, I stayed up half the night reading this powerful story. I'm glad I could read about Grace's complicated emotions but sad that I live in a world where abuse in Hollywood is all too common

I didn't end up finishing this one. I thought the writing was really good, but I have read similar books with this subject matter and it was just not for me at this time.

I am in the minority here as there are lots of other glowing reviews for this one! I may come back to it at a later time.

Grace Turner was just 14 when she landed the role of a lifetime in a Hollywood movie. Fast forward almost a decade later at the height of her career she simply walks away from the spotlight for a year telling no one - not even her husband.. The Comeback is Ella Berman's debut novel that tells the fictional account of Grace's story of being manipulated, controlled as well as physically and mentally abused by the famous Hollywood Director Able. It's the story of Grace returning to Hollywood a year later to get her life back. This book gave me vibes of My Dark Vanessa with a Hollywood setting.

This was a heartbreaking story, but captivating. It really went deep into the mind of this young girl who steps out of the spotlight due to mental abuse by someone who was to watch over her career and her well being. I think the term is gaslighting... It was awkward and devastating to watch her try to work through her emotions, relationships and try to find who she really is. Such a hard read with triggers of rape, drugs, alcohol. Thank you to the publisher and NEtGalley for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book is so raw and unfiltered it was nearly painful to read. Well written, with a voice that felt authentic and engaging, I couldn't put it down!

So much of what celebrities and others face in such an intense and cutthroat business made for very nail biting and edge of seat reading. The behind the scenes and intricacies woven to build up a story; knowing that these things were not just plucked out of the air, but researched and actually happens within Hollywood was very eye opening.

A smile on a magazine in one small snapshot of time means nothing in the grand scheme of things.

I had a direction I wanted this story, Grace's story, to end. However, how it actually wrapped up ended up being so much better. Definitely recommend. *trigger warnings on this book*

-thank you Netgalley for providing an eARC-

A young girl gets the movie role of a lifetime and moves from her small life in England to the glitz and glam of Hollywood. She's mentored by a well-respected film maker for the next eight years of her career until one day she leaves it all and runs off to her parents home in Anaheim for a year. She then goes back to Hollywood with a mission...sort of. This book has shades of young Drew Barrymore and Britney Spears' 'meltdown' a few years ago as to outsiders it seems that these young women and the main character Grace have everything but their behavior speaks to other problems. With the "Me Too" movement there is more awareness how Hollywood protects powerful males and can be harmful to young women and this book gives a glimpse into what could be a non-fictional account. Grace was a soon to be megastar when after years of drugs and alcohol and sexual abuse she leaves it all. The story picks up at the end of her self imposed exile and how she goes about claiming her life in Hollywood back, on her terms this time. We see her try to cope with her abuser and her past harmful behavior and her current feelings of rage and being out of place in a world that once meant everything to her. This was a good fictional inside look at how Hollywood can be dangerous for young girls and how sometimes you don't get a happy ending, sometimes an ending is just an ending, but it's still something you can learn to accept. This isn't my normal type of book to read but I did find it very engaging and honest and the story kept me interested. I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley

Ella Berman leaves you anguished and hurting, yet she also gives you hope.

You will not always like Grace. In fact, you may not ever like her, and that's by design. One day, she was a popular, attractive teenager in London who auditioned for a role in a TV series; the next day, she's an actress with a devoted bastion of fans. The day after that, she has fled Los Angeles for Anaheim, where her parents now live, and she stays there a year, telling no one where she is or why she's there.

To some extent, she doesn't have many people to tell. Her one friend, Laurel, is also her assistant, and Grace appears not to be too concerned over their lack of contact over the past year. She has her agent and manager, but she is a commodity to them, not a person to whom they extend any emotional space. There is also Dylan, her husband, the man she left within a year of marrying him. The one person her fans and the rest of Hollywood would think she would keep in touch with is Abel Yorke, the director who controlled her career and life for eight years. But Abel Yorke, as you quickly realize, is a predator.

Grace reveals her flaws, almost reveling in them. She reacts against the narrative of her as a precious star, to the point where she dons white Crocs when she goes out. Yet the Hollywood machine's tentacles still stick to her. When a glam squad weaves their magic, she likes it, acknowledging its power to make her something she is not.

At the same time, Grace's emotional isolation will affect you. It blurs her edges, making her someone you want to protect, even as she is determined to self-harm. She makes one bad decision after another because she doesn't know what else to do. As her sister points out, "famous people are eternally frozen at the age they were when they became famous." In Grace's case, that's fourteen.

The scenes showing Abel Yorke's abuse are difficult to read. My heart cracked for Grace, who was aware that Abel was doing something wrong but also aware that if she rejected him, she would lose everything. Imagine carrying that dilemma when you are too young for a driver's license.

Grace grows and swells as she slowly forgives herself. She demands the freedom to discover who she is without Abel Yorke, reclaiming relationships she allowed him to destroy--perhaps most significantly the relationship with herself.

I loved so much about this book, which I read in one day because I could not put it down. There are a few weaknesses. Dylan, for one, is undeveloped. Because he's an essential character, I needed more from him. A loose thread or two should have been tied. These feel like fairly minor complaints, but given how beautifully Ella Berman writes, I think they are things she could have done.

This book demands discussion, so if you're in a book club, I hope you choose it. Please hit up the comments and let me know your thoughts.

This book is a slow burn. It is about an actress who can't be in the light any longer. So without telling anyone she up an leaves for a year. When she comes back she is faced with her husband having a woman living in their house. She has to see where she fits in within it all.

Trigger Warning, rape, alcoholism, drug use

This book is so much more than a Metoo movement book. It is that, of course, but it really dives into what it all does to the psyche and mind of the young woman being abused. Grace was not just physically abused, she was mentally abused. She was lead to believe that she was nothing without Able, the great director. I loved her unfolding of who she was, not just as an actress, but who she was really in her family. I think that Able's games made her also doubt them. Isn't that how they do it? Alienation from everyone else except them. I also loved how Grace became aware of what everyone felt around her. It was a slow, sometimes clumsy, awakening but so rewarding. I really liked Grace, bumps and all. You almost forget just how young she is during the story because she is so intelligent.

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for a copy of this book.

A deeply honest, emotional and gutwrenching book. There were moments I felt more detached from Grace as a narrator and then other moments when I felt more connected, which seemed very true to the story being told. It’s amazing that the author wrote this before the news even broke about Weinstein and the MeToo movement truly propelled itself to the forefront of the national conversation, but that speaks to the power of its timelessness and how stories like Grace’s are, sadly, all too evergreen.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book took me on a roller coaster ride of emotions. The main character is Grace Hyde (or Turner), a movie star who desperately needed to get away from Hollywood and since then has been laying low at her parents house in Anaheim. When the book begins, Grace narrates her rise to fame and how certain events marked her life in a very traumatic and negative way leading her to seek refuge at her parents' place. But the family home is not a safe haven for Grace either, being that she has a complicated relationship with her parents. Soon she finds her way back to Hollywood in order to face everyone she left behind, and the man that made her a star but also ruined her childhood and teenage years.

The beginning and last third of the book were very engaging, but somewhere along the middle the story dragged a bit. I ended up rating this book four stars because by the end of the book I had come to care for the characters and was rooting for Grace's well being. I would recommend this book for readers who enjoy books about Hollywood stars, but beware that the subject matter is quite strong.

Ok I read this book in a day I could not put it down I was hooked by the first page! Grace Turner a young movie star who was at the peak of her career before she disappeared. She turns to alcohol and drugs, to try to forget all the horrible things that she went through as a teenager on film sets. Now a year later Grace is in her early twenty’s and trying to sort her life out, while living at her parents house. Deciding to face her life she heads back to Los Angeles paparazzi following her every move while she’s at her lowest. She’s now dealing with her old friends, husband , movie sets and trying to live a clean lifestyle is a bit more difficult than she can handle she takes it day by day. When Grace is asked to award director Able Yorke the same man who emotionally and physically abused her for 8 years... Grace decides this is the perfect moment to face her demon and make the most amazing Comeback! This book was emotional and an intimate look into the mind and emotions of Grace while she faces everything she went through and finally realize she’s stronger than she realizes and faces the heartbreaking truth! Five stars!

Wow! What a gripping and thought-provoking read. The Comeback by Ella Berman is all about Grace Turner, a teen star who decides to leave the limelight. She's had enough and wants out, so she goes into hiding. Fast forward, she heads back to LA and is actively trying to get her life back on track. She knows its not going to easy to have the privacy she craves, but she's willing to try. And then, she gets asked to do something for someone who has ruled her career and life for far too long. Suddenly, Grace knows that some secrets can't be kept secret any longer. No matter the cost, Grace is ready finally face her demons. And, that is all I will write about the story. This is one book you should definitely read for yourself.

Berman has written a terrific story that is just so damn good. The writing is top notch and the characters are unforgettable. The story itself is unputdownable. And, the emotions thrumming throughout are raw and honest. This is just one book you won't want to miss.

Grace Turner – née Hyde -  had it all; or so it seemed.  A Hollywood starlet on the eve of a breakthrough into the serious acting world, she was plucked from England via a stroke of luck at the age of thirteen.  In acting, she found a way to snag the attention of her parents from her newborn sister  as well as the rest of the world.  After slowly spiraling into a cocaine addiction, Grace left America and disappeared from the world of acting on a years-long bender, having been thrown out by her parents.  As an adult – now sober and returning home to her teenage and very American sister, her depressed mother and chipper father – she hopes to carve a life more ordinary out of the ashes of the past. 

Then she gets a call from the IFA awards, requesting she give a lifetime achievement award to Able Yorke, the powerful director who molded Grace into who she is – and whose assaults scarred her for life.  Forget peace and a new life – Grace has a fresh plan.  One that involves a lot of pain for Able, and a whole lot of revenge for Grace.

AAR staffers Lisa Fernandes and Shannon Dyer both read The Comeback and are here to share their thoughts on the novel.

Lisa: I have to ask – do you have any familiarity with the Hollywood scandals this book is loosely based on?  I drew a dotted line between Lindsay Lohan and Grace immediately.

Shannon: I do, yes.  So much of this kind of thing has shown up in the media in recent years, and I have to admit to being a little bit excited to see how it would translate into a novel rather than a news story.

Lisa: Grace is an extremely sympathetic and easy person to love.  She won me over with her imperfections.  What did you think of her?

Shannon: I, too, found her sympathetic, especially as the story unfolded. At first, she comes off as super spoiled, vapid, and entitled, but then, as the reader gets to know her better, it becomes clear there's more to her than meets the eye.

Lisa: Grace’s sister Esme seems to be headed down a different and just as dangerous a path as Grace during her own teenage years.  Esme does show loyalty to her sister, and Grace has to struggle to get her to open up and re-establish a bond with her.  What did you think of their relationship and of Esme in general?

Shannon: I really liked Esme. In some ways, I wondered if she was meant to show us how Grace's life might have been if she hadn't been taken to Hollywood. As for the relationship between the sisters, it's a work in progress to be sure. Grace isn't always the best big sister, and as a result, Esme isn't sure she can rely on her. I did enjoy watching them begin to remake that bond, and I'd like to think the work continues after the book has ended.

Lisa: It was touching in its way – and very tentative.  The girls’ mother is notably bitter – about Grace’s influence on Esme, and about Grace’s success.  Her father seems like less of a character even in flashbacks.

Shannon: We never get to know either parent well, but the mother definitely gets more page time than the father does. She seems like someone who really wants her daughters to love her, but once the family left England, and Hollywood became such a huge part of their lives, she became totally disconnected from Grace and overly protective of Esme. There's so much that's unhealthy about the family dynamics in this book, but then, that's often the way things go in real life, isn't it?

Lisa: Utterly true, tragically.  Grace’s nightmare of a svengali, Able, is a combination of an artiste and an abuser.  We get hints of what he’s like as a husband and father – so what did you think of him?  I found him to be flat.

Shannon: Able was more of an abstract idea than a fully-fleshed out character. He's meant to signify everything that's wrong with the film industry and everything that went sideways in Grace's life, but we never get to know who he really is, aside from flashbacks and a few brief exchanges in the present. Still, the mere fact of his existence permeates the entire novel, making him an extremely convincing antagonist.

Lisa: Yeah, he sort of stood in for all of the abusers in Hollywood in general – a little Weinstein here, a little Ratner there.  And then there’s Dylan – Grace’s first love, her first husband, haunting the back of her head, and then suddenly in her life again.  What did you think of him?

Shannon: Poor Dylan! He obviously cares deeply for Grace, but she's nowhere near ready to be a good partner to anyone. I got the impression he was kind of swept up in all the glamour of Hollywood and never gave any real thought to the tolls it took on the people involved. He seemed to be secure in his own little bubble, and while this didn't initially make him very supportive of Grace, I got the distinct feeling he was making an effort to do better. 

Lisa: Grace’s relationship with Emilia – Able’s wife, enabler, but also in a way his victim – fascinated me.  How did you feel about Emilia and her relationship with Grace?

Shannon: Emila exemplifies so much of what we see when this type of scandal comes to light in real life. Part of her seems aware of what's going on, but she seems unable to allow herself to really confront it. She promised to look out for Grace, but of course, she dropped the ball, and actually stood by and let Grace be abused without doing anything to stop it. There's a part of me that wants to feel sorry for her, to see her as a fellow victim of Able's cruelty, but I can't really do that. She was complicit in so many ways, and she never really owned up to the part she played in everything that happened.

Lisa: I think my biggest quibble with the book is that it’s billed as a thriller and really feels more like a piece of women’s or contemporary fiction.  Did you find Grace’s quest for Able as suspenseful as promised?

Shannon: I'm so glad you brought this up because it's been the figurative elephant in the room throughout the discussion. This feels nothing like a thriller. There's no real suspense here, and that's okay; I loved the focus on Grace's healing and her deep desire to take control of her life. But I think this novel would be better served with a different marketing angle.

Lisa: It’s absolutely women’s fiction or a character study. I’m giving this one a B+ for its general writing quality, but the weakness of Able’s character, the fact that there are no interesting supporting characters and the lack of suspense brought the grade down a bit for me.  If you’re looking for a thriller, do NOT buy this book, it’s definitely not that.  How about you?

Shannon: I'm also going with a B+. This is an important story, one I think the author handles with a great deal of sensitivity, but poor marketing as well as the lack of likeable supporting characters makes it a little less than DIK status for me.

Note:  This book deals with child molestation and the physical and emotional abuse of children, underage sexual content, alcohol and drug abuse

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
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Grace Turner,child star,recovering drug user,borderline alcoholic. Hold up for almost a year with her parents in Anaheim is on the comeback trail. Or is she. Forced back into the world which churned her around and spit her out. A world she now sees with a outsiders distance, she plots a revenge cold and unapologetic. It is a master class in all the lessons she survived and her heart details. It is an in-depth look at enablers willing to sacrifice innocence for profit.

The Comeback has been one of my top reads of the year, a novel that is both timely and captivating.

Grace vanishes from the Hollywood limelight at the height of her career, and on the eve of her first Golden Globe nomination. When she returns from her self-imposes exile a year later, she is desperate to take control of her own life, this time on her terms.

Her story alternates between past - as the details of her past trauma at the hands of her would-be protector are slowly revealed, and present - as Grace uses her anger to fight back and claim justice.

Grace’s journey is far more than a #metoo story. The Comeback is an in depth portrait of the aftermath of trauma, a story of sisterhood and friendship, with a heroine to root for as she heals and splendidly transcends her past. What an incredible debut!

I received a copy of this book as an eARC from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I liked this one a bit more than I thought I woiuld. The cover gave me Marilyn Monroe vibes, and I love anything related to Hollywood, so I picked this one up. With the #freeBritney movement going around I also thought this would be a good take on what happens to stars in Hollywood when they have a bit of a breakdown. I think we tend to forget that they are human as well, and this book does a good job of pointing that out. I know the #metoo movement has struck a cord in society and everyone has different opinions about it but this book sort of shoves it in your face and reminds you that it is real, and that something does need to be done about it. Our library has a copy of it, and I will encourage quite a few of my female patrons to pick this one up. It was a hard but necessary read, in my opinion.

4.5 STARS

“I know that somebody hurt you. Now it’s time for you to f**k shit up, baby lion.”

Gripping and SO timely!

Immensely readable, 'The Comeback' is both a cautionary tale of the dangers of fame and stardom and a story for the #MeToo era. Incredibly emotional and gripping, Ella Berman tells the story of Grace Turner, who was plucked from at a young age from a normal, quiet life in England to star in a Hollywood blockbuster. The director, Able Yorke, is brilliant but manipulative and immediately persuades Grace's parents to relocate to California with their daughter. The whole family is suddenly uprooted, an act which in and of itself will have negative repercussions for Grace for years to come. The power balance in her family shifts, which is too much of a burden for any young teen to handle. Grace's younger sister resents her and Grace begins a very difficult relationship with her own mother.

"I doubted myself and everyone around me, but rarely Able. Everyone had told me about this precious gift, so I took it."

I will never again criticize young actors or musicians who are in the spotlight. The public never knows what goes on behind the scenes and whether or not the star is being manipulated or taken advantage of. Grace's story is told in flashbacks, unfolding from her early days in Hollywood to the present time. She is only in her early 20's but already has a failed marriage and a very public addiction to deal with. What happened that made Grace burn out so brightly? Why did Grace disappear almost overnight from Hollywood? Ella Berman has written a very biting and observant story, slowly revealing the shocking turn of events that almost destroyed Grace.

"What I couldn’t have predicted was how people would want more and more of me; I didn’t yet know how closely praise is linked to punishment, how I would never again determine my own value because I wasn’t so much a person as an idea, shaped not only by the people around the table with me that night but by the millions of people who would pay to watch my movies in the years to come."

'The Comeback' is at times a very uncomfortable read and the author does not sugarcoat the life of a young Hollywood star. Grace becomes famous at such a young age that she only has Able to turn to. He makes it seems as though he is the only one who truly understands her and can truly help her. Her parents step back and she really has no other adults in her life, other than her agent and manager, to care for her. She turns to drugs and alcohol as a way to numb the pain and uses sarcasm to push everyone away.

Grace finally realizes that she will die if she does not confront what happened to her. This is an astounding book by Ella Berman and while at times very dark, it is a sharp look inside Hollywood and the pressures of film-making and stardom. I love that all Grace truly wanted was to act, and to avoid all the falseness that surrounds being a "celebrity."

Able Yorke is one of the most vile fictional characters I have come across. The way he groomed Grace was absolutely despicable. The only reason this was not a 5 star read for me was that I felt the ending was a little too abrupt. I still highly recommend this book, and applaud Ella Berman for writing such a perceptive and sensitive story!

“Maybe their turn for winning is over, Grace. Maybe it’s our turn now.”