This book pulled me in from the beginning because I just had to know where The Plot (and the plot) was going. It took me longer to put the pieces together then it normally does with suspense books. A solid read!

Well this was a good read. This is my first by this author and had such a great premise. Great read. Thanks for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I read an advanced digital copy of this novel courtesy on the publisher through NetGalley. Review available on goodreads.

I wish that the plot of this book was as twisty and shocking as the plot of the book it was about. I found it to be very vanilla, incredibly predictable, and ultimately an easily forgettable book.

Jake…oh Jake…what made you think stealing a story was a good idea? What made you think you would never get caught? What made you think you could ever really fully enjoy your success?

Jake is a struggling author who has 1 good and 2 not so good books under his belt as this book opens. He has had to pick up odd jobs to afford to continue to live in New York. One of his side hustles is as an advisor at a summer college writing program which touts itself as the program that can turn anyone into an author. While there, Jake meets an unlikely and unlikable author to-be named Evan Parker (or Parker Evan). He is convinced that his idea for a book, his plot is 100% success guaranteed and so he hold his plot close to his chest. In a rare turn of events, he shares his plot with Jake during one of their one-on-one sessions. Jake agrees that the plot is a guaranteed blockbuster, and is pretty miffed that such a jerky kid is the one that holds the idea.

Years later, Jake is still struggling as an author, and becoming quite desperate for some measure of success. As he thinks back upon his job as a summer advisor, he remembers his interactions with Evan and wonders what happened with that great idea for a book. Eventually Jake talks himself out of the guilt of stealing a story, and into believing that it is his responsibility to bring this book to life. Jake… oh Jake.

The book follows the trajectory of his life as he finishes the book, finds momentous success, finds love, finds fame, finds fear, finds doubt, finds regret and eventually finds that secrets do indeed bite you in the butt. I am choosing not to give any more information out – because this read is better going in mostly blind. For me, the first half of the book drug on a little, but I had been warned of the same. Keep on reading and then bang – the second half takes off running and doesn’t stop until it dives off a cliff. Even though I had a pretty good idea who was behind the anonymous voice about halfway through, it did not detract from my enjoyment in reading this book in the least.

THE ENDING IS WORTH THIS READ. Easily recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon books for the gifted advance copy to read and review.

Holy Cow! The Plot lived up to its name! I chose this on the advice of Joseph Finder on Twitter and I am glad I did. I will be recommending this to all my customers and will be putting a shelf tag underneath. Lots of twists and turns and a great character in Jacob Bonner Finch, this book kept my attention. I really think this book will be the hit of the summer!

For Jacob Finch Bonner, life was good. He was an acclaimed first-time novelist, basking in its glory for a while and eager to follow it up with another winner. However, his second attempt doesn't go well and he finds himself in the land of floundering, looking for that theme that magical something that will take his newest novel into Olympian heights. Jake is teaching a joy he initially likes but after some years finds himself bored and stumbling. His writing life seemed to have hit that old brick wall and every day is just like the one preceding it.

Into his creative writing class, comes Evan Parker, an arrogant imperious man, so convinced the plot of his book is one that will zoom him up to number one in the writing world. He allows Jake to read a few pages of his story and Jake acknowledges this impudent man cocky and pompous has a sure to be winner on his hands. Jealousy sets in as he waits for this book to be published and his novel to be eclipsed. However, that evet never happens and Jake is perplexed and beyond curious. He finally learns that Even Parker has died presumable from a drug overdoses and since there no family well the temptation to "borrow" the deceased plot idea takes root.

As Jake's new book storm into the best seller lists of many publications, he meets a woman who eventually becomes his wife, but then an email arrives accusing him of plagiarizing the book and Jake's trip into the nightmare zone starts. The email missives keep coming and eventually they go to his publisher and are posted on social media. Jake is terrified and decides its time to delve into Evan Parker's background and the surprises keep coming.

Although this book has quite a slow start, it builds momentum as we journey along to puzzle out the details of deception and lies. At times, it is a bit of a puzzlement why Jake takes this so seriously as he just seems to have taken the plot but written the story himself, and yet he does. As he delves deeper into the actual Evan Parker he finds that as the old adage goes, life imitates art this time with dire consequences.

Thank you to Jean Hanff Korelitz, Celadon Books, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book due out on May 11, 2021.

I enjoyed the tension and slow burn of The Plot. While I did find it slow at the outset, the pacing really picks up halfway through with several twists and turns. Some of the narrative was a bit predictable in my view, but I still loved the ending and didn’t want the story to end. I loved the book within a book element as well.

My thanks to NetGalley and Celadon Books for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Books about books: give them to me anytime and I'll be the happiest reader alive!

You can plagiarize words, but is it possible to steal a plot?

It took me a couple of pages to familiarize myself with the author's writing style, but after that, I was hooked. Korelitz kept me engaged throughout the different parts of the story and there are no words to explain how I loved entering the book world for a day.

About the ending: I would lie if I said I didn't see the big reveal coming while I was reading, but I assumed I was wrong so I just put aside the idea and forgot about it. It was a very clever and well-thought ending!

4.5 well-deserved stars!🌟

Unfortunately, once I got into the book, it drove me crazy. It is not illegal, or even immoral, to create your own expression of someone else's idea. That's how art gets made. So when the writer is wasting his life worried about discovery, it just didn't ring true to me.

The Plot was an enjoyable, suspenseful novel within a novel about writing and all of the downs associated with it. Until the main character comes across a plot he'd heard and waited to read about. When that never happened he did his research and took it for his own, but was it really his to take? With the perilously unrealistic ups come the threats of exposure. I won't get into the twists and turns, but I will say the ending was bittersweet. I wanted something more. I can only imagine the story coming full circle, but perhaps that's another book.

"In my world, the migration of a story is something we recognize, and we respect. Works of art can overlap, or they can sort of chime in with one another. Right now, with some of the anxieties we have around appropriation, it's become downright combustible, but I've always thought there was a kind of beauty to it, the way narratives get told and retold. It's how stories survive through the ages. You can follow an idea from one author's work to another, and to me that's something I find powerful and exciting." ~ Jean Hanff Korelitz, The Plot

When I first read a synopsis of The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz, it sounded a lot like one of the stories from Woody Allen's 2010 film, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger. Korelitz is in my opinion one of our best living authors, so I wondered, "Did she steal a plot about a writer stealing a plot?" In her acknowledgements Korelitz writes about writers:

"...we are the lucky ones...because we love stories and we get to frolic in them. Begged, borrowed, adapted, embroidered...perhaps even stolen: it's all part of a grand conversation."

I later learned from a friend that there is also a film called Death Trap about a desperate playwright who steals a manuscript of a play. So this writer-stealing-a-plot-theme is clearly not new. Doubtless there are many older iterations I'm unaware of. However Korelitz develops plot-appropriation into a psychological thriller that will knock your socks off, and make you have to fight to stop reading when it's way past time for you to go to bed. I'm not always a great lover of mysteries, but Korelitz does an exquisite job of developing her characters, and drawing you into the protagonist's dilemma, making your heart race and your stomach drop right along with his.

Jean Korelitz is best known for her books Admission and You Should Have Known, both which were adapted as films that bear little resemblance to the literary excellence of her books. She a masterful storyteller, enticing you into a world about which you formerly knew only a few scant details. Admission is about the high stakes world of Ivy League college admissions, The Devil and Webster is about a college president's struggle to maintain control in the face of a student uprising, You Should Have Known explores the perilous life of a therapist treating a manipulative and violent patient, A Jury of Her Peers exposes shocking corruption in the American justice system, and The Plot is about the painstaking process of making a life as a writer. Reading a Korelitz novel is like reading a New Yorker article, where the big picture unfolds slowly as the delicate details are revealed. Stephen King is quoted as saying: "The Plot is one of the best novels I’ve ever read about writers and writing. It’s also insanely readable and the suspense quotient is through the roof."

Thank you #NetGalley for an advanced copy of #ThePlotBook for an unbiased review. I can't wait for Korelitz to write her next novel!



Hardcover 336 pages, Audiobook 10 hours, 43 minutes. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 on GoodReads: Check out our Ripe Reads Group!
Available for pre-order on Amazon, but better yet, order it from your local bookstore!

I have been waiting to read this book for months! I was not disappointed, it is a brilliant novel. I am a huge fan of Jean Hanff Korelitz, and I leave this book as an even bigger fan! It a novel of a plot within a plot, the story of an author duped into writing a magnum opus whose astounding success produces unexpected results.

The main character, is Jacob Finch Bonnner, an author of no note, who I liked very much. I empathized with his neuroses and I understood his complicated feelings. I was happy for him when he finally achieved professional and emotional success.

This book is so clever and so intricately woven that I was fooled and kept in a state of thrall for all the glorious hours I spent reading this. I refuse to be a spoiler, so let it suffice that I believe this will be one of the big reads this summer

Thank you Netgalley for this opportunity to read, review and enjoy this novel.

I figured this out pretty quickly but still found it to be a delicious, twisty thriller. Having read more about the author, I see she has written other books I’ve enjoyed (Admission) and a book, You Should Have Known, that was made into an HBO series I loved (Undoing). She’s great at building suspense and at showing the dark side of human nature. Highly recommend The Plot especially if you enjoy thrillers and books about authors. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review an advanced reader copy.

This was everything I hoped it would be. The premise of this story is a favorite storyline of mine (reminded me of The Words in basic premise) and I went into this with high expectations. The beginning was compelling and I became immediately invested in the story. I loved the exposition throughout of what it is to be a writer. I will say, some things in the story I completely predicted or saw coming...but the storyline and reveals unfolded in such a beautiful and successful way that by correct predictions didn't ruin anything for me at all.

Sure the beginning of this novel was a little slow,,all the better to savor the snarky,,cynical look at MFA programs, writing retreats and the slippery ladder to literary success, Who but the mega bestselling author can ever feel secure?
Jake Bonner had a highly praised first novel, but finds himself laboring at the margins of the literary establishment. He latches on to a promising plot which was shared with him by his student at an MFA program. When he learns that this student has died without have any work at all having been published, well he isn’t one to deprive the public of this surefire story. What this plot actually consists of is revealed over the course of our novel. Meanwhile tasty morsels about the publishing business are interspersed, including commentary on who has a right to tell which stories.
Complications ensue when a charge of plagiarism is made and Jake feels the need to investigate. The final plot twist will be apparent to most readers several chapters before the end, but I for one enjoyed seeing it play out until the not so bitter end. After all weren’t we all a little envious of Jake?

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon for providing this e ARC.

With a clever premise and a dark exploration of the publishing world, this literary thriller is unputdownable. Jacob Finch Bonner was once a young writing talent on the rise, but now he’s totally blocked—he hasn’t written a word in years. After overhearing one of his MFA students share his guaranteed-to-be-a-bestseller plot for the story he wants to write, Jake steals the brilliant idea, writes the book, and zooms to the top of the bestseller list. Nine months later, he gets an ominous note that says “You are a thief.” If you need likable characters, this isn't for you—but I sure enjoyed the ride. Heads up for graphic, but present, trigger warnings for suicide and harm done to children.

Wow. I can honestly say this book was so different than any thriller I have read. It follows Jake a has been author who resorts to teaching at a third rate college after failing to write a successful follow up to his first novel. While teaching an arrogant student presents a plot for a novel destined for greatness. Several years later, jake discovers his student has died never writing his book. Jake write the novel using his plot and is a huge success. But he soon starts receiving threats and the real story begins. Great characters, great plot, and will make a great movie.Bravo! Thank you for the advanced copy in return for an honest review. #NetGalley #theplot #Celadon @celadon

Jake Bonner is a one-hit wonder novelist. Riding out a long slump, he takes a position as instructor in a Writer’s Workshop where he is assigned an unlikeable, arrogant student Evan Parker. Evan believes his potential manuscript is an unbeatable future best seller. When Jake hears the plot twist he must agree. Time passes and no such work is published; Jake researches and finds an obituary instead. His reaction? Write it, twist included. Later, while traveling on a book tour for his global bestseller, he receives the acclaim he has always sought. He even meets his wife. All seems good until he receives his first ominous message accusing him of being a thief. Seeking answers, his life spirals. The importance of a plot twist remains throughout reading Jean Hanff Korelitz’s work. The reader is eager to discover it in Jake’s/Evan’s novel and anticipates the same from the author. She does not disappoint.

Jacob Fitch Bonner is a writer teaching at an MFA program, years after the success of his first novel. Unfortunately for him, his follow up attempts at literary success are much less successful and he becomes bitter and resentful of the success of others. Until he meets an arrogant student who shares his plot idea for a best selling novel. Years later, Jake looks up his former student to see that he has died and he immediately takes the plot idea. The book is a bestseller and Jake finally feels like a success— until he starts receiving threatening messages. Someone out there knows he stole the plot and they’re threatening to expose him.

This is one of the most unique plots I’ve read in a while. One minor criticism is that the stakes never feel too dire: how does someone threatening to expose a writer for stealing a plot based on the crime that they committed have any power over the writer at all? At the height of his literary success, Jake meets and marries a woman fairly quickly and you can tell that his new bride is not all she seems. As Jake delves into the mystery of who’s threatening him (though it was always a bit obvious) there are a lot of people conveniently willing to talk to him, freely sharing information. Although the ending is predictable and a little silly, I enjoyed reading this. The story unfolds slowly and although it’s relatively predictable, it’s entertaining until the end.