“I always heered that art was for ugly girls and queers.”

The Animators is the right story at the right time, outstanding fiction that is too impossibly good to be debut fiction, and yet here it is. I nearly let the DRC pass me by, because apart from its female main characters, there is nothing here that would ordinarily hook me. I am too old, too straight, and too un-artistic to be part of the target demographic. But I had been in a rut lately, reading too many mysteries, and so I decided to step out of my comfort zone; in doing so, I hit the jackpot. Sometimes rewards come when we aren’t expecting them, and it would be a sad thing to let a golden moment pass by unmet. Thanks go to Net Galley and Random House for the advance copy, which I received free in exchange for this honest review.

Our story revolves around the lives of two women that meet at art school. Sharon Kisses is a shy kid from Kentucky, self-conscious but ambitious. Mel Vaught is hilarious, outrageous, and riotously extroverted, a noncomforming thrill-seeker from Florida. Mel appreciates Sharon’s art in a way that no one else does, and Sharon is grateful to finally have someone understand her. Together they form a team that will become famous.

The entire story hinges on development of our two characters and the relationship that unfolds between them. The plot is original and interesting, but it wouldn’t go anywhere if I didn’t believe Sharon and Mel. I buy both of them immediately, and before we’re even halfway through the story I am making predictions—mostly unsuccessful ones, and it’s the chewy ambiguity that makes the whole thing so fascinating—about what one or the other of them will do. I made one accurate prediction midway through, but nothing else went where I expected it to. That being said, however, everything here made complete sense, and these are two such viscerally relatable characters that I carry them in my head still, though I’ve read at least half a dozen other books since I finished this one. In fact, a hallmark of the very best fiction is that I have to let what I have read cook in my head for awhile before I am ready to describe it. I take notes, but they aren’t enough.

Mel is gay, but Sharon isn’t. On the other hand, Mel is also about ninety percent of everything that Sharon has in this world, once the partnership develops. Sharon always introduces Mel as “my business partner,” and this is both true and safe, but here I wrestle with my own thoughts. Is there anyone else alive that Sharon can love the way she loves Mel, whether she recognizes it or not?

How many women of days gone by—let’s say the early twentieth century—lived with another woman their entire adult lives, never even considered touching one another sexually for fear of their mortal souls, and maybe propagated a myth to the neighbors that they were related? I think there were a lot of them. Being a lesbian was on a par, back then, with having barnyard sex with Old Bessie. No decent person was; no decent person did. So instead, they labeled themselves ‘spinsters’ and invented a story, and just lived together, decade after decade. And when I look at the community from which Sharon has sprung, I can understand how this mindset carries over to some people even today.

Yet there’s another reality, too. Sharon really likes having sex with men. When she isn’t doing it, it’s on her mind. How many women have pledged their lives to someone that does not physically attract them, because they find the person good company and don’t want to break their heart? And so when I think of Sharon, I remind myself that perhaps Sharon really isn’t gay. Maybe she will never want Mel sexually, and maybe that’s a fair thing to recognize.

The story contains so much life, so much sorrow, and it’s so damn funny at times. And the rage! Both women carry a tremendous amount of anger, and it provides fuel for their creativity. Hearing their stories is like peeling an artichoke, one layer after another to get to the best part, which is way deep inside.

As the story progresses, we come face to face with the pasts both women carry with them. Mel’s tortured upbringing is the subject of their first animated film, and it’s clearly therapeutic; yet good therapy can only do so much. And as we see the world through Mel’s eyes, the depth of analysis is both brainy as hell and absolutely riveting.

Sharon is the introvert, and so it makes sense that her own story comes out more slowly, and it may never have done so without Mel’s assertive insistence that they stop by Sharon’s home town on the way back to New York.

The critical thinking here is deep and dark. Those that have regarded art as a soft discipline will have to sit up and take notice.

This story is for geeks, artists, and anybody burdened by at least one dark secret. It’s a story for strong, unapologetic women and those that love them. And it’s for sale Tuesday, January 31, 2017. Get a copy. You can’t miss this one!

"It's strange and ultimately insulting how, when someone you love dies, just expires without warning, time does not stop."

Melody "Mel" Vaught and Sharon Kay Kisses couldn't be any more different. Mel is the chain-smoking, binge-drinking, insanely talented life of the party, while Sharon is reserved, insecure, and often unlucky in love. They bonded over passion and art and forged a friendship and partnership that spanned over a decade.

Mel and Sharon are animators; they create adult cartoons. They endure years of doubt and obscurity, but soon their career begins to take off. As they start to settle into the ride to fame, tragedy snatches their magic carpet from beneath them.

The Animators is a story of friendship, love, passion, art, family, pain, grief, and so many other things. It has been a while since a book kept me up all night, but this one did. Once I started it, I could not put it down; I went through it in one seating. There are good quotes in the book; the one above particularly echoes some of my sentiments about the death of a loved one. The suddenness, almost rudeness of it, and the gall the rest of the world has to move on when yours has just been irrevocably shattered.

I enjoyed reading this book. The narrative is very original: it reads as though it was written by someone who knows the subjects discussed intimately. The characters are layered, complex, and amazingly consistent. Mel and Sharon's friendship is far from ideal, but it is honest.

Kirkus Reviews writes (and I agree), "Whitaker captures the shifting dynamics between Mel and Sharon—between all the characters, really—with such precision and sharpness that it’s hard to let them go." It's true. I can tell you that Mel and Sharon have built apartments in my head. They are as real to me as if they were persons that I know in real life. Let me conclude with Emma Donoghue's words on The Animators: “An engrossing, exuberant ride through all the territories of love—familial, romantic, sexual, love of friends, and, perhaps above all, white-hot passion for the art you were born to make ."

WHOA. I almost don't know what to say about this - I seriously was not expecting it to be so dark, so shattering, so real. Those are all good things BUT I admit that I am the type of reader who has to be in the mood and/or steeled to push on with such a book. That being said, I read this when I was decidedly in not such a mood and I still loved this. Certain passages were soul clenching beautiful. This was not at all what I expected but perhaps it was what I needed - a reminder of life that isn't easy or linear with fits and gasps and where not everything is ok. Be forewarned, be prepared but do not let this stop you from reading something so true about coming of age, about friendship, about something you never knew about before.

The Animators comes out next week on January 31, 2017 and you can purchase HERE. I definitely recommend this one if you like something meaty and with depth about coming of age and friendship; this book is something so heart-wrenchingly true and not just hope glossed over as fact.

Because of TV, I was keenly aware that there were other places, bigger places, where words were said differently, where people moved more quickly. I imagined an outline of America with only a few bright points within, the rest a hazy, slightly sinister filler. The outline spoke very little to who I was, but God knows, volumes to who I wanted to be. Which was, in a word: elsewhere.

The conflict around separating art from the artist gets a scintillating new entry with The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker. Mel Vaught and Sharon Kisses are two young women who have shot to success as animators with a film that is largely based on Mel's life. After receiving a Hollingsworth grant, they get a call that Mel's mother has passed away in Flordia. The two women, who recently hit an extreme bump in their relationship, come together to pick up her mom's affects. However a tragic medical emergency forces Sharon to reevaluate her life and the recovery ends up leading them to their next project, revealing more about her life and backstory.

I had to walk a fine line above to limit the amount of information about the plot because it really is wonderful to see how these women's stories unfold within the book. Whitaker manages to make even the most cliched, Hollywood style moments feel real and the real moments feel even deeper. Everything is wrapped around these artists trying to find inspiration for their next project and how their personal lives wrap around that pursuit, for better and worse.

Coming off this election, it was nice to read a book about nasty women and not having the book pull any punches. Mel and Sharon are a mess, gifted artists, yet incredibly messy people in very distinct ways. Whitaker is a master of character, everyone in this book leaps off the page in wonderful ways. I loved that she doesn't hold back with regards to how nasty people can get, but also never fails to give them reasons for acting the way you do. I could have kept reading more about these women and how complicated their lives have been/could be.

The Animators reads like a memoir or autobiography. In particular, one of the main character Sharon Kisses, who is half of an animation team with Mel Vaught. Where Sharon is the contained, more steady of the two, Mel is the flamboyant outlandish half. The Animators begins when they meet in college and find that they are truly soul mates, but not of the sexual kind. The reader follows them through their rise to acclaim and the stress this puts on their relationship. The book is written as though the reader might have already heard of the characters and events included and are being given an intimate look at what really happened. At one point Sharon comments that this was about the time she was drawing the blah, blah, blah cartoon. I felt like if I googled the name I might actually find her comic strip. (I actually did google R. Crumb at one point.) That is how non-fiction this book felt. And, just like real life, this book didn't end when I thought it should. For me, I felt the story was done with about 15-20% left to read. I don't need clean tied-up endings and felt that everything after that moment was unnecessary and didn't add value to the experience. Up until that point, I would easily have given the book 5 stars. As it is, I'd give it 4.75 stars. Yes, it is that good.

This was a really interesting and well-written look at friendship and art. It was a little hard to get into at first. I found the characters fairly frustrating initially. However, it quickly becomes clear how much these two friends love each other and that makes them more palatable. They have a dynamic friendship that is both realistically flawed and inspiring. I also thought the parts about animation were interesting because I don't know much about the subject. I wish I could see some of the work they did.

One of the most intriguing parts of the novel, for me at least, was how it examined the relationship between art and life. Is an artist justified in taking everything they see and experience and making it part of their work, even if it involves other living people? Is their obligation to the art or the people? Does putting your personal experience into art truly work as catharsis? By making those experiences art, do we actually change our memories of the past? Whitaker tackles these questions from many angles.

Now, at the start of the book I thought this would be about the development of Mel and Sharon's development from college buddies to esteemed animators. Maybe a little like a less depressing The Interestings. I was wrong. One, we quickly jump from college to the point when they are gaining recognition as animators and how that is negatively affecting their personal lives. And then one tragedy happens, and then another, and the hits they keep on coming. Parts of this are brutal to read. I thought some of these events were necessary, but I think a little too much happens. It also comes on strong with the southern stereotypes. They venture back to a hometown called Faulkner and the plot takes a lot of Faulkneresque turns. I would have been okay with a quieter book.

This book was a wonderful surprise! You never know with a debut novel but I had heard such wonderful things about it and I certainly was not disappointed! This is my 2nd 5* book for 2017, what a great way to start the year.

The Animators is about two young women, Sharon Kisses and Mel Vaught, two very bright women with keen artistic skill who meet in college and then begin working together. They are really the black sheep of the classes, one a standout immediately and the other fighting to hang on. They are both from working class families while many of the other students are from wealthy backgrounds.

The characters have very different personalities. Sharon is shy, lovelorn and wry and Mel is a very charismatic, party person who is also a drug-dabbler, sometimes becoming derailed when she is on a drug fling. Of the two partners, Mel is the one that young students and art lovers are drawn to, she exudes confidence even when she doesn’t feel it. They become partners and produce a full length animated film which is a great success. They both relate to this success differently.

The tour for this film sends them from Florida back to Sharon’s hometown in Kentucky. The following year is the most difficult and combustible part of their career. Mel is pushing Sharon to revisit her demons and Sharon isn’t too keen on the idea. They forge ahead and produce another full length film. What happens during this introspective look at Sharon’s younger life and afterward is the real “meat” of this novel, it questions friendship, love, partnership and how we deal with our own baggage and that of others. Do we really know the people we befriend? Can they be hiding secrets even when we think we know them so well?

The characters in this novel as so well developed it is heartbreaking at times to see them go through their bad times, while we can feel like partying with them when things go well. This young author is extremely good at fleshing out her characters and letting us get to know all aspects of their personalities. The beauty and sometimes austerity of the Kentucky landscape is beautifully described as is the crazy, always “catching up” atmosphere of New York City. Absolutely wonderful.

It wasn’t surprising to learn that the author states in an interview that the books which influenced The Animators were “Song of the Lark” by Willa Cather, also about a young woman with a gift, that of an incredible voice” Ms. Whitaker also mentions books by Mary Gaitskill, “Two Girls, Fat and Thin” and “The Cats Eye” by Margaret Atwood (one of my all time favorites).

I would recommend this book to everyone unless you really shy away from anything regarding drugs or sexuality. I learned so much about animation and what it takes to get a film launched, how the “instant” recognition and/or stardom can affect a young artist. To my friends, read it,you won’t be disappointed.

Will also post link to Amazon upon publication.

Two women from troubled backgrounds meet in art school, becoming friends and collaborators in their work. That's the simple summary of what this book is about, but as with all really good books, it doesn't tell the full story. Whitaker writes engaging and lovable characters that kept me turning pages and rooting for them throughout the book. The writing is piquant and rich with just the right amount of metaphors without the prose becoming burdensome. It's everything that I look for in a good book: literary without pretentiousness and great story telling that keeps the reader's attention. Outstanding read - especially if you're familiar with animation or anime.

I truly wanted to like this novel however I was ready to call it quits not even halfway through the novel. I wanted to just be finished with this novel. The constant jumping made it even more unbearable for me to read. In the end, I didn't enjoy the novel, nor completely read it (since I gave up trying) but maybe this novel is more your thing then mine.

Feel free to check it out and let me know what you think of the novel.


ARC was kindly provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

The Paris Review:
"Can I ask how the novel has affected your marriage? It’s so extreme, what you’ve done. It’s like you invented a new kind of marriage, where half the couple is transparent and has no secrets."

Karl Ove Knausgaard:
"I didn’t think of that when I was doing it. I didn’t think of the implication at all, in that sense. I was so frustrated that I didn’t foresee the consequences. I thought, If the consequences are that she’s leaving me, then okay, she can go. That was how it was. There was a certain desperation that made it possible. I couldn’t do it now.
But still, there is much more to a relationship than what you can say. You just take one more step back into yourself. I’ve never understood psychoanalysis. Mentioning things doesn’t change anything, doesn’t help anything, it’s just words. There is something much more deep and profound to a relationship than that. Revealing stories and quarrels—that’s just words. Love, that’s something else."

Love, that's something else.

This astounding debut novel is akin to a time bomb. It starts ticking very innocently, all charming and innocuous. And then it explodes and takes your heart with it.

How does one's life relate to art?
Do you own the story of your life?
Is there any such thing as free will?
Is a work of art an action or a reaction?
Can you ever really know a person?
How much power does the artist have over other people's lives?
What feeds a work of fiction?
What is the real nature of family?
How big a role does environment play in our lives?
Is your character set in stone by the events of your childhood?

Big-hearted, existential and engrossing questions swim like sharks in the undercurrents of this powerful novel whose two main protagonists, Mel Vaught and Sharon Kisses, will forever be in my pantheon of favorite characters.

Karl Ove Knausgaard said it beautifully. Life is what is. Art is what you think and feel life is. The two are perpetually engaged in a captivating and perilous dance but what often emerges from the embrace, like a phenix from the ashes, is something else entirely. Something much more fleeting and fragile and unnamable and electric: the feeling of love.

It is that something else that you will feel flutter in your brain when you finish this story.

I didn't get very far into "The Animators" before I realized it just was not a book for me. I usually can ignore some crass language but this one was too much for me. I can appreciate it is important to the setting of the book and the characters in the book, but that just made it less interesting to me personally since these would not be people I could get behind or feel like I wanted to hang out with if they were real people. I am sure that many people will love The Animators, but for someone like me, it was a fast and hard no.

So many themes ... where to begin? Family dynamics. Close relationships that slacken and tighten over time. One's feelings of difference and how a life is shaped by them. The issue of how others fit in to and contribute to one's own life story, and how to tell the story ethically and/or appropriately knowing it will cause pain to others. Should one take others' feelings into account, or just go with one's own gut instinct? All of this takes place within the comics/graphic novels/animated films arena. This would be a great book-club book. I look forward to reading more from this debut author.

There is so much contained in this story that I'm having a hard time knowing where to begin. It's the story of two young women who meet in college and form a partnership to make animated movies. Of course it's about so much more than their art and the artistic process , but their careers and calling in life , provide the backbone of their story. Yes, it's about art, the artist, how an artist's work may be shaped by her past. But for me the strength of the book was about trust, the depth of friendship that not everyone is fortunate to know and how these women struggled to survive deep seated wounds from their childhood experiences. Sharon Kisses (what a great name) born and raised in Kentucky, in a dysfunctional family, carries the burden of exposure at 9 years old to horrific things. Mel Vaught, raised in Florida by a drug addicted, prostitute mother who is in jail, has had a disturbing childhood to say the least. These two complex women join in a complex partnership where their art ultimately gives them a way to heal. As the story unfolds, we know of their failures, their successes, the hard times of their past and their present, one struggling with addiction, one being struck with health issues that seemed insurmountable. Yet their friendship remains strong.

As others have said in their reviews, this may not be everyone. The writing is gutsy, the story is gruesome at times but it's good. It reminded me in some ways of A Little Life and how that book made me feel - sad and emotionally drained, but yet elevated by the depth of friendship that I discovered.

I received an advanced copy of this from Random House Publishing Group - Random House through NetGalley.

**Review will be published to blog on 23 Jan 2017 at 10:00AM EST**

I chose this book because:

There are many things about this book (or at least its blurb) that reminds me of The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, and because I enjoyed that book, this one intrigues me. Both deal with characters that are different but united in their love for art, and in The Animators, their love for animation specifically. I like reading about art and artists, fictional or real, because I like to see where art takes them, and I like to see art as something more than just visual beauty and fluffiness. Because art is so much more than that. Also, I can relate to feeling like a tag-along, feeling inferior, and just doubting myself in general. I can’t think of a specific example right now personally because I’m feeling pretty good atm haha, but there have definitely been darker moments.

Upon reading it:

I don’t know if it was because I read this book in one sitting on my flight from Beijing to Philly, but it seemed like the conflict between Sharon and Mel all occurred during the beginning of the book, which left the bulk of the book to be about how they collaborated for their next animation, discovering and sharing and exposing each other’s truths to each other, and creating art to share with the world. In this way it differed from The Interestings. It wasn’t what I expected from reading the blurb, but I enjoyed this story nonetheless and in its own way.

Ryan and Tatum were my favourites. I was charmed by their boyish enthusiasm. Mel sort of reminded me of Alaska from Looking for Alaska by John Green—beautiful and flawed. Sharon was the one I related to the most (except for the troubling past)—creative but also practical, a quieter personality but something special underneath if you took the time to look, insecure about worth but soon to be realised. (The only thing is that it seemed pretty obvious to me to tell Teddy about the animation beforehand, which she didn't.) As a creative, I can appreciate how much of ourselves we put in our art (though I admit that I'm not as high stakes as Mel or Sharon haha). The tragedy, the recovery, the self-discovery took me all the way.

Mel Vaught and Sharon Kisses meet in college, united by their passion for cartoons and animation. Soon they are collaborating--first on cartoon shorts and then into full length films forcing them to dig into the dark secrets of their pasts.

This story is packed with complex, interesting, unique characters. Mel and Sharon are full of passion, angst, talent, and personality, but even the secondary characters are real and fully drawn. I LOVED meeting Sharon's quirky family who turned out to be much deeper than the typical southern cliches that they first seemed to be! This is definitely more of a character book than plot driven (especially the last quarter)--but if that's your thing, then I highly recommend this one!

Excellent read- well worth some time by the fireside and a nice cup of tea!

4 high stars. The Animators is one of those big novels full of things I love:

-The narrative is original. For a long time, I really had no idea where the story was taking me, but I kept being impressed by the layers of complexity that were added as the story took a few unexpected turns.

-The setting is great. The author is from Kentucky and has lived in New York, and she integrates both settings really well into the story.

-The characters are complex. The two main characters -- Sharon and Mel -- work as a team making animation films. They both have complicated family backgrounds. Their films are gusty and personal. Their personal relationship and the way they work together is visceral and messy. I wouldn't pick Sharon and Mel as friends, but I really got into them as characters.

-The author touches on some good questions about life and art, and what it means to tell someone else's story through art.

-The writing was very readable, and occasionally soared.

The Animators won't work for readers who shy away from gritty, dark topics. But I sure think it is an impressive weighty debut novel. Whitaker has me hooked for her next book. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

Here is what the promotional blurb says: For readers of Meg Wolitzer and Adelle Waldman, and in the tradition of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, comes a bold and vibrant debut novel about friendship, art, ambition—and the secrets we keep and the burdens we shed on the road to adulthood.

So, right away this sounds like it's up my alley. Kavalier & Clay pretty much changed my life in college. I've never read Wolitzer or Waldman, but from what I know about them they're big on female-friendships and show a little more, I don't know, softness? than Chabon's Kavalier & Clay. But I loved this. A debut novel full of EVERYTHING that makes a book great: interesting/complicated friendship that results in great art, great growing-up back stories, tentative and tense romantic relationships, one or two big twists, lots and lots of heart. Sharon & Mel meet as freshmen at a small visual arts school and immediately form an all-consuming friendship that leads, eventually, to great artistic collaboration and fame in the world of animation. We follow them both as they try to deal with the things in their pasts that they think define them, hold them back, break them down. I miss reading about these two oddballs already. Release date is 1/31/2017. 5 stars.

Thanks Random House Publishing Group - Random House and netgalley for this ARC.

One of the best contemporary books I read so far in 2017. Friendship, family, life, love, and the self and soul in a modern woman are just some of the themes that make this novel so fresh and unflinching.

Thank You to Random House Publishing Group for providing me with an advanced copy of Kayla Rae Whitaker's novel, The Animators, in exchange for an honest review.

PLOT - Two young women, each escaping tumultuous childhoods, meet at a prestigious liberal arts college in upstate New York. They bond, not only over their talent in the visual arts and their love of obscure animation, but also their similar roots. Sharon Kisses is from rural Kentucky, raised among alcoholics and a neighbor with a life-altering secret. Mel Vaught hails from Florida, with a mother in prison. Mel and Sharon shift from classmates to business partners, moving into a studio apartment in New York City, which also serves as their art studio. The women build a cult following by creating highly acclaimed, gritty animated films based on their childhoods. As they scrape by on meager profits and grants, Mel's erratic behavior and substance abuse puts Sharon on the brink of dissolving their partnership, an idea that is shelved, when Sharon suffers a stroke and Mel is by her side.

LIKE- I'm absolutely sick with envy over Whitaker's brilliant writing. She's so talented that I don't even know where to begin. I guess I should start with Mel and Sharon, two beautifully complex and heartbreaking characters. As individuals, they are tragic, and their relationship is even more tragic.

Sharon, quiet and introverted, spends her life obsessing over men, some of whom are terrible for her, others don't even realize she exists. Vibrant and brash, Mel is a polarizing personality. Where Sharon sees herself as a mouse, Mel does not hide in shadows. While Sharon tries to mold herself into the person she thinks she needs to be to please a man, Mel is herself, in real life and in her art. The only place Mel is shy, is in her feelings for Sharon. Their relationship is fragile and the secrets that they keep from one another are a threat. Just as Sharon cannot speak of the men that she secretly obsesses over, Mel cannot reveal that she loves her best friend. They can share their dark family secrets with the world through their art, but they cannot speak of their most intimate, personal thoughts with each other.

Whitaker writes beautiful, sensory filled imagery. Mel and Sharon do not live in glamour, their world is dirty and dangerous. It's covered in a film of dust and cigarette smoke. They pour coffee into cups stained with leftovers. Greasy hair and body odor tinged tee-shirts are their uniforms. Whitaker masterfully sets the stage was The Animators transitions between New York, Florida, and Kentucky. Each setting is a unique landscape, filled with different perils for Mel and Sharon.

I never quite knew where The Animators was heading, or what additional themes would emerge. One of the more thought-provoking themes, is the one of who owns the right to share personal information in art. Should a person be allowed to expose another person's secrets? What if a person shared a part of their life, that irrevocably changed your own? Is it now yours? Are there themes that should not be exposed in art? What is the line between art and exploitation? I don't know the answers, and although Whitaker poses these themes, she leaves it subjective. Whitaker took me on a journey that left me shattered and one that I will keep close to my heart.

DISLIKE- Nothing. The Animators is brilliant.

RECOMMEND- YES!!!! The Animators is not only the best novel I've read in a long time, but I would go as far to say that it is one of the all-time best books I've ever read. I hope that there isn't a long wait for Whitaker's next novel.