I was really excited to read this book. The cover and the epistolary format had me most excited. I really enjoyed the beginning of the book, but about 50% through got really boring and, for me, never recovered.

Book is written using letters, emails, articles etc to illustrate the search and life of a one time author who had crept into obscurity after writing one significant book. I found it slightly difficult and annoying to read, especially when the letters grew longer and lecture-like.

An aspiring writer discovers that one of his biggest inspirations and favorite authors, who disappeared at the climax of her success, is alive, well and living in the same city as him. Our main character decides to look for Edna and ends up discovering so much more. Even himself.

This amazing novel is divided in two parts and written mainly through emails, letters, social media posts and articles that gives us a glimpse of the behind of scenes of the literary scene, what it takes to be a writer and everything that comes with success,

At one point Edna says "I don't actually want to interact with the world", and you know what Edna? Neither do I.

An inventive writing style can make or break a book and this one made it for me. The epistolary style makes it that much more fun to read. Bonus, books about books, and in DEAR EDNA SLOANE, poking a bit of fun at the publishing industry, giving readers a glimpse into a world that some of us booklovers can’t get enough of. Seth, an ambitious yet clueless editor, is determined to find a once promising author, Edna, now a recluse, to boost his own career, the way he goes about it is not only self-serving but, for the reader, extremely humorous. What an enjoyable read.

Thank you to Red Hen and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙤𝙣𝙮𝙢𝙤𝙪𝙨? 𝙀𝙖𝙨𝙮. 𝘽𝙚 𝙖 𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧.
This novel had me thinking about the evolution of literature and art, how technology and time affect creation. Edna Sloane was hot in the 1980’s New York literary scene with the publication of her novel “An Infinity of Traces”. A time before the internet, “when people still worshipped writers,” before Seth Edwards (web editor, aspiring writer) was born, Edna fell off the face of the earth without ever publishing a sequel. There were people who claimed it was just a publicity stunt, a convincing one that has lasted decades, others who think maybe she was murdered but now she is yesterday’s news, mostly forgotten. All he knows is one day on her way to discuss her follow-up book with her publishers, she never arrived. Reporters did not have luck either with their mission to find out what happened when they went to her apartment all those years ago. Rumor is that she is living in New York, this inspires Seth to try and track her down. Seth understands this requires sleuthing, so begins emails, modern day gumshoe work. He is willing to do anything if it will help his career, stuck at a standstill.

When he thinks he has finally found her, there are hoops he must jump through to make it worth her time to allow him to interview her. This novel is not about solving the great mystery of vanishing, it is about the transformation of Edna from shooting literary star to “an invisible woman of a certain age,” and that is what makes this a brilliant read. She is not sure people care about books, art, and words these days. Seth wants to be “put on the map,” and re-discovering Edna, featuring her would be just the thing to do it! He gets a real education about what it means to be a talented woman, the measure of fame, and the cost of an ordinary life raising a child. Did she continue to write? Did she dry up? At the start, Edna is a means to an end for Seth but as she starts to look like an actual person, through their correspondence, we see “what the stuff of life,” and all the people in it, can do to a talented woman. Why did the past swallow her up when she was just getting started?

It is a clever novel, Seth does not know himself, he is obsessed with ambition and what he thinks should come to fruition in his life. He does not ask the right questions, he is concerned too much with his tortured self and feels the world (or Edna) owes him the secret to success, all the while the truth about writing is going over his head. Will he get what he wants? I was surprised by this story and what happens with Seth and I understand a lot of what Edna feels.

For aspiring writers, book lovers, and all those “invisible women of a certain age” this is a surprisingly meaningful read.

Published April 30, 2024

Red Hen Press

The book is epistolary and follows a pre-pandemic millennial publishing peon. Dear Edna Sloane pulled off the feat of being not just a book about books but a novel about books that didn't go for any of the easy endings I feared it might while reading it. Dear Edna Sloane will engage and hang around the brains of anyone who's ever been drawn to a vocation (writing, parenthood, a life well-lived) in a culture that sometimes seems cluttered in clickbait. A thoughtful and fun read!

Thank you Red Hen Press for providing this e-book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I was really intrigued by this through part one. The format took a minute to get used to but I started enjoying how the story was told through emails, texts, and other correspondence. I enjoyed the investigation. Unfortunately, when part 2 rolled around and the investigation was “over,” I didn’t enjoy the story anymore. It started to feel too drawn out and I found that I didn’t really care. The character’s voices felt like they didn’t have enough distinction between them. I dnf’ed at 50%.

Thanks netgalley for this opportunity.

DNF at 40%.

I tried several times to read this book but I couldn't get myself to finish it. I think it was primarily the format that was not working well for me. Also, the protagonist kind of annoyed me that I just couldn't continue reading.

The premise of this ebook sounded really interesting, however it is written in a series of back and forth email communications. Telling the story this way did not work for me. I could not finish because for me I didn’t see myself reading 6hrs of people’s emails. I just couldn’t get past the format.

I was excited about the format of this book but overall it fell a bit flat for me. It was thought-provoking though. I would be interested in trying out whatever the author releases next!

2.5 stars, rounded up. I haven't read a book with an epistolary format before - told exclusively through the format of letters, emails, social media etc - and I think a big part of why I didn't vibe with this book is because I don't think that this format is for me. I felt separated from the characters and plot and it was a little more clunky feeling to me. The way that Seth communicated grated on me a bit, because he seemed incapable of code switching - surely he would be capable of making some of his emails sound more professional?? The tone of all the communications started to blend together a bit for me- I don't feel that the characters were fleshed out enough for me to get to know them well enough. There were some great themes explored (e.g., balancing creativity with societal expectations/pressures, the meaning of success, the experiences of being involved in the literary world), some humorous writing, and the premise of the book was unique and interesting, but it just fell a bit flat for me unfortunately. Thank you to Red Hen Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who was obsessed with the “ttyl” book series as a kid, I am always looking for epistolary novels that will take me back into the feeling of reading those books. (Also, do the “ttyl” books hold up? Has anyone revisited them?)

I think “Dear Edna” was so successful in creating this feeling in a really thought-provoking and existential dread-filled way. I will definitely be thinking about this book in the days to come.

Thank you to NetGalley and Red Hen Press for the ARC!

The entire book is written in email, letter, and text correspondence along with other written content throughout the years. Though I enjoyed this book, the beginning had a slow start due to the business casual writing style Seth had to employ while trying to find information about Edna Sloane. At first his sense of humor came off as fake at the beginning, but as he builds relationships, his writing style relaxes a bit and the humor is more "real." These aspects made it difficult for me to get into at first.

Though very different, the novel has a similar concept to the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo due to the nature of Seth trying to get an interview with Edna, who is very closed off and private. However, what really sets this book apart is Shearn's excellent writing. The voice of each character comes through with each correspondence. As a reader you are able to grasp Edna's quick wit and reflective nature as well as Seth's insecurities and admiration.

In addition, I really appreciated how the excerpts from Edna's books were extremely well written to the point they actually come off as a modern classic. Oftentimes authors will write excerpts from their characters' books, and they just aren't that good, almost as if the author is battling their voice and skill vs the character's.

I will close with a quote near the end of the book that resonated with me:

"And yet when I can trick myself into believing, for a moment, that a God might have created us, it seems very dear to me that this God would want us to create."

Thank you NetGalley & Red Hen Press for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

If you've ever wished 84 Charing Cross Road and If on a Winter's Night a Traveler could go on a long, meandering walk through the boroughs of New York at dusk and share their secrets — or maybe you're a normal book lover who doesn't imagine books on really good dates but just needs to break a reading slump — you'll inhale Dear Edna Sloane by Amy Shearn. You might even enjoy all the musing on writing as vocation as well as book publishing realities (and more) in one sitting, as I did. The book is epistolatory and follows a pre-pandemic millennial publishing peon as he searches for an author who made a debut splash back when publishing was more three-martini-lunches than it's present day make-your-own-press-tour. Divided into the two parts, I say to go into the story knowing as little as you can so you can enjoy the journey (if not the main narrator at all times; I scoffed at him a couple of times in the beginning, but perfect narrators are boring, and this one didn't fail to make the interesting choice throughout the book, so.).

Dear Edna Sloane pulled off the feat of being not just a book about books but a novel about books that didn't go for any of the easy endings I feared it might while reading it. Did I fist pump when an influence I suspected showed up in text? Reader, I did, and bet you will, too, for we are both of us broken in the same way if you've read this far.

For readers who have read Shearn's earlier work, A Mermaid in Brooklyn, there's a small treat for you as well on page 1. I've yet to read Mermaid as this was my first Shearn, but I was delighted by the find while checking out the author's other work. Personally, my next Shearn will, I hope, be Unseen City, which I missed when it was published in the beginning of the pandemic. Dear Edna Sloane will engage and hang around the brains of anyone who's ever been drawn to a vocation (writing, parenthood, a life well-lived) in a culture that sometimes seems cluttered in clickbait. A thoughtful and fun read!


Thank you Red Hen Press for providing this e-book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Red Hen Press for allowing me to read an ARC of Dear Edna Sloane by Amy Shearn, in exchange for my honest review.

I wanted to love this, I did. It wasn't the format, as I typically love reading epistolary novels. This just seemed to go on and on, and on and on for me, with no real substance.

This is a very engaging epistolary novel...it's fun to read emails and articles and old letters, after all, and the book juggles a few mysteries all the way through. In addition, this is a very ambitious book. I understand if some readers felt like something was missing, but I think that's part of the point...there is something missing. The letters directly discuss what is missing from real life.
We get glimpses of three generations and three different kinds of pain and emptiness...the unthinkable trauma of a Holocaust survivor, his daughter who is too sensitive and too feisty for ordinary or literary society, and a guy in his 20s who is dealing with his own generation's catastrophes. Our catastrophes. The book also explores how to make art and how to live the good life regardless...how that might mean growing a beautiful garden for one person, and being alone to write stories for another. How to keep going. How to make it all mean something. Of course, there are no clear answers...we haven't collectively solved these problems! They remain mysteries. But there is much here that's thought-provoking. I know I'll be thinking about these characters and their problems for a long time.
I'd like to say more about my fascination with history repeating itself throughout this story, but I don't want to give anything away.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC

I’m giving this book five stars because I feel that the point of art is to incite an emotional reaction of some kind. However, this book brought out a very visceral reaction out of me, and made me so mad at some points.

From the beginning, I hated Seth and everything about him, and at first I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to or not. But as I got to know Edna, I realized what his purpose was as a character a bit more. I flew through this book, partially because of the format and also because I genuinely needed to know where this story was going. It engaged me throughly.

I’m all about “unlikeable” women in literature, and I adored what this book was saying about that. The juxtaposition of Edna’s rage towards her editor for wanting to punish her character’s sexuality and the men in her life in general with Seth’s reducing of the women in his life to what he can get from them is extremely well written and rage inducing. It was a very good commentary on how women are treated in their creative endeavors, and the obliviousness of men in the same industry to those struggles. I just wanted to protect Edna and her choice to stay out of the spotlight.

I also wrote in my notes that the book made me crave matzoh ball soup. I come from a long line of New York Jews, and I really enjoyed that infusion of culture within the narrative as well.

Overall, a really powerful story with engaging characters, good and bad. I devoured the book in just a few hours.

I read Amy Shearn’s Dear Edna Sloane in one sitting.

I laughed out loud as I read Seth’s earnest, but misguided emails, texts, posts, and letters as he searches for Edna Sloane, the reclusive author of the 1980s literary sensation An Infinity of Traces who disappeared at the height of her book’s success. Seth, a disillusioned editorial assistant at a digital publication company, becomes convinced that the only way to save his stalled career is to rediscover the forgotten Edna Sloane.

Dear Edna Sloane is told through a series of letters, emails, text messages, and even the occasional Reddit post. Beneath its humor is an emotional core. I saw myself in protagonists Seth and Edna. Like Seth, I remember being a wide-eyed recent English Literature graduate, filled with ideals and ambition, and how quickly the world grinds them down. I also recognized Edna's struggle as a mother and an older woman. As both myself, I've noticed the ways I start to become invisible to the world.

Shearn's portrait of Edna, a fierce and vulnerable woman, feels achingly real. The men in her life—her ex-husband, her editor, her son, and even Seth—demand her energy and validation. They try to diminish Edna's desires and her hard-won sense of self, but she refuses to let them.

As Seth and Edna’s friendship deepens, so does Shearn's meditation on what it is to live a creative life in a world driven by clicks and an obsession with the next big thing.

I loved this book immensely. It's clever, current, and a reminder that sometimes a good belly laugh is just as meaningful as a great epiphany.

This is a SHARE.

Dear Edna Sloane, from Red Hen Press, will be released in April 2024.

The book was a promising read. It has a good premise and an interesting format. Unfortunately, it was one of those books that did not meet my expectations. It needs a bit more oomph like some more interesting plot points and some more excitement from the characters. It would be nice to see it get to some interesting tidbits at a quicker pace. The book might be better enjoyed by someone else especially those who enjoy reading through texts, emails, messages, and letters. A great promising book that was just not for me.

I loved the idea of this book. At first the tension was building as we wait to see if he ever makes contact with Edna Sloane. Once that aspect is resolved both letters sounded like they were written by the same person. Some parts were interesting to learn about Edna but after a while I found myself bored. For someone off the grid she sure had a lot to say. The letters have a rambling style about the most mundane aspects of life. Overall, the story started interesting and kind of loses its way.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.