The ending definitely left me like what?!? I liked that the narrator could be any woman. A really quick read/listen

The fact that the narrator is never named is apt as this could be any woman living in 2023. I think the story feels so real because it feels like something that is happening everyday not only in LA but in corporate offices across the world. It's something that women think about and have to deal with all the time. The body shaming from parents, the worry about appearance, the dumbing yourself down so you don't seem like too much, the worrying about inappropriate behaviour by men are things that are always at the back of your mind. This is a very short book that packs a lot into the story.

The unnamed protagonist shares her story of trying to find success in Hollywood, specifically in TV. She gets her start by getting an interview with XBC network, solely because her mother had done work for the owner and she called in a favor for her daughter. All the owner, Robert, is able to get her is an internship, which she takes with the goal to do well and work her way up. Well, that doesn't prove to be as easy as she expected as Hollywood ends up having way more misogyny than she originally expected.

While not necessarily a new concept as many books and movies are going out revolving around commentary on societal privilege, misogyny, sexism, assault, and harassment, I found that overall this book had a good narrative on the matters. With that said though, what I found the most interesting in the story, was the complicated mother-daughter dynamic through the protagonist and her mother, a narcissistic lawyer and rape survivor who isn't nearly as supportive of some of the events that happen to her daughter as one would think.

The protagonist was complex, which I always enjoy. I found myself equally rooting for her and wanting to grab her by the shoulders and say "WHAT ARE YOU DOING???" which left me confused at times. It could have left me disliking the book, however, I think it actually made me like it more.

While the book dives into very dark and serious subjects, I did not feel like it was weighing me down and a struggle to finish. I think it helped that the book was short and to the point.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The relatability of this book — even though i am not a Hollywood gal working in the industry — was pretty funny. I found myself laughing out loud at parts. That being said, this wasn't super the type of book I gravitate toward. It was still a fun enough ride! Really liked the narrator — brought the character to life for me!

Unfortunately this archived before I could finish it, but when I heard was well-narrated and engaging.

I received this as an eARC from Netgalley. Didn’t mind the narrator, but did realize there was no CW/TW at the beginning of the book (some books are known to do this, even with the audio versions). The title alone is what got my attention and it's always interesting to hear people discuss the entertainment industry. The book is based in the ‘pre #metoo” movement, but I went to the author site and didn’t see anything regarding a specific TW/CW list. . Also, in addition to SA, there is also a story heavily surrounding a toxic/narcissistic parent and generational trauma. and discussion about substance abuse that comes immediately to mind. The book reads like a diary and reads young too. It ends in a way to set up an additional book.

If you’re looking for some insight of how corporate life can be (not just entertainment, but many fields), this book gives you that visual, even if it is written young. But there's a line in the book where the MC says that she responded to one of her own emails pretending the initial email was a "drunk" mistake, so she could be perceived as not as smart compared to the vocabulary she does have to appease her colleagues. Maybe that's what happened here to want to appease a wider audience?

This book ended just as something was happening…..why? It’s as if there are several chapters missing. I enjoyed the book up until the end. The story keeps you invested, because you want to know what the (unnamed) narrator decides to do. However, we’re left hanging. I don’t enjoy a “choose your own adventure” style ending. Had this continued a few more chapters, it would have been a 4-5 star read.

I received an advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

Finding success in Hollywood is not easy, especially if you are a woman. Even if you are the daughter of a widely celebrated feminist attorney. Even if you’ve graduated from Harvard. Even if you’ve spent your life being trained on how to defend yourself against men who think you owe them something.

The narrator of this story never gives her name, but she gets an interview with the owner of the XBC network because her mother has done some work for him. Robert is a longtime friend to her family, and she has decided she wants a job in television, specifically in development, where the new shows get made. All Robert can offer her is an internship, but if she does well, she might be able to land a permanent position she can work her way up from.

She is smart and understands how to play well with others, so she quickly learns the politics of the office. She learns what she needs to do to keep her job and figures out how to be promoted to an assistant. She makes friends with another assistant, Allyn, and she keeps her eyes and ears open.

But things are difficult with her mother. She wants to have a good relationship with her mother. While she just wants a quiet life, a job where she can be successful, a relationship with a supportive man, a sense of peace, her mother seems to be addicted to drama and continually calls her daughter to yell at her or to ask for awkward favors.

And then she hears about a thing that happened. Apparently one of the stars of an XBC show was accused of assaulting a woman at a party. Her bosses try to keep it quiet, but her mother tells her about it. So while she knows what’s going on at the network, she can’t talk to her coworkers about it because her mother could get in trouble.

Then one night working late and drinking bourbon, she too is assaulted, but by a coworker she had trusted. She spends some time thinking and healing, trying to decide what she wants to do about it. She understands the consequences of coming forward, both personally and professionally, but she also wants to do the right thing. Will she be able to reconcile working in an industry that is still so hostile to women, or will she have to start over somewhere else? And how will she explain her mother, a feminist attorney, standing up for the studio that is protecting a sexual offender?

NSFW is a compelling novel about working in Hollywood from debut author Isabel Kaplan. This book pulls no punches, showing Hollywood in all its ugliness, and with its potential. Having a narrator with no name made things a little awkward, but it does make this feel a little like an allegory, like this is something that could happen to anyone. I listened to the audio on this one, and narrator Stephanie Nemeth Parker really did an amazing job with this story. She added the right amount of intelligence and emotion, of sarcasm and thoughtfulness.

I liked NSFW. I think it’s smart and insightful. However, it’s not an easy read, and it’s not for everyone. As I was closing in on the end of the book, I couldn’t think of a major female character who wasn’t sexually harrassed or assaulted. It came from sources expected and unexpected, and it was covered up and dismissed until someone needed leverage to further their own career. I have heard the stories of Hollywood, and I don’t doubt that a lot of this is true to the industry, but if the misconduct is truly as ubiquitous as it is at this one network, we should just burn the studio lots down and read more books.

So I thought this was an interesting book to listen to. But it wasn’t easy to listen to, and I think it will stick with me for a while to come, making me rethink all my entertainment choices and growing in respect for all the women who came forward and shared their personal stories of bad Hollywood behavior.

A copy of the audio book of NSFW was provided by Macmillan Audio through NetGalley, with many thanks.

I would not recommend this book for everyday reading, as it is not the most developed approach to this topic/situation. This book could be useful in a Writing 101 course with mature students who can handle the content appropriately. The text itself is very direct and would provide enough material for literary analysis and students' critical thinking. The ending is ambiguous and would allow for class discussions.

DNF. I wanted to like this one because it came recommended by a reader I admire, plus I'm a sucker for unlikeable female protagonists making bad decisions. But I couldn't get past all the body shaming and negative self-talk.

This was an interesting story, not really anything I expected. There was a lot that went on and I liked how many different characters were a part of the story. The main character was one that you want to cheer for but also you are torn because she only does the right thing sometimes throughout. I thought the audio was really good.

I did not receive enough time to properly review this book but hope to finish it once it's published in Canada

This begins as another post-feminist narrative of millennial boredom, but it quickly becomes gritty and doesn't hold any punches. When shit happens, it's on-page and explicit, unglamorous and sharp; unlike other litfic novels of a similar vein, the characters are fleshed out enough to stand out beyond serving their plot-given purpose (with the exception of the narrator's mother, who's mostly there to be a commentary on toxic parenting, though a couple of her scenes did hit home). Having said that, the finale was dreadful. It's not really an ending; rather, the tale simply ends without a conclusion or even a midway. Everything before it was OK, but suddenly it comes to an abrupt finish, and I had to go back and double-check that my ebook wasn't corrupted and that the book indeed ended where it does. I typically prefer open endings, but this was a definite miss for me.

Overall, it was underwhelming, but I was invested enough to finish listening to the audiobook, so I gave it three stars. The premise of this book is great - new adult out of college enters the film industry as a producer and slowly discovers people are evil, men abuse their power, and it feels impossible to change things within. The writing too has promise - it achieves that meandering vibe of a post-grad adult trying to anchor themselves in adulthood, but still to tied to their youth to really make their life their own.

With all that being said, let's get to the why it's three stars. This book needed a lot of content warnings. With the premise it's clear there will be discussions of sexual harassment, assault, and rape. There were some very nuanced discussions about assault, reporting, and comparative trauma in the text.

But I didn't realize that half the book would talk about dieting, taking meds off-label for weight loss, losing weight, doctors body shaming, and whatnot. I understand WHY that is part of the book, it definitely contributes to the ongoing conflict in the book: women are people, but they are treated like meat by the world. Lastly, all characters were presumed white and straight and cis. The world contains more that just skinny, white, cishet people. Great premise, with no delivery, because white woman feminism vibes.

"If we had the power we'd wield it differently, but in order to get the power I have to make the people in power believe I deserve it. Which means acting in ways they approve of and that's how I end up becoming complicit."

"To act on my principles I need power, but to get power I need to abandon my principles. It's a trap."

Its a "racist, sexist, elitist system".

NSFW is a look at an unnamed protagonists struggle to find her way in Hollywood without losing herself. Raised by a "feminist", narcissistic, attorney mom who she has had a complex relationships with she finds herself out of college and on the search for a job. As a Harvard graduate she expects jobs to come easier but she must rely on her mother's connections to get her in as an entry-level assistant at XBC, a broadcasting company. As a matter of fact her starting position is invented just for her as a favor from the head of the company for her mom.

As she works and tries to make a name for herself and climb the ladder in the male-dominated industry she faces many challenges both internally and with her surroundings. The book touches on body image, eating disorders, OCD, anxiety and sexual assault. It shows the side of the me too movement where the women are faced with the choice between coming forward and becoming a target or staying silent. It shows the "but they're a good person" and "they could do that/be a part of that" denial that occurs. It's a book that will make you angry and make you think.

In the end the book is left wide open. If you need closure and a tied up book then this one will frustrate you, but its like a choose your own adventure where the endings were left off leaving the reader to create their own.

A book about Hollywood before MeToo that follows our narrator, a recent graduate student, as she enters television development. But eventually you realize that this is not just a book about the real Hollywood, but about the patriarchal structures of a country where sexual assault and abuse of power is rampant. Sexual assault is a major theme and the book has more than one incident on the page.Our narrator, a recent Harvard graduate, is the daughter of a prominent attorney known for her work representing women in sexual assault and harassment cases. Through this lineage, she is able to go to a good friend of her mother's, the development manager of the fictional network XBC, to get a job. Although it was a low-level assistant position, she also skipped a few years of even worse work to get there. She is ambitious and you can see her work in detail. So if you like that kind of behind-the-scenes look, there's plenty in this.She has an idea of ​​how she wants her life to be, but she's just beginning to realize that it might not make her happy. In addition to her professional life, we see her love life and in particular her regular interactions with her mother, who pays for many things that our narrator cannot afford with her meager salary and who constantly demands her time and attention. His mother in particular is an intriguing character, and a guy we've seen a lot over the past decade, a woman who knows and understands the structures men use to attack women, who knows how hard it is to go to work or the police, and a woman who will say "Oh, Robert didn't do that" if the man involved is a friend. This book captures so well that feeling of being in your early twenties, when you feel overwhelmed when you realize that all the things you thought you knew about yourself, your family, and the world may not be true.It's very readable, but there's some heavy stuff in it.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the ALC in return for my honest review.

I really wanted to like this book because of the important themes. I did finish it but it wasn’t for me. Because, I didn’t connect and like the protagonist. I just wanted to shake her the whole time. And I didn’t like how the serious themes were explored in this book. This wasn’t the book for me. The narrator was good that kept me listening. There are positive comments here. Please make sure to read those.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co. / MacMillan Audio for access to the audiobook of NSFW by Isabel Kaplan in exchange for an honest review.

CW: sexual assault, sexual harassment, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, toxic relationships, sexism, body shaming, disordered eating and diet culture, fatphobia, misogyny, see full list on StoryGraph.

Following an unnamed protagonist, NSFW explores the slippery slope of sexual harassment, the ambiguous nature of sexual assault in the eyes of the law, and some of the reasons that victims invalidate their own experiences and infrequently report.

Unfortunately, I was not a fan of this book. While the message is important and definitely a discussion that needs to be had, I don't like the way that these themes were explored in this book. I did not like the protagonist. While I was able to understand the decisions that she made throughout the book, and I am able to recognize that her lack of ability to stand up for herself across contexts is attributable to her mother's emotional abuse, I just didn't like this narrative. That may also be effected by my own personal lack of experience in the corporate world. I find myself in a much more empathetic environment working in a helping profession, so I do feel blessed that the culture of sexual harassment is not a reality that I face daily. Another thing that really turned me off from this book was the protagonist's mother. Her gaslighting, whining, and general toxicity was so over the top. After enduring a lifetime of abuse of this type, I understood why the protagonist was unable to set boundaries for herself within her relationship with her mother, but all of their scenes together were just so enraging and unenjoyable.

Overall, I want to reiterate that this book starts important discussions, but this particular plot was not for me.

NSFW
By Isabel Kaplan
⭐⭐

[blurb]Blisteringly sharp, hypersmart, and compulsively readable―meet Isabel Kaplan’s searing debut novel about a young woman trying to succeed in Hollywood without selling her soul.
From the outside, the unnamed protagonist in NSFW appears the vision of success. She has landed an entry-level position at a leading TV network that thousands of college grads would kill for. And sure, she has much to learn. The daughter of a prominent feminist attorney, she grew up outside the industry, better versed in gender dynamics than box office hits. But she’s resourceful and hardworking―what could go wrong?

[review] I wanted to like this book. It was said to be frank and funny. A rare read that made people giggle.

But for me, it was triggering event after triggering event.

This is a decent book, but it's not a light and funny book. This is a heavy book that comes with a lot of trigger warnings. This is not a book you should read if you're not really in a good mental place.

There is a lot of deeply engrained patriarchy. A lot of whitewashed narratives on how to succeed in life. A lot of toxic diet culture and "wellness" culture. There is a lot of self-hate in this book that isn't even hinted at in the book's description. There's also a literal SA scene in this book, and nothing about that is light.

The female protagonist has a very toxic relationship with her mother, and that is a trigger for a lot of millennials now. it's interesting to see how this is becoming a more common theme in books.

I just went in expecting it to be "Frank and Funny" and got "heavy and toxic"

These are my opinions.

Thank you netgalley and macmillian audio for the ability to review this book

This was a timely and interesting read following a woman in the television industry. She is unnamed throughout the story but is impacted by a male-dominated industry and world. I enjoyed the story, and I thought it was very insightful.