A novel about a child star who was abused by the people she trusted. I felt it was a little slow in places, and took me a while to get through, but I needed resolution. Enjoyable overall.

Grace Turner was once on the verge of Hollywood stardom, but at the height of her career, she mysteriously vanished, leaving everyone puzzled. A year later, she returns to Los Angeles, determined to reclaim her life and career on her own terms. As she faces the man who controlled her for eight years, director Able Yorke, the true cost of her silence becomes clear. Grace knows that to finally free herself from the secret that has haunted her, she must confront her past head-on. The Comeback powerfully explores Grace's journey of reclaiming her voice and seeking justice, making it a compelling and emotionally charged read.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Grace disappeared from the bright lights of Hollywood and is now living with her parents, unkept and troubled…..as a child star she ‘owes’ that to Abie but really he owes her a lot more then that for what he has done. Great story with fab characters who you root to succeed.

I always enjoy feminist narratives and this one didn't disappoint. I thought Grace and her story had more layers than an onion and as soon as you unpeeled one, another appeared, ready to be pealed again. It's always interesting to see celebrity stories because you only know so much about them and the rest of the iceberg is so carefully hidden away. I absolutely recommend this one with very important and interesting themes.

That age old tale of the seediness of Hollywood amongst the glitz and the glam we have betrayal , sexual abuse , fame, depression and the rest. Gritty and somewhat familiar as we’ve all heard the horrid tales that come out of Hollywood and the suffering some of our favourite celebs endured.. or handed out. Great book, sometimes felt a little flat but for the most part really enjoyable

This book nearly destroyed me. Written in brilliant brittle prose, it shows the main character Grace, come to fame as an actress in her early teens, floating untethered through that no man's land between life and nothingness; between detachment, depression, guilt, insecurity, loneliness, emptiness, self-destruction & utter despair and flickers of hope, trying to heal, trying to cope somehow after being abused sexually and emotionally by her mentor in Hollywood.
I felt the need to write down quote after quote after quote from this.
Though very different in time and the topic at its core, it had the same quality to me as Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion, one of my top modern classics. All the stars.

Thank you, Netgalley and Head of Zeus, for the chance to read a copy in exchange for an honest review!

‘The Comeback’ by Ella Berman is a searing and depressing tale of fame, manipulation and growth which charts child star Grace’s attempt to return to LA following a year in Anaheim exile. As old wounds open, alliances are tested and truths are painstakingly revealed, the book asks whether power can ever be taken from the men who run Hollywood and poses important questions about the blurred lines between misplaced starstruck trust and parental neglect.

I loved the narration of this book and the way we saw the flashbacks to Grace’s rise to fame through her reflective eyes. The structure was intriguing and the chapters “after” a pivotal event were both bleak and hopeful. While I struggled to connect to Grace, I certainly felt empathy and was rooting for her against the world.

I find it particularly interesting that this novel, republished in paperback last month, was originally conceived prior to the explosion of the “Me Too” movement in showbusiness. I admire how the author kept Grace’s story separate to emphasise the terror, uncertainty and compulsion to keep quiet that plagues the first lone voice, before there are other women’s experiences to take courage from.

Overall, this gets 3.5 stars from me and is definitely worth a read. I’m planning to try Ella Berman’s other work based on this!

I received a digital copy from the publisher Aria & Aries via NetGalley for review consideration. Opinions my own.

What I loved about this book was the main character. I connected to her and wanted to know what happened to her. The thing I didnt like about this book was that it dragged on.

This book was dark and gritty in some ways but fell very flat for me in others. I don’t know what it was about the story but something about it just left me wanting more and prevented me truly enjoying it. It was however a pacey and easy read

2.5 ⭐️ rounded up

The Comeback delves into the familiar territory of Hollywood's dark underbelly, portraying the experiences of actresses with a well-worn narrative.

While the story hints at a timely reckoning, Grace's journey feels like a repetitive trope rather than a fresh exploration. The relentless bleakness of Grace's ordeal, coupled with underdeveloped characters aside from the protagonist, made it a challenging read.

Despite the author's skilful depiction of Grace's struggles and relationships, the lack of relief from the darkness left me longing for more variation. While Grace is a fully realised character, the antagonist, Able Yorke, falls flat, lacking depth and complexity.

I also found the parallels drawn between Grace's Hollywood turmoil and her sister Esme's high school struggles feel superficial and could have been explored more deeply to enhance the narrative's themes.

Overall, The Comeback left me wanting more originality and depth in its execution.

I really wanted to enjoy this - I’d heard such good things and have been waiting for it to be published in the UK, but I found it hard to motivate myself to get through the story to witness her overcoming her trauma.

This book follows movie star Grace who became a household name at a young age as an actress who credits Able a 40 something year old film director for making her a star. The book flicks between then and now as we begin to realise the close relationship they share is not all it seems to be. The book discusses topics including SA, family dynamics and men taking advantage of young girls. I found the narrator Grace to be very sad and questioning of life due to her past trauma. She struggles to build relationships due to being taken advantage of at a young age and being within the film industry. I enjoyed reading this book and the writing was perfect for me and believable. I was very interested in where the story would go and whether Grace would end up healing from her past. I will be recommending to others

This is a truly moving book about the very real issues that go on in Hollywood and the film industry as a whole. You could very quickly tell it was inspired by the Me Too movement and I think it has really important messages throughout but I would check the trigger warnings.

I did find it a bit slow and unclear at times but overall an interesting read.

Grace Hyde is a child when she is plucked from obscurity by producer, Able. As Grace Turner, her career grows from strength to strength as Able’s protege. Now older, Grace’s career has plunged and she is back living with her estranged parents. Recovering from a mental breakdown and years of alcohol and drug abuse, Grace has to process events to make her comeback.

I found this story gripping from the outset. I would say the chapters are short and punchy, and I felt like they worked well with linking the story together. Grace is a tricky character to get to know, and it took me a while to understand her. I think the author did a good job in depicting Grace as she may appear on the outside: surface-level selfish and troubled. However, the book is reflective, and as the structure shows Grace revisiting past key memories, I think these experiences give her character a greater depth. There are dark moments, with graphic depictions of sexual abuse in places, so will not be appropriate or appealing for all readers. I think Ella Berman writes well to include enough detail of Grace’s story without going too far. Whilst the abuse is pivotal to her story, I wouldn’t say the abuse overloads the narrative, so if readers are curious, I hope it wouldn’t put them off.

Overall, I feel Grace is a vulnerable and fragile character. I felt more sympathy for her as the picture of her experiences builds. I also really liked the softer elements of the book, especially in aspects of her relationships with Emilia, Laurel, Dylan and Esme.

I was a fan of Berman’s last novel Before We Were Innocent and think this book also has that glamorous-turned-gritty element to it. I would recommend for fans of the author’s previous work and those who want a dark and gripping drama.

Originally published in 2020, Ella Berman's debut novel "The Comeback" continued the conversation around the #MeToo movement within the context of Hollywood through its fictional characters' experiences. In April 2024, as it was published in the UK for the first time by @headofzeus, it did so in conjunction with the release of the "Quiet On Set" docuseries & further discussions around child stars.

So, what is this consistently "on trend" book about?

Its title, "The Comeback", refers to the personal journey of its main character & former child star Grace Turner as she attempts to return to the public life she abruptly disappeared from a year prior. Tentatively sober & with a different outlook on fame & privacy, she reunites with the people most important to her & those she must finally confront to put the past behind them.

Grace tells her story in the first person, alternating between past & present, & readers are therefore fully immersed in her emotions & mental state. In respect to her complicated relationship with her family (e.g. "jealous" mother, estranged younger sister who's going through her own scandal), addiction recovery (e.g. is she "Marilyn" or "Britney"?), interactions with agents/managers/directors, & what happened between her & the man who discovered her as a teen. You don't necessarily support her self-destructive behaviour, but you may come to understand & sympathise with it once her reasons are revealed.

Through her, Berman also presents her feelings on the treatment of child actors & women in Hollywood, by their peers & the media. We follow as Grace is manipulated, groomed, & more by someone she trusted, distanced from anyone who could have helped, & left with the confusion this all creates in adulthood (especially when it comes to romantic relationships, identity struggles, & seemingly normal stuff such as phones/social media).

The narrative itself is quite slow burn, with the focus being on the setting & characters, & the MC's quest for revenge plays out in a realistically anticlimactic way as it's more complex than many would like to believe.

For example, having to consider the value of the truth against the impact it'll have on careers & individuals, as well as summoning the strength it requires & finding the right means to make it known.

Having previously enjoyed the author's other work, "Before We Were Innocent", & the similar in many ways "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" by Taylor Jenkins Reid, this didn't quite live up to expectations. However, it was still engaging from start to finish.

Thank you to @headofzeus & @netgalley for accepting my request to read this eARC.

Since she was plucked from obscurity as a London school girl to become one of Hollywood's shiniest stars, people have told Grace how lucky she is. She doesn't feel lucky though. Traumatised by years of abuse at the hands of the producer who defined her career, and struggling to mask her pain with alcohol and cocaine, Grace flees Los Angeles for good, hoping to find peace with the family she distanced herself from as a young teenager. The past won't stay in the past, however, and, when she hears that her abuser is being honoured with a lifetime achievement award, Grace must confront what happened to her once and for all.

Originally published in 2020 but conceived of in early 2017, months before the #MeToo movement exposed widespread sexual harassment, assault and rape culture in Hollywood, The Comeback reads as a fictionalised account of the experiences of actresses such as Rose McGowan at the hands of Hollywood heavyweights like Harvey Weinstein. The story is not explicitly set in 2016, but it is heavily hinted throughout that a reckoning is coming, and that Grace could have been one of the first women to break the omertà.

Reading the book in 2024, not long after the 'Quiet on Set' documentary revealed a culture of abuse, harassment, racism and sexism on the set of Nickelodeon shows overseen by executive producer Dan Schneider, Grace's story also mirrors those of myriad young actresses, such as Alexa Nikolas and Jennette McCurdy. Author Ella Berman paints an unsettingly accurate picture of a young girl left exposed and vulnerable because her parents felt intimidated and out of their depth, and because of the overwhelming message that she should be grateful, be amiable, be a good sport; as Grace notes at one point, women and girls who have traded on looks for cash feel complicit in their own oppression.

The Comeback is unrelentingly bleak for the most part - at times almost unbearably so - as Berman details Grace's experiences of being groomed, isolated and abused in flashbacks, while the present timeline deals with her struggles with mental heath, addiction and feelings of disconnection from both her public image and her friends and family. The writing is good - brutal, vivid and realistic - and Grace a fully-realised, layered character, but I personally felt a little relief amidst the darkness would have made it easier to read. To be honest, the only thing that kept me reading at times was the hope of Grace taking her revenge against Able Yorke and coming out on top, and I didn’t feel completely satisfied by the ending in terms of plot or character development.

Grace's relationships with her teenage sister, Esme, her parents, and her estranged husband, Dylan, are thoughtfully portrayed, reflecting the complexities of supporting a loved one through an incredibly difficult time. I appreciated how Berman gives each of the characters the opportunity to push back against the limited role Grace has cast them in in her life, challenging her perceptions of herself and those around her. In contrast, the author does somewhat rely on the reader's familiarity with Harvey Weinstein et al rather than building Able's character, and he feels rather flat and cartoonishly villainous as a result.

The author tries to establish parallels between Grace's experience in Hollywood and Esme's travails with sexting, slut shaming and social media at her high school, but I felt that these could have been explored further to really emphasise the themes the author was alluding to. The Comeback is being re-published after the success of Berman's second novel, Before We Were Innocent, and I do feel that that book showed a more developed grasp of theme and motif.

Thank you to NetGalley and Aria & Aries for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

A slow burn for 85% of the book with what felt like a rushed ending that fizzled out. That said I was rooting for Grace in her redemption era and willing her to succeed the entire time. Overall I enjoyed it much like Berman’s other book, Before We Were Innocent should you want more “unreliable” female protagonists.

Thank you Aria & Aries and NetGalley for the chance to read The Comeback before it’s re-released. It’s out this Thursday, 11th April #TheComeback #NetGalley

The Comeback is Ella Berman’s debut novel from 2017 that will be published again this month, following on from the success of her recent novel, Before We Were Innocent, which was a Jenna’s Book Club pick. I found that book to be just okay, so I’m not fully sure why I requested this one on Netgalley. Perhaps I read the blurb and thought it might make for a good holiday read.

Alas this one was very bland; I couldn’t wait to finish it. It’s basically another #MeToo novel, based around a former child actor who spent years being sexually and emotionally abused by the man who gave her her big break.. There’s no hook though, no tension and no particularly likeable or warm characters. Everyone is very two dimensional and the writing, while not offensive, is terribly boring. Five hours of my life that I’ll never get back. Strictly for YA/Ella Berman fans only. 2/5 stars

The Comeback
by Ella Berman

Although this is Berman's debut, it is only being published now in Ireland and the UK, following last year's Before We Were Innocent, which I really liked.

This is a slow burn character driven story of a young woman who has been the victim of a Weinsteinesque Hollywood film director. A year ago she disappeared on the day before her first Golden Globe nomination, upending her teen star career, and the story opens with her coming to terms with her new lower status in LA hierarchy.

Slowly, through reflective first person narrative we learn how Able Yorke plucked her from obscurity and moulded her into the most exciting starlet of her time, but we also begin to understand the power dynamics that were inherent in the movie business before the #metoo movement blew the walls down.

I couldn't help thinking about Britney Spears' recent memoir throughout, about how easy is can be for young women who are hungry for fame to be so vulnerable to the coercive control of manipulative men who ultimately commodify them and exploit them in every way possible.

Berman really drills into the way the social system of this ( to the rest of us) bizarre industry is completely geared up for these power players to always win and their pawns, their prey, to become so ensconced in the trap that there is no way out. Who would ever believe the word of a "drug addled", "mental case" over a pillar of the community?

An uncomfortable, yet redemptive story of a young woman who's rage finds a voice at just the right time.

Publication date:11th April 2024
Thanks to #NetGalley and #ariaandaries for the ARC

This is another brutal book that does not hold its punches. It is based around Grace Turner, a former child actress who, at the height of her glittering adult career, on the eve of her first Golden Globe nomination, disappears...
I say disappears, she actually runs away home. To her parents, for a year. Until they start to gently (?) encourage her to go back. Which eventually she does. But this time, she's sober and her eyes are more open. And then she is asked to present an award to Able Yorke a director who has pretty much controlled her entire life.
But as the action continues in the present, we also witness her origin story. How she was plucked from obscurity, how she and her family travelled to the States in order for her to work on a film. Oh the glamour, the glitz... or actually, not. There's a dark side to things. A very dark side...
Yes, OK so there is an element of #metoo in all of this. But it is actually so much more than that. It's about power and control, about a strong influential person can basically manipulate a young innocent girl. It's about choosing the wrong people to trust and letting the good ones go. But it's also about the fightback... and, a kinda coming of age...
Boy was this a brutal, hard hitting read. It opened my eyes about a few things , especially some misconceptions I might have had about certain personality types. I'd love to wax lyrical more but, spoilers... It's is quite dark and depressing, but there is always that glimmer of hope, bubbling under the surface. It's very character driven and the character's are brilliantly drawn and all hold their own within the story being told. Grace is all things wonderful as a character. Naive, vulnerable, lonely, but also quite smart and determined... By the end of the book I was actually feeling quite sad that I would soon have to be saying goodbye to her.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.