I received an advanced reader copy of The Plot from NetGalley, and I LOVED this book--one of my favorites so far this year! Jacob Finch Bonner is a writer who has not had a critically acclaimed book since his first one years ago. In order to earn a living, he has taken extra jobs, including teaching in an MFA program. One of his students in this program, Evan Parker, boasts about how he has the perfect story, one that will be a best seller and immediately made into a movie. He tells Jacob of the plot of his story during one of their meetings. A few years pass, and Jacob continues to struggle with his writing. He learns that Evan has passed away without ever writing his guaranteed best-seller. Jacob uses the story that Evan told him to write Crib, which, as predicted, becomes a huge best-seller with a movie being made of it. Jacob's life is going very well, until he begins to get messages from someone claiming that he stole the story for Crib. Things get really crazy after that!!

This book is so creative in its plot and is truly a story within a story. I had a hard time putting it down. I highly recommend this book and would give it six stars, if possible! Thank you, NetGalley, for allowing me to read this book.

I have a feeling this will be a best seller! Despite figuring out what was going on very early, I couldn’t put down this well written novel. The book within a book was an effective technique. The only thing that bothered me while reading was the question (which the book answered), can you own a plot? Although he felt guilty about what he did, and certainly wouldn’t look forward to all the attention he would get when his anonymous accuser’s allegations were made public, I couldn’t quite understand why Jake was so upset about it. He just took a story that someone else had told him and wrote a similar one in his own words. There was no plagiarism. This would make a good discussion for a book group.

Thank you to Celadon and NetGalley for the digital ARC. The opinions expressed here are my own.

I heard about this book on the "What Should I Read Next" podcast and was intrigued by Ann's review. So I was excited when I was able to get a digital ARC from NetGalley. And the book didn't disappoint.

The Plot tells the story of Jake Bonner, a once promising author, who's teaching creative writing at a small school in Vermont while he tries to resurrect his writing career. One of his students says he's got "a sure thing" and shares the plot outline with Jake. Fast forward a few years, Jake is still struggling to write his next book when he finds out his former student is dead and never published his "sure thing" novel. So Jake steals the plot and overnight becomes a bestselling author being interviewed by Oprah and talking to Spielberg about movie rights. But in the middle of a book tour, he starts getting messages from an unknown source who seems to know the idea wasn't his own. Tension builds as Jake tries to keep his secret buried while trying to expose the antagonist. The twist will make your head spin.

I enjoyed the "insider" aspect of the story - the solitary nature of writing, the pressure and doubt that plagues many/all writers and the highs and lows of the craft. Would definitely recommend this book.

Special thanks to NetGalley for the Arc of this book.

After hearing about this book on Anne Bogel's Podcast "What Should I Read Next", I knew I had to check this book out. The premise of this book sounded so good. An author who's in an extreme writing slump hears a story idea from one of his students at a writing workshop. Years pass and out of curiosity, our main character looks up the student to see if his novel was ever finished. Turns out the student passed away before he could ever publish the idea. Deciding not to let such a good idea go to waste, our failing author writes the story himself and it becomes an instant bestseller. But when he receives a mysterious email calling him a thief, he investigates.

I was ready to get my socks knocked off. Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. While I enjoyed the twists and turns, the first 80% of this book makes it hard to reach them. The writing came off as pretentious and flowery to me, with our narrator sounding like he was better than everyone else. The entire first chapter was an info dump of our main character and his writing career.

While this book wasn't for me, it may be for you! Check it out on May 11th when it releases.

"Anybody could be a writer. Anybody except, apparently, him."

I'm going to try to talk about The Plot without talking about the plot (haha), because I think this is a book that readers should pick up with only the most basic idea of what it's about (as I did). The bare bones of the story are this: Has-been author Jacob Finch Bonner teaches a college creative writing course, where a difficult student named Evan Parker shares an idea for a novel with him: a novel that will catapult its writer to instant fame and ensure movie rights, bestseller lists, Oprah...the whole lot. Sadly, Evan dies before he can write the novel...so Jake decides to write it instead.

Even though The Plot is a bit of a slow burn at the beginning, I found myself utterly captivated by every word of this book from the first page. Jean Hanff Korelitz is a new author for me, and I was so impressed by her writing, which is precise and scholarly and entrancing. She writes as though she's telling the reader secrets. The Plot is also a master class in pacing, with a narrative and structure that unfold brilliantly; Korelitz is unhurried and patient, building suspense as she deftly peels back the layers of her plot.

The Plot works on so many levels -- as psychological suspense, as domestic drama, as a cautionary tale -- but most of all, it's a fascinating look behind the scenes of the world of writing and publishing. And it has that aha! moment I always crave in books, and haven't had since I read The Silent Patient. It has the propulsive plot of the best, most pulpy thrillers on the market, but is so impeccably written and thought-provoking. It just blew me away. I think this will be one of my favorite reads of 2021.

Thank you to Net Galley and Celadon Books for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Jacob is a ho-hum novelist. He had book that sold a couple thousand copies and second book that just ranked. When he teaches writing at Ripley, he meets Evan Parker. Evan claims to have a plot that will sell millions of books. In a short meeting he divulges some of the plot to Jacob. What Jacob does with the knowledge will forever alter his life.

This was a slow start for me and I started to figure things out about halfway in. But there were a few surprises that left me with my mouth on the ground! I really enjoyed this thriller!!!

found it to be a slow burn literary mystery. I did learn a lot about the publishing world and the writing was well executed. I did think this book was going to be more suspenseful then it was.

Jacob Finch Bonner was a struggling author,  he had a great first book, but the books to follow didn't do so well. Bonner is now teaching a writing program. One of his students is bragging about a Plot he's written that he thinks will be a bestseller, and he doesn't need Bonner's help,  although when Bonner reads it he disagrees. Years later Bonner thinks back on that student and wonders how they are doing only to discover the student died. Bonner then decides he could use his deceased students Plot to become a successful author again.  Things are beginning to look up in Bonner's life when he receives a threatening message that he stole the story,  but who could possibly know?

While I liked the book just fine, there was something missing that kept it from being a GREAT read. I figured out what "the plot" was fairly quickly, because for anyone who reads a lot of thrillers or are writers themselves, one can ask "Well what hasn't necessarily been done before, involving these two characters...?" and when I thought of it, I was like, "That IS a great plot!" So double edged sword when that turned out to be what it was haha So points for that (and also...the book I would have rather read than this one...) The second character plot twist I didn't figure out until right before it happened, so another kudos to Korelitz there.

The problem was that, even at only 320 pages, it felt longer than it needed to be for the story being told and the ending we got. I wasn't a fan of the ending. At all. It rendered one character almost cartoonish, and another with a comeuppance they didn't necessarily deserve. I see what Korelitz was trying to go for, but...for me, it just didn't work. The other problem is that, going into this book, it had a similar tone and story to the vastly superior "A Ladder to the Sky", which is a perfect book. So maybe I unfairly had high hopes for this one and it fell just off the mark.

In the end, I wouldn't say I'd go out of my way to recommend this one to my customers, but I wouldn't steer anyone away from buying it, either.

All Jacob Bonner wants to do is be the next Great American Novelist. Unfortunately, after a decent first novel, he finds himself uninspired and unable to publish others that are worthy of the NYT Best-Sellers list. He meets Evan Parker, an arrogant student in his MFA program, but he is also in possession of a plot that Jacob knows will skyrocket Parker to fame once it's published. A few years later, the publishing world is quiet and Jacob starts to wonder whatever happened to Parker and his plot?

I saw this book all over social media and was really intrigued by, no pun intended, the plot. I struggled to get through the first 20% of this book; it started off slow and it spent a lot of time in Jacob's thoughts but it was necessary to set the stage for the rest of the novel. Given my love of reading, I also really enjoyed reading a book about an author's journey. I had a general inkling of the twist but I didn't realize the extent until the very end. I wasn't a huge fan of the ending but do think this novel had both a good plot and was well-written!

Overall, I give this 3/5 stars given the slow start and how it ended but I still recommend for anyone who is looking for a different type of thriller!

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for providing me with an eARC of this book!

The story revolves around a once promissing writer that has not found the success that he hoped. Stuck in his creative process and in a job that Jake doesn't like, he meets an obnoxious student with a great plot. He waits for the book to be published and its author to be catapulted to instant fame with palpable envy. But the book never comes out... And he begins to wonder what to do with that amazing story.
This is such a fascinating read; not only we follow a lot of ethical discussions (some that would be highly spoiler-y to talk about), but also we get to navigate the publishing world and writing as a career. It's also a really good thriller book. Even though I was able to predict a lot of the twists, I don't think it hurt my enjoyment of the story; it was really engaging to follow Jake as he tries to piece everything together and I believe part of this enjoyment comes from the writing and from the beginning that we spend a lot of time only understanding Jake's state of mind.
I really liked the ending and I felt that the author never chose a side in all the dilemmas that were brought; the arguments from all sides were there, the reader had to choose in which side to be on.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and publisher for the ARC.

This book has a lot to offer. Jacob (Jake) Finch Bonner is a once-successful writer who finds himself having to take on a short-term job teaching creative writing in order to make a living. In that capacity he finds himself with a rather unlikeable student of questionable talent but who has a great story to tell and is certain will be huge. How Jake winds up telling that story, the ethical dilemma presented, and the ramifications make for a compelling read. While the start is a little slow, to start, once the story takes off it’s tough to put down and rewards with great twists. There is also a look at writing as a career as well as at the publishing industry. Many thanks to NetGalley for the preview copy of The Plot.

I enjoyed this story but I think I had been expecting more. For a book about a plot with such a crazy twist I didn’t find this book to be very twisty at all. Despite figuring out what was going to happen I did enjoy reading it and especially liked the chapters from the narrator’s novel intertwined int he main story. The writing was good and the characters were well-developed (even if they weren’t particularly likeable).

The narrator is Jacob who started out his career as writer with a lot of promise and was highlighted by the New York Times. His follow up book was significantly less successful and led him down a path to teaching creative writing at a third rate program. He hates his job and his students. At one point he comes across a particularly cocky student, Evan Parker, who has an ingenious idea for a novel that will make him famous and to Jacob’s frustration he agrees about the brilliance of the idea. Years later when he is reminded of that student he looks him up and finds out he died not long after the program. Jacob can’t help himself and writes a novel using the plot Evan had told him. He instantly rockets to success but someone starts to send him anonymous notes calling him a thief and a liar.

The English teacher part of me absolutely loved The Plot, particularly because it examines the idea of plagiarism and intellectual property. The novel was impossible to put down, and just what I expected from Jean Hanff Korelitz. While I did eventually figure out the major plot twist, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel from start to end. Overall, a delightful thriller!

This book had me interested based on that it was about a writer, Jacob Finch Bonner, and his struggle to write his next book. I have always been fascinated with how authors come up with their novels and the whole writing process. This book started slow, but got better as I got into it. Although I was not completely surprised at the end, I did want to keep reading to see what happened. It was interesting to see the brief insight into the life of an author and the publishing industry and how books are promoted. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced reader copy.

I had high literary hopes for this new novel releasing May 11, 2021. Interestingly it is a product of the Covid-19 quarantine in that it was fully composed and written in Spring and Summer 2020 (when the reality of Coronavirus was making itself vivid).

I adore the Feckless Hero, generally, but it helps when he (or she) is somewhat self-aware, more realistic than cynical, and at least tries to have a purpose, even though misguided. I am reminded of the Nebraska farmer building a rocket to the Moon: misguided, but nonetheless a purpose founded in the crucible of determination.

Jacob Finch Bonner, the "not-hero" of THE PLOT, fails at all these criteria (as does the wishy-washy College at which he "teaches"). I just could not find a hook on which to hang any interest in his life or his carrying on.

I think it's safe to say that I've never read anything like The Plot. Jake was a professor in an MFA program when one of his least likable students discloses the plot that is guaranteed to make any author famous. Jake reluctantly agrees but goes about his life. Some years later, when he remembers the plot, he also realizes that his former student, Evan, doesn't seem to have published his work yet. After a quick search, Jake realizes that Evan died shortly after finishing the MFA course and likely never finished his book.

We join Jake as he's touring the world, on bestsellers lists, and all thanks to one very special plot. Jake isn't a bad guy, after all, he doesn't take the actual /story/, just the general plotline. And as everyone knows, plots can't be copyrighted. It all starts going wrong for Jake when he gets that first email. Someone knows. Someone knows the plot isn't his and someone wants to expose him.

So often in books, we are told about these special plots, songs, stories, etc., and we don't get a chance to experience them ourselves. Author, Jean Hanff Korelitz, goes above and beyond writing not just one story by two (possibly 3!), allowing us to experience Evan's story and Jake's story throughout the course of the book and it really pays off.

5/5 Stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Plot was one that wasn’t really on my radar until I saw and then won a copy from @bookishfirst. And since then, I’ve seen this book everywhere! I even joined group of friends that were all reading it at the same time.

Jacob Finch Bonner has had some mild success with his first novel, but he’s had no luck since that first hit. He’s teaching writing at a small college in rural Vermont when he meets a cocky young writer with a can’t fail idea for a novel. After some time, Jake hears that his student as passed away and he wonders what happened to that story. Fast forward a few years, Jake’s now stolen idea is a turned into Crib, a smashing success and is the must read book everyone is talking about. He’s on all the best seller lists and he’s being interviewed by Oprah. He begins to receive emails and tweets from someone who knows Jake stole the idea from his student. But did the student steal it from someone else first? Jake is determined to try to get to the bottom of this and hide the truth before it goes public.

This book starts really slow, but once I got into it, I couldn’t put it down! I loved all the behind the scenes of writing a novel and the marketing and publicity of a successful book. I loved how Jake did research on his student and his history just like he would research a novel. I did think the ending was a little predictable, but that didn’t take away my enjoyment of the Plot.

5 fabulous stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Jake is a writer and published author, a one hit wonder of sorts, but maybe more half a hit. He is struggling to come up with a best seller to really make it as an author. While teaching, he meets Evan, a cocky student who exudes confidence and thinks he is a brilliant writer. Evan also has a brilliant idea for a story which he shares with Jake. A real game changer. Years alter and the story still isn't published. Jake finds out the reason, Evan died before he could tell his history

Jake sees this as an opportunity to truly make it as an author and turns Evan's idea into his own boom. Except Jake isn't the only one who knew about Evan's story.

There is so much to love about this book. The writing was superb. You really get into Jake's head and get to know him, all the good and bad. The story is fantastic. I loved the idea of a book within a book, such a unique way to tell the story.

Thank you Celadon Books, MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for both the digital and audio ARC

This book was a slow burn and I absolutely loved it. Will be recommending it as a summer pick to library patrons, and we have already ordered it!

It took me a few pages to get into the writing style of this book, but once I got settled in, I really enjoyed this plot within a plot book!

Jacob Finch Bonner, the author of a moderately successful first book is teaching a writing class at a small college in New England. One of his students shares the plot of book he plans to write. The plot is an obvious best seller, and when Jake doesn’t see the book published, he investigates and finds out that student has died, never publishing the book. Jake uses the student’s plot and writes a book, it is a huge success, but someone knows that the idea wasn’t his.

I liked the organization of the book, one story following Jake with chapters of Jake’s book sprinkled in.

I did have a basic idea of who knew that Jacob used his student’s plot about halfway through, but as the writing was the good and there were some twists I didn’t see coming, this book continued to gain momentum from that point and it was a great read.

I will recommend this book to friends who like suspense novels. I will also be looking at other books by this author.

I received both the audiobook and the physical copy of this book. I started with the physical copy, switched over to the audiobook when I was walking, and then switched back to the physical copy to finish. The audiobook was fine, the narrator was fine, but I really enjoyed reading this particular book more than I enjoyed listening.