Rating: 2/5 stars.

“The Plot“ is a mystery thriller by Jean Hanff Korelitz. The book is meta with a rather interesting premise that was sadly disappointing in its execution. Written partially as a book-within-a-book, the plot and main character are definitely meant to appeal to writers and writers-to-be.

The main character’s personality, trials and tribulations are fairly relatable for writers. The writing style, especially in the earlier chapters, is meant to match the pretentious style of the main character, Jacob. There are a lot of asides placed inside brackets, and a lot of rambling, so even though the book is written in third person perspective, it feels almost as if it has been written by the main character. The first half of the book is written in this way. This choice of writing style feels borderline satirical, and frankly made the book rather boring and hard to read. I almost gave up at about three chapters in and marked the book as “did not finish.” I decided to push through as the book had gotten many rave reviews. The pacing and readability of the novel did improve in the second half, but I found it was still not very enjoyable.

Another fault of the novel is that the main character was lacking in depth. It’s hard to put into words but when reading, it almost felt like there was a wall between the reader and the character, not allowing us to really get to know him or his true motivations, beyond the shallow, self-serving ones. Or perhaps there is just not much depth to him at all.

White the concept of the book was actually a really clever idea, the execution and twists left much to be desired. The plot was predictable, that is, both the plot of the novel, and the book-within-the book. For a book that’s supposed to be about the unpredictability of the book-within-the-book, the twists were overhyped. The main twists of both were fairly obvious and not original, so when they were revealed, it was disappointing.

Overall, marred by the writing style of the earlier chapters, and the predictable and overused plot twists of the later chapters, this book was unsatisfying and I was not a fan. That being said, I could definitely see how this book would appeal to aspiring writers, especially those who are somewhat critical of the industry.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book on NetGalley and have provided an honest review.*

*I received a digital review copy of this book from Celadon Books, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.*

Nearly midway through 2021, The Plot may stand to be my most disappointing read of the year. Not because it is an awful, terrible, no-good book, but because it had the potential to be a fantastic one. Korelitz’s concept is intriguing, and her inclusion of excerpts of a novel within the novel captivated my attention. Ultimately, however, the story’s predictability, due to a scarcity of characters and the repeated references to specific details, prevented it from being the “psychological thriller” it’s advertised as.

This book has gotten mixed reviews, and surely the plot of "The Plot" has been done before, and a few times just this past year or so. But I ate it up with a spoon. Loved it, loved it, loved it. (Although I didn't agree that the plot behind the plot was something that had never been done before, that was an automatic best-seller. But I digress.) If you can only read one "washed-up writer steals another writer's plot" book, make it this one!

Thanks to NetGalley and Celadon books for giving me The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz in exchange for my honest review.
Much like its cover, The Plot is somewhat of a book within a book. While teaching an MFA program for writers, fellow writer Jacob Finch Bonner comes across a remarkable plot by an unremarkable student. A few years later, and Jacob still thinks of this plot from time to time; waiting for it to pop up on the NYT Bestseller list or Oprah’s Book Club. When he finds out his former student died and the book was never published, well, the choice was really already made for him. Alas, nothing is ever that simple, and trouble ensues.
I liked that this book switched between telling us the story of Jacob Finch Bonner and also, giving us little snippets of his bestseller. While a unique idea, I found that the plot of the real story to be lacking, while wanting more of the book within the book. A pretty solid read that keeps you going to the end.

I really enjoyed the premise of this book and thought it was very well written. Author and creative writing teacher, Jake Bonner, learns of a plot sure to succeed from a student. Years later he realizes the book has never been published and writes it himself. After obtaining great success, Jake begins receiving threatening letters that someone knows he stole the plot for his novel.

One thing I loved about this book is that the plot of this fictional novel is revealed. I think going in there’s some concern that you’ll be left hanging and that this fantastic, guaranteed success of a plot won’t be revealed. But it is! And it’s revealed layer by layer as events unfold in Jake’s life. I have to admit that sometimes it got confusing keeping up with the fictional novel and the real life events and what was actually “real”. Early on I struggled with the author’s writing style. Some sentences felt too long and complicated. I found myself having to reread to be sure I understood what was being said. Though once the book hit the halfway mark it really took off! I loved the twist and it was one I didn’t see coming until it was almost revealed. I think that’s a mark of a great story. It makes perfect sense but it wasn’t so obvious that you saw it coming from a mile away. Overall, I thought this was a great and unique read.

Thank you so much @CeladonBooks & @NetGalley for gifting me this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 11 May 2021)

SYNOPSIS | Jacob was a moderately successful author, but hasn't written anything of acclaim since his debut. In order to pay the bills he teaches a writing course where he meets a student named Evan who has a fantastic idea for a story. Fast forward a few years & he realises that Evan has died without ever publishing his book & Jacob decides to use the idea for his next best seller.

WHAT I LIKED:
- that we got to read excerpts of the book that was being written (although I would have liked more of them)
- loved the references to our real world which helped blur the lines e.g. Oprah's book club, Goodreads etc.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- the ending
- the entire argument about "stealing" the plot. The MC spent a lot of time justifying his actions & feeling guilty for them whereas I don't actually think he did anything inherently bad. Yes he used another persons plot outline to write the story, but all of the words were his therefore it's not really plagiarism. Stories are told time & time again and it's the authors writing that truly bring the plot & characters to life.
- implies that the most important part of a story is the plot whereas I love character driven stories a lot more than action packed adventures. For me a plot doesn't make or break the story.

Very engaging and the suspense was great. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and I could see it actually happening. Highly recommend.

This book was a bit of a slow burn at the beginning but once it got going I couldn't stop. This is a clever psychological thriller and I would recommend reading this book!

Thank you for the advanced copy of The Plot!

This book has been out for a few months now, but I just finished it and still wanted to review.

The novel follows a professor/author who hasn't had a hit book in quite some time. A few years back he met a man who told him about a plot for a novel he would write. The author looks the man up and discovers he died, so he decides to use his book idea. What follows is a slightly predictable story, but I did think that it was also realistic to what people do to save their careers.

The novel was slightly hard to get into, but I really liked the ending.

Thank you again for the copy!

I was worried this would be too similar to Ladder to the Sky (which I LOVED) but thought it took some different turns. I still like John Boyne's plot-stealing novel better!

Here’s the plot of The Plot: an author who had early success finds himself teaching in an MFA program where he meets an arrogant student (see above) who thinks he has the perfect idea for a bestseller. The student dies and the teacher steals the plot. Years later the book is a huge success but someone knows the teacher’s secret and is determined to expose him.

This is a very good book with plenty of twists and turns along the way. I don’t know if I’ve read too many of these thrillers, but I figured out the ending midway through the book. I hate when that happens, and yet I didn’t mind continuing reading it. It was that good.

Hold you take credit for a book you know will be read for generations to come. Jacob Bonner has a problem many writers who have tasted the wine of unrivaled success on the first try. Reduced to teaching MFA students at a small college to make ends meet , after a prince of a writers block, with no new book in sight. Enter Evan Parker not just a flash in the pan but from what he has submitted,the real deal in everlasting form. Fate brings Jacob a choice of a lifetime with serious repercussions. It’s fast paced and energetic and will leave you reeling.

This was a very intriguing little thriller that left me with my mouth hanging open just a little bit at the end. I put things together shortly before the reveal, which is always a disappointment but yet somehow still a proud moment for me when it happens. The plot of "The Plot" was definitely a fresh take, and I think many will thoroughly enjoy this.

This book was pretty good for the first 75% of the book, but then it became rather predictable and almost boring. The main character, Jake, didn't have much depth.

A plot inside a plot inside a plot! This book switches between the life of Jacob, an author, and excerpts from the book that he "stole" from a former writing student. Like many thriller/mystery books I have read, this is a slow-moving book that requires some backstory and character development in order to get to the action. While not always my favorite, the twist at the end definitely made it worth it!

My fellow reviewers are a bit divided on this one, but I fall firmly in the "loved it" camp. I have been riding the high of Who Is Maud Dixon? for a few months and now The Plot hit that mark again for me. As an extremely perceptive reader I could figure out where the story was leading, but there were enough details held back to make me feel like like I was just on the edge of the epiphany (the literary equivalent of having the answer just on the tip of my tongue.) Even when the dots were fully connected, Korelitz kept delivering dialogue, details, and deeper character analyses that had me alternating between slack-jawed shock and evil laughter.

Really excellent book! The writing was higher quality than I've seen in a while (probably at least this year). It felt a bit slow to start but was always thoughtful, and the topic was interesting enough I didn't mind. This is definitely a top read for the year, and I'll be keeping an eye out for more in the genre by this author!!

The Plot is a clever example of meta-fiction, designed to appeal first and foremost to writers (successful or would-be) in its audience. The protagonist, Jacob Finch Bonner, is a self-involved, pretentious, and borderline whiny youngish man, once the wunderkind writer who has been unable to channel his critical success into a commercially successful career. He bides his time as a putative instructor at Ripley College, working with other writers in a second-rate MFA program, but in reality spending the majority of his day recalling his halcyon days as the up-and-comer and wallowing in self-pity. After a lengthy introduction to the main character, Hanff Korelitz has done little to evoke any empathy or interest from this reader - Bonner is a right prat! But to a writer who has struggled to get a toehold in publishing , who is plagued by self-doubt or writers' block, I can see Bonner appealing as a folkloric hero of sorts.

During his time at Ripley, Bonner meets an even more obnoxious character, a student by the name of Evan Parker, who comically muses whether his pen name should be the much more arresting, "Parker Evan". Parker (or Evan) is in many ways less offensive than Bonner; he is brash and conceited, but it comes from an innate sense that he possesses a unique gift that will launch him to great success. He simply believes in himself, and more specifically, in his never-before-seen and brilliant idea for a book plot. After reading a brief excerpt and hearing a synopsis, Bonner is mesmerized and cannot get the "Plot" out of his head. Interestingly, Hanff Korelitz's actual readers initially get no real understanding of this "Plot" or why it is so magnetic. Eventually, in a meta 'tale-within-a-tale" style, we uncover the horror of the events of Parker's original story, eventually appropriated by Bonner after he discovers Parker has died with no family ties, and indeed launches the author (now Bonner) to renowned success.

The rest of the story relays how Bonner - already suffering from self-doubt - experiences a near breakdown when an anonymous Twitter troll taunts him and threatens to out his subterfuge. The slow-paced literary tale becomes a mystery as we witness Bonner traveling the country in an attempt to identify and silence the troll. The "Plot" is finally revealed in full. My observation is that this Plot was way overblown - but the surprising conclusion when Jake uncovers his nemesis was indeed a head-spinning turn.

Hanff Korelitz's prose is well-crafted (though struck me as self-conscious at times -- trying too hard to appeal to the audience of writers?). Her overall story - after the torturous introduction to Bonner's quotidian life at Ripley, - picked up the pace at the right tempo and introduced engaging characters along the way. Ultimately, the letdown from the eponymous "Plot" not actually being all that shocking (I can't see readers gasping on the subway due to this book, for example) weighed on my opinion. Rating this 3.5 out of 5 stars, although I fully acknowledge that this story would appeal much more to those in the trade (hence the many glowing reviews from the book critics' circle).

Thank you to #NetGalley, #CeladonBooks, and to Jean Hanff Korelitz for the advanced readers' copy in exchange for an honest review.

I believe this was meant to be literary suspense? Certainly the focus on the internal struggle of Jacob, the author who 'steals' a plot from his dead student gives the impression that this is in some ways intended as a character study, but the problem was, as a character, he just wasn't that interesting. A writer who saw early success with his debut novel and then faltered with his sophomore effort, Jake Bonner has now resorted to teaching writing at a low prestige program in Vermont. While there, he encounters Evan Parker, an obnoxious young writer who assures Jake he may not even need his help as an instructor because he has a surefire blockbuster plot. Evan tells Jake that almost anyone could write this book, and it would be a bestseller. Intrigued, Jake manages to finagle out of Evan what 'the plot' is, and feels a stab of envy. He agrees. Anyone could write that book, and it will be a sensation. So ... let's stop there for a moment. If you ever read a book, you know that no such plot exists. Great plots get mangled all the time. And story alone can hardly ever make a book a bestseller.

Still, that's the bait.

When Evan Parker dies, Jake eventually writes a novel based on that surefire plot and gets all the things he was pining for as a one-hit-wonder author--money, fame, literary acclaim. Then someone contacts him anonymously, letting him know that they know he 'stole' the plot and that they intend to expose him. Interspersed with excerpts of Jake's celebrated novel is his own narrative as he investigates his former student's background, hoping to find a clue about who else he might have revealed his plot idea to, and hence, find the person threatening him.

Now here's my quarrel with this book: the surefire bestseller plot that was promised had to be mind-blowing. There was no other way to make the premise of this book hold. Especially since, it's very difficult if not impossible to claim a proprietary interest in an unwritten 'plot'. So ... Jake's fear of exposure felt a little overblown. His student never wrote the book in question and was dead. But, I read on, almost solely because I wanted to know what the mindblowing plot twist was that felt worth stealing. And ... yeah, it wasn't that mindblowing.

It gets revealed about 75% percent into the book, when as a reader you've already invested significant time into reading the minutiae of Jake's investigation into Evan Parker's background, including insignificant conversations he has with receptionists, waitresses and various and sundry characters he encounters. All in all, I think the premise set this author up for something that was impossible to deliver. I almost wish she had kept 'the plot' a mystery. Ultimately, it may not have mattered if what she hoped to deliver was a book about the moral ambiguities that accompany creating something and claiming it as 'original' when ultimately, there is nothing new under the sun. Not having the buildup and ultimate disappointment accompanying the reveal of the plot could also have left room for more exploration of what 'appropriation' (of culture, thoughts, ideas, concepts) means which is a big question recently being revisited in the literary world. At points the author started or alluded to that kind of exploration, but left us hanging.

Anyway, I like reading books about authors, so there was that. But if you want a fast-paced psychological suspense novel, full of twists and surprises, I have to say, this just isn't it.

Jake Bonner has item several novels and received minor celebrity status. Yet, he is teaching writing at a third rate school while trying to get back into the groove of writing a new novel. Enter Evan Parker into his class. He announces he has no need for the class because he has the perfect plot for a novel. Parker tells Jake the plot. Jake still struggles with his own writing when he hears that Parker has dies. His book has not been written or publish. So Jakes decides to write the book himself. No one wold be the wiser. Or would they. Tightly crafted, the plot keeps you guessing and turning the pages.