Jake is an one hit wonder novelist turned writing teacher. One of his students tells him the plot of the book he wants to write and it sounds like a sure hit. Years later, Jake finds out that the student is dead and did not write the book with this great plot. So he writes the book and it is indeed a best seller and becomes the most talked about book. But Jake feels guilty for taking the plot and sure enough, someone else knows and is out to blackmail him.

I loved this idea and the book within a book storyline. It, like the book inside it, was such a good idea. It was also well written and had a steady pace (which is hard to do!) I did see the "twist" coming and many times found myself yelling at the main character for being so blind and short sighted. Despite guessing what would happen, I did enjoy this book and I think it will be, rightfully so, much read and talked about this summer. I'm so glad that a book I had high expectations for (mostly) held up! 3.75 stars


Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

“The Plot” is one of the most advertised and anticipated books so far this year and I’m grateful to have a received an ARC from Netgalley. Jacob Bonner is a former moderately successful author floundering in his own writing while teaching a masters program. He meets a cocky student that says he’s got a plot for a novel that is a guaranteed knockout and This starts the gears turning on what is a slow burn, nerve racking, cat and mouse thriller that has an explosive twist ending that sneaks up on you and punches you right in the gut. I’m rarely surprised by twists and this one genuinely made me smile even though the book takes the long and winding road to get there. At times it drags a bit and most of the supporting characters never feel quite fully realized and distinct. Still, its deliberate plotting and skillful craftsmanship when it comes to the core mystery and reveal are to be admired and praised. It lost a star for me because while there’s a lot to enjoy here, especially for people like me who love books about writers and writing, it’s essentially an ok book elevated to memorable and great by the ending and the gasp inducing twist. I would definitely recommend it, but it does take a bit to get going so stick with it and you’ll be rewarded.

I loved this book-within-a-book! The premise is fascinating and the slow-burn buildup made me keep reading until the wee hours. Some pieces of the puzzle may be somewhat evident fairly early on, but the details of what happened and when and how are slowly revealed with a skill that keeps you guessing! There are also nods to a couple of other novels that I loved. Thank you to Netgalley and Celadon Books for the advance digital copy.

Is fiction stranger than life or life stranger than fiction? The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz explores this concept in an entertaining and suspenseful way. The story is of a struggling writer who hears a plot so good that whoever writes the book is bound to have a success. At first the author leaves you wondering on what the plot and the twist could be, but then she takes a chance to include excerpts from the novel. This only works if the plot twist is that good. Luckily it is. In a way The Plot is two stories at once weaving around each other. The only complaint is that I knew the the answer to the mystery too quickly, but, even that might have been intentional as the reader expects and wants something different until the end.
Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Jacob Finch Bonner is a bitter and disgruntled novelist teaching at a third-rate MFA writing program. Therefore, when Evan Parker—one of his most arrogant students—, boasts that he has an idea for an instant bestseller novel, Jacob dismisses him …, until he hears the plot. The story blows him away.

Years pass without Jacob seeing the book published, so, out of curiosity, Jacob tries to look up what became of his former student to find that Evan had passed away from a drug overdose.

Not wanting the story to die along with Evan, Jacob takes it upon himself to complete and publish it for himself. Sure enough, it’s a hit. He achieves national fame and everything seems to be going so well for him, until he receives an ominous tweet from an anonymous user, and Jacob’s entire world begins to fall apart.

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz is a clever psychological thriller that centers around a writer’s all-consuming obsession. The main character is extremely flawed and believable, and I feel like his spiraling paranoia provides an interesting modern commentary on the relationship between social media and an author’s mental health.

However, what bugged me most about this book was its writing style. (I love parentheses and em-dashes when used sparingly. I love them! I do! ) However, the constant exclamation points and interjection of unnecessary information mid-sentence felt jarring to me and really disrupted the flow of the writing. This made it difficult for me to get into the book. However, about 1/3 of the way in, the story really hits its stride and I was hooked.

All in all, this is compelling, food-for-thought type of novel that questions whether someone can truly own a story.

The premise of this story intrigued me, and I’m glad that I got the opportunity to read it. There were some things that I enjoyed, and a few things that I didn’t, but overall, it was a good read that held my attention as I flew through it.

The things I liked: It didn’t glamorize writing as an occupation. Jacob had his ups and downs (mostly downs), and I could empathize with the pressure that he was facing internally and externally. He was a complex character, and extremely flawed, which made him feel more real to me. I was hooked early on, even though the story developed rather slowly over the first half of the book. There’s an exploration into the ethics and morality of taking a plot idea from someone who isn’t using it (since they’re deceased), and the way guilt affected Jake even before he received the first message. Once the messages come in, the tension ratchets up until the conclusion. There were multiple storylines involved, which kept my attention held. In addition to Jake’s professional and personal arc, there were excerpts from Jake’s book itself, as well as the background of where the story idea came from. The way the story unfolded was interesting, even though this felt like more of a literary mystery than a thriller.

The things I didn’t like as much: I’m just going to say it — I knew who was sending the messages well in advance, so I wasn’t surprised by the big plot twist at all. It felt kind of disappointing after reading this whole book and knowing the reveal so early on. The ending wasn’t my favorite part of the book, and it felt so anti-climactic to me. It was also difficult to really get too attached to the characters, since they weren’t generally likable people. Evan was probably the biggest jerk I’ve read in a book recently, and if I met him in real life, he’s the kind of guy you’d just want to punch right in the face on principle alone. But Jake wasn’t a great guy either. I totally understand feeling down when you’re at the lowest point in your career and life, but he never seemed to feel positive at any point, and ended up dwelling on the negative at all times. It felt like this tendency to perseverate kept him from seeing things that were right in front of him. Finally, at times the writing style felt a little clunky, with run-on sentences that I’d have to reread once or twice to make sense of.

Even though the “like” paragraph is shorter than the “didn’t like” paragraph, I did enjoy the book. It was a good story, even if I don’t think that the worst writing can’t ruin an amazing plot. The phrase “anyone can be a writer” is repeated multiple times throughout the book, but I think it needs to be amended. Yes, anyone can be a writer, but not anyone can be a good writer, which I think is truly the key to success. This one is definitely worth the read, and clearly written by a good writer.

I really wanted to love this book based on all the early rave reviews I kept seeing on it. Sadly it was fine but not what I was expecting.

I figured out the big twist really early on so it was a bit of a letdown when it all started unraveling. The ending made me mad and it still annoys me days later.

I think had I of been an author that I'd be more fascinated by this book.

The first half of the book was slow, lots of unnecessary details. The second half was more what I expected from the description and was excellent.

Jacob Finch Bonner is an author of a book several years ago now teaching. One of his students arrogantly claimed to have written a future best seller. Jacob agrees and expects to hear eventually that it has been published. When that doesn’t happen he finds out the student died soon after the class.

Jacob goes on to write his version of the story and it indeed becomes a sensation. Then Jacob starts getting messages from a troll saying he knows he stole the story. This prompts Jacob to investigate what happened to the arrogant student and that story is incredible.

There is a love story with Jacob falling for and marrying Anna from Seattle.
His family and friends love Anna, who eventually moves to NYC to marry him.

There are some twists and turns at the end, some that I did see coming but some I didn’t. At least after slogging through the beginning of the book, the last half of the book was worth it.

Please do not learn a lot about this book before reading it! It is a skillfully written mystery with twists and turns, interesting characters, and thrilling surprises that works best when you know very little before reading it. Jacob is a semi-successful fiction writer who teaches prospective authors in summer seminars to help support himself. When a student shares his "can't miss" plot with Jacob, (but not with the reader), the teacher is sure it will be a best-seller, but years pass and the book never materializes. When Jacob learns the student died without writing the "can't miss" novel, he decides to write the story himself. There begins this very clever, twisty mystery. Thanks to NetGalley and Celadon Books for providing an ARC.

I like all of her previous books and I very much enjoyed this book as well. While any reader could see that the main character wasn’t going to get away with stealing their students story, I liked the way the story unraveled. I enjoyed of the chapters from the “book” were interspersed within the story, and wile the ending was a little predictable I still really enjoyed it.

The Plot - Jean Hanff Korelitz

WOW. This story was not at all what I was expecting when I first started to read The Plot. Jacob is a struggling author who is working as a writing teacher at the beginning of the book. He meets a pompous & overly confident student who claims to have the best plot for a novel and is unwilling to take feedback from anyone. In Jake's opinion, he's a jerk, and why would he waste his time mentoring someone who doesn't want to be mentored?

Years later, Jake starts to wonder what happened to that student? Did his book ever come out? Surely, if it did, it wasn't such a success after all if he hadn't heard of it? That's when Jake does a bit of research and finds out that his former student passed away not too long after he was a student, and his extraordinary plot will never be written. Or, will it? Jakes begins to remember a few of the details from his former student's plot and then decides to write the story on his own. Not to his surprise, the story is, in fact, a hit! His career takes off, he meets a woman, and they get married. He travels around the country making press appearances; what could come down and crush his newfound success?

Someone begins to message Jacob about "his" plot and threatens to expose that Jacob did not write the novel after all. If the man behind the original plot is dead and no one else knows where Jacob came up with this book, who could this possibly be?

The start of the book was a bit of a slow burn. I wasn't sure where the story was going to go after the first time jump. Once Jacob finds out that he could possibly be exposed and all his success and fame (and his marriage) could be taken away from him, I struggled to put this book down. Although I didn't find the characters to be likable, I was way more interested in finding out what Jacob's next moves are throughout the novel.

I recommend The Plot for anyone who couldn't turn the TV off while watching HBO's The Undoing (also written by Jean Hamff Korelitz). Thank you, Celadon Books and NetGalley, for the advanced copy. This book comes out May 11, 2021!

The story definitely took a while to get going and was overloaded with an abundance of repetitions, but because of the excellent reviews, I soldiered through and am glad I did.

Our protagonist, Jake, is as dull as dishwater and fearful of his own shadow. His counterpart, Anna, who became his wife, is his exact opposite – shrewd, daring and totally fearless. Of course, she plans ahead and works the plan, segueing into Plan B or C as her life and circumstances demand.

It was an interesting psychological study. I really enjoyed this and look forward to more by Korelitz.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.

Could not stop reading once I started. Love the suspense, the main characters, and yes, the plot. There's so much to say about it, but I don't want to give it away. As a writer, I completely identify with everything Jacob felt.

The build up. The ending. The novel itself. Everything just really came together in the most poetic and clean way. The author clearly took the time to really think about what she wanted to do with this book and where it was going to go. I greatly appreciated it.

Of course I started out disliking the Jacob Finch Bonner character. His lack of interest in his job was a turn off. He wasn't given any charm. But as his plight developed I liked him better. Having stolen the idea for his great novel from a dead former student left him in jeopardy, but it didn't concern me a lot since he did write the entire novel himself. So it was interesting to see that the real objection was not plagiarism, but telling the story of someone's life who didn't want it told. Since he hadn't see the pages for the student's novel, how could he have had enough details so that the student's sister was offended? That wasn't clear to me. But I did like the twist that the novel has, and I can say that I really enjoyed it.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

A great read, a quick read, a fun read. Having read this post-Maud Dixon, I was excited to find that there were two literary thrillers that were about, like, literature in the world this year. This one starts slow, gets crazy busy fast, then the mystery is solved (by me) before it is solved by them (the protagonist).

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Plot.

I love to read, I love mysteries and I love when a story is centered around an author and the art of writing so I was excited when my request was approved.

Jacob "Finch" Bonner was once a rising star in the publishing industry but after a dismal second book, he finds himself teaching would-be authors at a low-tier MFA program. He hasn't written anything in years and the likelihood he will publish again dwindles with each passing day.

Until he meets an arrogant student named Evan Parker, who reluctantly tells him the plot of his novel-in-progress, guaranteed to bring in the dough, the accolades, the movie deals, the whole shebang.

As Jacob waits for this phenomenal book to hit the bookstores one day, he continues to plod on with life. Until he discovers the book was never written, much less published, because the author died unexpectedly.

It would be a shame to let a good plot go to waste, Jacob decides. So, he takes up the pen and the rest is history.

Or is it? Because some plots derive from real life and someone doesn't like their story being told without permission. And Jacob is going to discover the consequences of his actions and it won't be pretty.

The Plot was well-written with thoughtful observations on the writing process, the publishing industry, what would-be authors hope to gain from attending MFA programs/writing retreats and Jacob's inner thoughts.

Jacob was a relatable character and his reasoning behind 'cribbing' the basic plot and spinning it into his own unique work was understandable.

A plot can't be copyrighted nor can an idea. Give ten people an idea for a plot and you'll get ten different stories.

I enjoyed going along with Jacob as he delved into the life of his former student, digging around in the past, speaking to the locals and putting two and two together.

I guessed the twist early on because I read so many mysteries/thrillers so I was prepared for the denouement.

Also, there were aspects of Anna's behavior I felt was suspicious, but I'm a naturally suspicious person in real life.

My only caveat is the author loves compound sentences and long paragraphs, which was hard to read through all at once and I sometimes had to go back and read the paragraph again.

This was an enjoyable read and I look forward to the author's next book.

I received an ARC of this suspenseful novel through Net Galley.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Undoing, an HBO mini-series that came out late in 2020, based on this author's book, You Should Have Known. (That book has now been republished as a paperback and titled The Undoing.) The series starred Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman and it was packed with an enormous amount of tension and suspense. The series made me very curious about the book and its author. The Plot proves that the author can create that same sort of atmosphere with the written word.

Surprisingly, this book started slow, setting the scene with character development. Another successful mystery/thriller author says that you need to capture the reader in the first 60 pages. That does not happen in this book, but if you stay with it, this story absolutely takes off after its ordinary beginning.

This novel is about a struggling author who, after finally putting out a bestseller called The Crib, becomes accused of plagiarism. So there is a book within this book. Excerpts from The Crib are interspersed between the chapters of The Plot.

Did the author steal this book? What became of the young man who created this, or a similar, plot? Was the plot that was allegedly stolen based on real life characters? If so, what became of them?

It's hard to say more without spoiling things. Suffice it to say this book will quite satisfy readers who love twists at the end.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview THE PLOT by Jean Hanif Korelitz. This novel started slow for me, and I almost thought that i should give up - but not so fast readers...this one picks up steam and doesn't let go. I loved it.
A down and out writer, Jacob, is now teaching a class in a small Vermont college. He once had a best selling book, but that was a long time ago. Now he is set to read his student's manuscripts, short stories, and life is just a bore. There is one student, Evan Parker - a brash young man with interesting pages of a book he will write someday and Jacob is quite intrigued - it's quite good.
Time goes on, but those pages never left Jacob's mind - what ever happend to Evan Parker. Jacob's investigative mind starts to search for Evan Parker - what happened to this young man and the book he said he would write. Jacob learns Parker has died - so he takes those notes and creates a novel - CRIB and all hell breaks lose because now Jacob is a best selling auithor. Everryone loves this book - it's a stunner and Jacob is famous. CRIB's success is astonishing - even Steven Speilberg wants to make it a movie. BUT.....
In the back of his mind, Jacob struggles with success - is it his or his deceased studen's book. Jacob's life changes when he meets a great woman, his book is going into a second print, and he has alot of money - what could go wrong? Then someone starts sending Jacob messages - telling him he's a thief, he stole someone's idea, he's a fraud. Jacob must find out who is trying to ruin his life - Parker is dead - who is stalkiing him? Jacob becomes the detective and starts to hunt the person who is set on ruining his life. And Jacob gets alot more than he bargained for - his best selling novel may just be a true story, and that someone doesn't want that story in print.
Very good - I could not put it down. 5 stars - RECOMMEND..

4.5 stars (but felt giving 5 was more appropriate than giving 4 and rounding up). You can plagiarize a story, but can you steal a plot?

I loved this book. It was expertly paced, the characters jumped off the page, and most importantly, it was entertaining to read. Jacob's dread and guilt once the emails start to arrive is palpable. His need to figure out what exactly is going on feels understandable. I don't want to give too much away, because I don't want to ruin the story for anyone else.

"Jacob Finch Bonner was once a promising young novelist with a respectably published first book. Today, he's teaching in a third-rate MFA program and struggling to maintain what's left of his self-respect; he hasn't written--let alone published--anything decent in years. When Evan Parker, his most arrogant student, announces he doesn't need Jake's help because the plot of his book in progress is a sure thing, Jake is prepared to dismiss the boast as typical amateur narcissism. But then . . . he hears the plot.

Jake returns to the downward trajectory of his own career and braces himself for the supernova publication of Evan Parker's first novel: but it never comes. When he discovers that his former student has died, presumably without ever completing his book, Jake does what any self-respecting writer would do with a story like that--a story that absolutely needs to be told.

In a few short years, all of Evan Parker's predictions have come true, but Jake is the author enjoying the wave. He is wealthy, famous, praised and read all over the world. But at the height of his glorious new life, an e-mail arrives, the first salvo in a terrifying, anonymous campaign: You are a thief, it says.

As Jake struggles to understand his antagonist and hide the truth from his readers and his publishers, he begins to learn more about his late student, and what he discovers both amazes and terrifies him. Who was Evan Parker, and how did he get the idea for his "sure thing" of a novel? What is the real story behind the plot, and who stole it from whom?"

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed herein are my own.